thoughts on 8 mag on a 09

Not really suitable; too short and many of them are way too soft for a mag or anything more than a 7.65 Argentine.
I have built long mags on 98s, but it's not optimal platform.
If you real want to, it will need re heat treatment ($175) and $350 worth of machining to make it take a longer mag box, which will cost you too.
I prefer to start with VZ24s and others made in the 30s.

where are you finding nice VZ 24s?

I have a bushel basket full of them that I bought decades ago. Some are still in rifle form... I used to go up to Springfield Sporters and dig through their barns full of pallets of rifles of every type. $40 would buy anything but Banner Mausers; those cost $60.

The 'mystique' of the 1909 Argentine is in the factory, hinged floor plate/bottom metal. 30yrs ago, when I was a gunsmith school student, we bought actions from Century Arms for $100, or there abouts. Even then, mine got sent off to Blanchard for re-carburizing before I barreled them. I'd seen too many of them with set back lug abutments to risk doing the work and then having the action fail. Seems to me I had 6 and sent them off for a 'batch price' as a couple other students added a few more to the 'batch'. While I was a student I did repairs and the like for a local pawn broker and got to see a several '98s that had been barreled to the standard length magnums that had the lug abutments set back.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
I have a bushel basket full of them that I bought decades ago. Some are still in rifle form... I used to go up to Springfield Sporters and dig through their barns full of pallets of rifles of every type. $40 would buy anything but Banner Mausers; those cost $60.

I bought my first actions at Springfield Sporters. They had a big wooden crate of Mauser actions, you could root through it to find the kind you wanted. Ended up getting a Standard Model and a VZ 24. That was the late 60's, and I'm pretty sure actions were $20 each. Glad I got a crash course from the local gunsmith in what actions to look for before going there. Still remember the huge pile of stocks outside the building. I asked why, and the guy said they burned them to heat the place in the winter.

Yes, they had a huge pile of stocks there and did burn them for heat. We would load as many as we could in the car and sell them at the Louisville gun show; most were undamaged.
This was in 74-77.