Paul Mauser never intended his '98 for the .308 and .358 Norma magnums, but they seem to hold up fine.
Specifically which M98 actions and for how many rounds do they hold up fine?
Norma used to supply chamber drawings for both to use them specifically in the '98. I seriously doubt they (Norma) did any in depth study of German Military receivers.
Looks like Norma is now German owned, at one time it was Norwegian. I thought it was Swedish. If Americans are going to blow themselves up, with their guns, seems to me that a Swedish Company has very little legal liability in this Country. They are free to provide Americans all sorts of dangerous advice, as long as they make a profit off American’s buying their cartridges. Sounds like a win-win.
However, things are different in Germany, I read about German proof laws. Up to the mid 60’s, if your thunderstick failed proof in any sort of way, the whole thing was crushed, cut by welding tools, and sent back to the owner in pieces. Since then, only the offending parts is smashed and welded. We can all understand how German shooters reacted to having perfectly good stocks, scopes, scope mounts, bolts, barrels, destroyed because of a non functional safety. Proof house workers probably had a great time smashing customer’s rifles to pieces. All thundersticks go through the proof house from private sales to newly manufactured, from the gun company. I am of the opinion that all EU countries follow similar proof laws. The law’s desired effect was to weed out old actions.
So, just how many old Mauser actions go through Norwegian/German proof houses, and how many pass? You have an idea?
So what if the rifle gets set back after a couple thousand rounds. I have welded on Russian receivers and the material used is low carbon steel. It certainly will not "work harden" and shatter. I doubt half the commercial rifles chambered for the .300 Magnum in the 60's through the 80's could pass that kind of test. Even light machine guns have a receiver life specified per so many rounds.
I am glad to see that you understand that every firearm has a design life and a fatigue life. Designing firearms for an infinite fatigue life would create heavy, unusable firearms. I do have long range friends who have gone through a number of barrels on their long range rifles. It used to be that the most popular actions were the pre 64 M70, push feed M70, and the M700. Actions like the Panda Stoll and Bernard are popping up in great frequency. For the last couple of decades the 300 Win Mag level cartridges have dropped out, they used to be popular in the early 60’s and probably up to the 80’s. I saw them, occasionally in the nineties. The development of good 6.5 mm bullets and rule changes have been good, because the 6.5 mm rounds are ballistic ally better, and kick less. About the only 30 caliber being shot is the 308 Win because of Palma and F Class Tactical rules.
As for the half of the commercial actions you are referring to, I have no idea which ones, nor whether you have actual test data.
I am not going to spend $400 on a good match barrel, $800 on a match stock, $500 on sight bases, drilling and tapping, mount a $1,000 scope, and then screw on some old Russian action, to finish up a $2,700 rifle. And, I am not going to advise anyone to do so, in fact, I will advise against it.
Gunsmiths, desiring to draw in business, will of course, ballyhoo such foolishness.
