mauser feeding question

G

gdm

New member
my german 98 recently started having feeding issues.I suspect its the magwell spring because its always on the last round and putting a dummy round under the last round, it feeds ok..it ejects ok.otherwise,if I manually drop a round in,slide the bolt in behind, it wont close.round wont come out without a gentle rap omn the buttstock.


can the spring be pulled and stretched some? I think with the way the bolt face is desaigned, it has to either pick up a round dirctly from the magwell or I would have to manually snap a round in the bolt then insert it into the chamber. is there a mod to the bolt that would allow me to slide in a round in the chamber..then slide the bolt in?

also, the bolt and housing has double eagle stamps on it, the rest of the gun has 1 on the receiver, 1 on the barrel, its very accurate.why the difference,are the bolts interchangable?

thanks.
 
Generally, feed problems out of the magazine are cured by a new magazine spring.

DO NOT stretch any gun spring.
Stretching may seem to "fix" the problem, but in fact the spring is ruined and will soon loose tension again, if it doesn't just break.
Stretching damages the structure of a spring, ruining it.

Mauser military rifles are designed to NOT allow dropping a round in the chamber and closing the bolt.
Attempting to force the bolt closed on a chambered round will destroy the extractor.

Commercial rifles are specifically designed to allow closing the bolt on a chambered round.
Mauser military rifles are specifically designed to feed rounds from the magazine ONLY, not to close on a chambered round.

Rifle bolts ARE NOT interchangeable.
When installing a new bolt in a rifle of most ANY kind, the head space MUST be checked with a set of head space gages.
 
thanks..I have an old copy of brownelles catalog but it got wet from a flood.maybe Ill get their latest version.
 
It sounds like you need a new magazine spring for sure. Also check to see if the follower is possibly hanging up on something. You might also want to check if the follower is all the way on the spring, if not and it is forward of the proper location it could rub on the magazine. You can "modify" the extractor to work on a round dropped into the chamber. I have done this a few times but I would reccomend you have a gunsmith do this work if you indeed want it done
 
got the new spring from brownelles..it snaps in ok but now puts the last round too high in the mag well and the round just falls out when moving the bolt forward. Ive polished the extractor and boltface as well as the feedramp,put the old one back in for comparison.the newer spring tilts in the magwell..back end up and the front of the follower sits lower.old one sits level.

I checked what was happening and apparantly,when I slide the bolt forward,the case rim isnt setting low enough to allow the extractor to grab it and allow it to move onto the boltface...on the new spring.the old one is just borderline weak.

I went ahead and polished the bolt itself,its smooth as glass now but still wont feed the last round correctly.what gives?
 
Take the follower out and polish the edges to remove any rough spots. Run your fingers inside the feed lips to see if there are rough spots.

With a good spring, it is normal for the back of the follower to sit higher.
 
Also, check to be sure the trigger guard assembly is properly seated against the bottom of the receiver.

Often, a rifle gets mis-assembled, or replacement parts aren't fitted properly, and the magazine isn't fitting into the bottom of the receiver properly.

There should be no gap between the bottom of the receiver and the top edges of the magazine box.

Make sure you have the new magazine spring right side up.
The originals are NOT made to fit either way, one side is supposed to be up.
 
thanks, there is a small cut edge on one end,fits in the follower,the floorplate end doesnt have that edge and is slightly wider,it wont slide in the grooves in the bottom of the follower.got it in correctly- just that that the bolts extractor cant grab it because the back of the follower sits just a wee bit too high now.like a 32nd of an inch.maybe need to adjust the extractor?

while Im on the subject, are the extractors in the bolt supposed to have a half moon shape?the case rim of the last round is not going under the extractor.I can remove a tiny bit of the bottom(extractor) to open it up and allow a round to pop in easy,like the way ruger bolts are, bad or good idea?

no sharp edges,took the advise and double checked everything.the action itself is bout as smooth as it can be and locks up tight. what has me confused is that it feeds the 4 great but the last one..the bolt shoves out of the mag and either dumps it on the ground or shoves it in the chamber but does not engage the extractor.maybe a follower issue..dont know.
 
mauser feeding

Dear Shooter:
You could have the wrong follower in that mauser - feeding problems in a Mauser are unheard of!
Harry B.
P.S. Reason I suggest this is I have the wrong (short) follower in a 98 in 338-06 and need to order one!
 
harry, I dunno, it worked fine for 200 rnds then started crapping out on only the very last round.put in a new spring and now it just needs a lil fine tuning I suspect.Im very tempted to smith the boltface to allow direct feeding by removing a tiny bit of the sharp corner of the bottom of the extractor to match that of my ruger bolt

the follower seems like it should be the right one.it has no stampings on it to indicate it is german but otherwise looks like the same one used in a yugo mauser,dont know,length seems ok but its dark blued.my inlaws 98k has a silver colored follower and feeds fine.who knows, mausers arent something I know alot about.
 
Gdm,

I am going to hazard a wild guess that the bottom edge of the extractor is just slightly bumping against your caseheads before feeding the rounds. Feed a fired case or a dummy round slowly to check. The extractor should just pass over the case rim and head without touching it. Since the last round feeds from the right side, the previous round to be bumped by the extractor would be the two back, when the magazine spring is under more compression, and perhaps enough more to resist the bump? The last round, however, has low magazine spring pressure. In my theortetical scenario it is pushed forward out of the magazine by the extractor, so it doesn't slip up under the claw as it should. Your stronger magazine spring may get you past this, but the symptom could be caused by the the extractor claw's inner edge bevel being inadequate or the extractor being deformed at the bottom.

