I sent a friend (engineer/metal man ) a link to those fantastic M`98 actions made by Mayfair Engineering,I also sent an approximate price of a magnum unit which is a "gulp" price.
My friend replied rather authoritatively the below words. I find it ridiculous that his take on it (as below) is so simple and so cheap. Note sky rocket is Aussie slang for pocket.
Putting a price of $350 as a manufacturing cost on a brand new Mauser action..well over to you Guru`s what do I tell him?......besides the obvious.

His crap below.

No doubt a top action, but the price is ridiculous. At absolutely tops the steel, springs, heat treating etc would be a few hundred dollars ($350) I cannot see where the other thousands go except in the sky rocket. They would be made on all CNC machinery so there is not much labour.

Well $350 cost to manufacture would be about right. Add $300 for profit, and firearms licensees, considering you would be probably only making 100. Plus another $300 to move it through channels to the retail level puts you in at right about $950 USD to the customer plus liability insurance. I imagine it would be about $4,000 to $10,000 per year blanket coverage. I'm not sure how long the law would require you to carry it. A lot of the US gunsmiths just have it added to their regular insurance so it's only another $500 to $1,000 per year for firearms manufacturing.

Really? Why is it that "someone" doesn't make the M`98 actions for a fair price then,surely if its that easy and cost effective there would be orders for 1000`s

Including mine.

Well They do make them for cheap.

Parts and labor to manufacture it $350
Profit per unit covering permits and insurance $300
Wholesaler margin $150
Retailer margin $150
===================================================
Total retail price $950

This is about what I expect aftermarket Mausers sell for. We now have an order for yours, except you haven't put any money down. Now we need 999 more. You need sales first. Then you make product.
LOL

Somewhere on the web (no idea where anymore) the JDL has very detailed instructions of how to build an M98 action from scratch. Kind of interesting.

Found my download of it. 101 pages long by Raymond Benwood

If your friend thinks he can make them (and still remain solvent) for $350, then he will sell all he can make. Maybe in India can you do it; no offense to those from India.

OK Sarco Dumoulin 98 action. 3 position safety $349.95
http://www.e-sarcoinc.com/dumoulin-mauser-action.aspx

People made them and they end up selling in a place like Sarco. Yep made in China sooooo what.


Before the Dumoulin they were made Interarms sold them as the Mark X then the Daly then Remington imported them as the 798. How are they any different than someone building a new 98. All nice usable actions that won't carry any value over into a custom rifle build. Guess there wasn't enough market.

Why jack with machining a new one??? Even a full magnum length. Just how big is the market? Probably why the few made sell for big $$. There are the CZ M70 etc only the snob cares it says Mauser.

quote:

Originally posted by drhall762:
Somewhere on the web (no idea where anymore) the JDL has very detailed instructions of how to build an M98 action from scratch. Kind of interesting.

Found my download of it. 101 pages long by Raymond Benwood

Thank you,I looked and found it.

http://jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/boltaction.htm

Cutting the lugways is the 1st hurdle.
Yeah Raymond did cleverly figure out how to do it with a modified standard keyway broach, but I bet it is nowhere near the surface finish and tolerances of a custom.

He also didn't cut a true Mauser blind left lugway.

Really if your are going to build one from scratch, why make a std instead of something more novel like a squarebridge short action?

Before I retired, I owned a machine shop. Had the machines and tooling to build any kind of gun. My paying customers kept me too busy to spend any time on gun projects. The home shop guy is going to give up an enormous amount of time and money to build a gun from scratch. He could buy a gun a lot cheaper. If you get off on this kind of project, go for it. I will look for pictures posted on this sight, if I live that long.

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by gryphon1:
Really? Why is it that "someone" doesn't make the M`98 actions for a fair price then,surely if its that easy and cost effective there would be orders for 1000`s

Including mine.

legacy offered the doumolin for about 499 ... and couldn't move them -- iirc, the gibbs sized magnum was twice that ---

there just aint a market for them... as many cutom gun builders have found out

I built one. In the DIY section. Looks terrible, but I wanted to see if I could do it. Extractors and ejectors were terrible. Shot it a few times to make sure it worked (.300 Whisper), and now it dis-assembled as there are lots of things I want to fix and improve. Took me years of time. If I did another one, I could do it faster, but it's not very good compared to surplus Mauser or Remington or Winchester...but I only probably spent $150 or $200 on materials.

I did make a 3 position safety, and I liked that a lot. Might make one for one of my Mausers that's similar. Learned a lot. But wouldn't be able to make them and sell them for $350.

BTW used a fat bodied bolt to avoid having to broach long raceways.

What does the CNC machine cost? How about the overhead to run it, like a building, heat, power, taxes, labor, programming, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
What does the CNC machine cost? How about the overhead to run it, like a building, heat, power, taxes, labor, programming, etc.

Cheap, damned cheap. You can get a HAAS, basic, 5 axis machine new for $150,000. Tooling another $5,000 to $10,000, An operator for probably $25 to $45 per hour. A building would depend on location. Like I said, Cheap. Make 2 or 3 thousand actions and spend 10 years selling them and you would probably have the equipment paid for. Then you can work at making a profit over the next 30 years. Actually your rent and wages would keep on eating at you and you actually would have went broke in the first 6 months because you would have no money coming in to pay your bills. But it would be a hell of a cheap way to go broke !