To further my goal of building myself a fine Mauser rifle, I purchased a couple of Turkish mausers to practice on, before I attempt the "nice" action. From what I have read, these actions (M38 K.Kale) are a large ring action with small ring threads.
As most all of you know, most barrel manufacturers are loath to chamber high intensity cartridges in their small ring replacement barrels. Could on buy, say a 7x57 barrel, and ream it out into something with more oomph, say a 280 remington? Or is this going to put to much stress upon the smaller barrel shank? Or in regards to the Small ring actions is it just a matter of Bolt/lug strength?

Thanks,

CAL

Cal9 the easier and less costly route is to buy a barrel that is threaded for the large ring 98 in the caliber of your choice then just turn down the barrel shank & rethread it to fit your large ring/small barrel thread Turk. This might be the best way for you to go if you don't have the reamer already. Be sure to inquire whether or not the chamber has been cut a few thousands deep to allow for final headspacing without having to buy/rent a reamer to deepen a short chambered barrel. Either way you will need a set of headspace gauges though. I have rebarreled Husqvarna actions which is basicaly the Mauser 98 system that had small samll receiver rings & barrel threads the original factory barrels were in 358 Norma.
I do not see a problem with the Turk since they have a large receiver ring. As Jerry Kuhnhausen points out "do not grind the Turk receiver ring down to the small ring configuration.

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NRA Life member

[This message has been edited by Bear Claw (edited 01-04-2002).]

The turks are fine actions to build on. When I use them I normaly have barrels made by E.R. Shaw. but if you wnt a cheaper rout you can buy remington take off barrels and return the threads on the shank. Good Luck
8mman

If you want a .280, do what I did: get a large ring 7x57mm and rechamber. I was just messing around, but did have the barrel recrowned, etc. Dropped it back in the ugly "issue" stock and much to my dismay, it's proven absolutely deadly!!!

It has to be one of the most homely "beanfield" rifles ever....

Paladin

I recently built a .243 win Turkington from a Turkish Mauser action and a take off .243 win Remington take-off barrel. No problem at all and it shoots .5 inch groups all day long. To avoid trying to fill unsightly holes in the barrel, I cut off the barrel 1 inch to get rid of the front sight holes and then timed the barrel to put the receiver sight holes underneath where they are hidden by the stock. The thing came out looking unbelievably nice. I put in a Timney trigger and fitted a $69 walnut stock. The turk Mausers have clean bottom metal that doesn't require welding-up and in my opinion are fine actions for any non-magnum cartridge in the 8mm/30-06 pressure class.-Rob

It seems to me I saw an add for remington takeoffs very cheap somewhere recently. I'll see if I can locate it. Brownells does carry "long chambered" M-98 barrels that can be turned down to fit a small ring action thus saving you the cost of a reamer.

the 98 will handle about any modern cartrige that will fit in the action including the short mags. Numrich normaly has rem. take off barrels cheap.

Why not just ream the chamber to a 8mm/06, knock the sights off of it, drill and tap it for a scope, put your sporterized stock on it, do your work on your action and you will have a great custom rifle.

Which large ring mausers were originally chambered in 7X57?

-Catter

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Shoot the largest caliber you can shoot well, and practice , practice, practice.

Wildcatter the 7mm's were the ones built for export to some of the South American countries I believe.

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NRA Life member