I'm cleaning up (by stoning and polishing) a couple of 98 Mauser actions and want to know the actual geometry of the receivers external sutfaces, particularly the rear bridge. Is there a reference source with a dimensioned drawing of the 98 action that defines the curved surfaces of the receiver?

Can you not use an unmolested mauser action as a reference?

No such animal that I have ever seen; go with the first posters suggestion. Anyway, they all vary a bit from factory to factory, and due to hand buffing at the factory. If you are polishing it yourself, just keep the surfaces flat and corners sharp. No waves.

It's one of he things that drive machinists and engineers batty. There are so many variants by the many different manufacturers and within production runs you'll not get two people to agree to a standard configuration.

I suspected that was the case. Oh well, thanks anyway.

Yeah, remember that they started making these things in 1898 and are still making them, literally all around the world from China to Poland (I tried to pick countries that wold go around the world) and everything in between. (except in the US). So a "set of blueprints" would only be one point on a very large chart of dimensions.

I understand there would be a lot of variation in actual receivers. I was just hoping that what the designer originally specified was documented somewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by Glen71:
I understand there would be a lot of variation in actual receivers. I was just hoping that what the designer originally specified was documented somewhere.

The drawings exist but few aftermarket craftmen have the means to locate and buy a set of drawings. Still fewer would use them for anything. What you see in most cases is reverse engineering of the easy to make parts.

Prechtl actions are from the original Mauser factory drawings - and modified for enhanced safety and functionality.

The best I can tell and this is from a casting that JBrown took and I examined it under a toolmakers scope and compared it to Mausers i have on hand

The angle is 118.5 degrees included with a .542" radius in the center. This is without the charger hump. Keep in mind this is a R&D part dimension (ripoff and duplicate) so it may not be exact fit to your action.

quote:

Originally posted by kcstott:
The angle is 118.5 degrees included with a .542" radius in the center.

Thanks.

That radius is centered on the bore, I presume?

I'm wotking on a 1909 Peruvian which has a little different bridge profile than a standard 98, and I do not plan to remove the unique charger hump. I thought if I understood the standard bridge better I might figure out the intended contour of the sides of the 1909's bridge.

quote:

Originally posted by Glen71:
I'm wotking on a 1909 Peruvian which has a little different bridge profile than a standard 98, and I do not plan to remove the unique charger hump.

Thank you for not destroying the sexist aspect of one of the sexiest Mauser variants.

And a disclaimer on the castings that I supplied to Kerry: first, they are from a couple of FN actions that came without the charger hump, and more importantly I was the novice doing the casting.

I do think someone with someone of note(Steve Nelson?) posted the correct rear bridge geometry here on AR sometime back. It is worth a search.

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Thank you for not destroying the sexist aspect of one of the sexiest Mauser variants.

Aye.

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Originally posted by tin can:

quote:

Thank you for not destroying the sexist aspect of one of the sexiest Mauser variants.

Aye.

Not to worry, guys. I'm afraid of what ForrestB would do to me if I did that.

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Originally posted by fla3006:

Yeah I'd hold you down while forrest stomped a mud hole in ya and walked dry if you molested that action. That is very nice.

I'll post an actual drawing.

One more time for fla3006 & ForrestB

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:

quote:

Originally posted by Glen71:
I'm wotking on a 1909 Peruvian which has a little different bridge profile than a standard 98, and I do not plan to remove the unique charger hump.

Thank you for not destroying the sexist aspect of one of the sexiest Mauser variants.

And a disclaimer on the castings that I supplied to Kerry: first, they are from a couple of FN actions that came without the charger hump, and more importantly I was the novice doing the casting.

I do think someone with someone of note(Steve Nelson?) posted the correct rear bridge geometry here on AR sometime back. It is worth a search.

Yeah I had to massage the numbers a bit to get everything to fit correctly.

This is the drawing I came up with after machining a few parts and test fitting them to the casting and to my rifle. I found a happy medium and called it good.

quote:

kcstott:

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:

Yeah I'd hold you down while forrest stomped a mud hole in ya and walked dry if you molested that action. That is very nice.

This was one of 2 projects Tom Burgess did for me. I passed it on to ForrestB, Wiebe probably has it now.

Also, Jon Speed's Mauser books have dimensions, factory drawings.

Tom Burgess.... If Only there was someone to fill that mans shoes.
I feel like an idiot that I'd never heard nor seen any of his work until after he was gone.

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:
This was one of 2 projects Tom Burgess did for me. I passed it on to ForrestB, Wiebe probably has it now.

Also, Jon Speed's Mauser books have dimensions, factory drawings.

Thanks. I'll check out Jon Speed's books. The top of the 98 bridge is pretty well documented. It's the sides of the bridge that are giving me fits. Particularly the Peruvian 09 which seems to have two different radii, one for the side of the bridge and a larger one for the sides of the charger hump.

quote:

Originally posted by kcstott:
Tom Burgess.... If Only there was someone to fill that mans shoes.
I feel like an idiot that I'd never heard nor seen any of his work until after he was gone.

Yeah, last night I came accross some notes he sent me once. A treatise on Mauser Heat treatment. With a history of the development of German Heat treating dating back to the 1870's. One of his few writings where I actually understood everything he said, lol. I also have his notes regarding Czech heat treatment. Wonderful stuff.

A former member of these forums is working on putting together a deluxe edition of R H Korn's "Mauser Gewehre und Mauser Patente." As I understand, this is a definitive compilation of all Mauser firearm patterns. From talking to him, I understand that he has the revised 1971 edition of the Korn book that he is working with, which would include a considerable amount of detail of post war variations as an addemdum. I have suggested to him that he consider a DVD version as well at a lower price than the super deluxe print version that he is planning in a leather-bound format. He hopes to get all royalty issues sorted out with the editors of the 1971 version very shortly.

NB - I have not seen the book and am only aware of what is happening because he and I talked about this project, as I was an editor a long time ago. I am not involved with the project in any way and am only posting because of the question about Mauser action drawings.

Good hunting!

You wouldn't want to part with a copy of those notes would you?? If it's convenient to copy that is