A friend found an older 98 mauser sporter. it is marked Spandau 1914. Are the receivers any different than the other 98s? Any better or worse.
Butch

Butch,I have one that I made into a 35Whelen and have compared it to a lot of other 98's.
I can;t see any difference other than they had more time to machine them.

I've got a custom 8mm Mauser my wife's grandfather brought back after WW2 that was built on a Spandau or maybe Erfurt (need to look). It seems like a very nice action. I was told these are small ring large thread actions and many look down their noses at them. The action wall is thinner than the large ring and more likely to crack if abused. Personally, I think that if the cartridge is kept within the pressure limits of the day, they will perform well. I've had no problems with mine to date.

My friends is a large ring large thread. It is in 8mm.
Butch

Butch, Ackley blew up 3 different Mauser actions in his tests and the Spandau was, BY FAR, the strongest of the 3 Mausers he tested. His particular Spandau was fully as strong as the best 1903 and 1917 actions although not quite up to the Japs' level. Admittedly this test is old news and is also far too small a sample to be conclusive, nevertheless it IS an indicator. I'm assuming, from Ackley's description, that all his actions were LR/LT.
Regards, Joe

If you have access to the equipment, it would not be a bad idea to do a hardness test on the receiver. Some Mauser receivers are unbelievably soft. The late great benchrest gunsmith George Fullmer always insisted on hardness testing every Mauser brought to him to rebarrel, and rejected more than a few which failed to pass muster.

Butch Any Mauser before 1935 or after 1943 are a crap shoot. Most are just fine.

Take a carbide scribe and see if the bolt lugs can be scratched easily. If easily it is a soft one and gonna set back sooner or later with stiff loads.

Spandau was one of the old gov't arsenals along with Amberg, Danzig, and Erfurt. All of the pre WWI are either good or soft, not many are thought to be too hard and brittle.

Thanks for the input. I will pass on the info.
Butch

If it already has a barrel installed, just scratch on the C-ring, it is in the same general area and about the same mass and should be tempered similarly as the bolt lugs.