I am assuming the cutout in the receiver that acts as magazine lips is not mangled or worn in any way which would allow the right side cartridges to sit up too high? Try a new extractor if you can, borrow one from another rifle or otherwise just get a good enough look at one to compare the two. Assuming your last round is waiting in the correct position, a tiny bit (a few thousands or so) of metal could be taken off the extractor claw at the bottom edge with a diamond hone or even (dare I say it?) a Dremel tool. The extractor is tempered steel and should not be allowed to heat appreciably during material removal. Certainly not enough to discolor it, so have a care if you have to take this approach and only take metal off where it bumps the case.

Check my assumption that the last round is correctly positioned?

Nick
 
mauser problem

Dear Shooters:
Slightly off the subject but Nick alluded to it.
Straw color------------400-500degrees
Brown color------------500 degrees
Blue color (spring tempering temp)-----650-750 degrees
Grey color------------------around 8 to900 drgrees
Cherry red --------------approaching decalescence temp

All these are approximate depending on the carbon steel used.

Many high carbon steel parts are ruined on a grinder by getting too hot. Dip in cold water BEFORE reaching these colors. Grind slow with a good wheel.
Re-harden by bringing to a cherry red and dunking in cold urine - then polish part and bring to color appropriate for your use.

To make a spring:
File and form and POLISH spring. No cross marks!
Heat to a good cherry red.
Quench in cold water with a slight film of oil on it.
Get an old oil can and beat a depression in it so when filled with oil it covers the part.
Use propane torch and heat and light oil - let burn off.
Cover with sand and let cool. Makes a good muzzle-loader lock spring - or other!
This came from an old gunsmith named Frasier!
Harry B.
 
thanks.I dunno where I might get a extractor round here
new high pressure spring just pushes the last round up yet higher...thousands of an inch..ill take a cl;oser look at the inside of the receiver again and see whats up with it and the follower too make sure something isnt out of par.Ive got a set of detail files so might see where that goes too.dremel might take too much off and heat it too fast as was said.its very thin.

all else fails,it might be in for a trip to a good smith.:D
 
got 1 last question for everyone....was shooting some sellier ammo and now noticed the bullets are all very loose fit in the shell after ejecting live rounds to test the feeding.I can pull them right out and dump the powder...normal?

the rifling in my mauser is very strong..its like new and my thoughts were that its engaging the rifling and when ejecting,it pulls on the bullet,loosening it or perhaps it has a headspace issue or bad ammo?

thanks again in advance,im learning on mausers.
 
I am NO expert, but have had several Mausers in my life,, I don't recall EVER seeing one with a blued follower. I could very well be wrong, just never saw any but silver in all the 98 and Sweedes I have owned. Is it possible you have an aftermarket follower that is not working????? I wish I could be of more help.
 
I've seen a number of sporterized Mausers with blued followers, but I suspect they received that finish when the rest of the gun was redone.

The Sellier and Bellot bullets would have clear rifling marks on them if what you described happened, and even they did, it does not explain why the bullets are subsequently loose in the necks? They should be hard to extract while pulling the bullet and still come out tight enough to grab the bullet on reinsertion, albeit not quite as tightly. I am thinking you may need to slug the bore and throat or get a chamber cast made to see that the dimensions are compatible and that the chamber is really as marked? Cramming the cartridge into a short chamber neck might widen it slightly as it compresses against the step down to freebore diameter (or cone, for a ball chamber). The bolt certainly has the ability to cam that hard pretty easily. If you are jamming the neck up against the chamber end, then you are also in danger of creating high pressure. Something may be seriously amiss here, and it should be checked.

Nick
 
thanks nick.I am just a hobbyist smith that just pokes around a bit on my personal collection an dont have any of the tools to check it all out and do it correctly.Imight run it by a local guy here that has been in the biz a very long time that might have a gander at it.

no rifling marks as you said.it extracts em fine,seems to have a bit of something holding it back when turning the bolt handle down the last quarter inch,not much,just a lil hestitant,otherwise the action on this is the smoothest Ive fired...I have shot it many times and it is extremly accurate and seems to be ok but who knows what pressures are going on.

update; took it to the old guy here and he popped in a extractor of another mauser and put in a new "ring" that hold the extractor,apparantly it was binding,gave it a check up. everything works perfectly now.not bad fer a 20 dollar bill plus I got to learn alil about how these things work.

man, he has some nice mausers in his collection.thanks all.
 
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Gdm,

Glad you got the feed cleared up, and thanks for sharing the solution with the rest of us so we are aware of the cause.

The bullet looseness is a separate issue, though. If you are feeling slight resistance at the end of the bolt turn you are probably compressing the case. That isn't always a problem. The maximum SAMMI headspace spec for a .308 case is .004" larger than the SAMMI minimum chamber headspace spec. There is .011" extra width in the .308 chamber for the case to spread into.

Did your old guy have a chamber go gauge for your round? That might be worth a try, particularly if your gun had a field barrel change at some point? Check your case necks before and after chambering to be sure they aren't marked around the mouth by the chamber? That would indicate a short chamber neck, a size compatibility issue that could cause pressure trouble. Assuming yours is chambered for the 8mm or other Euroround, watch out for variations in correct dimensions. Some of them have shifted over time or with country of origin.

Nick
 
yup,he checked everything.the older extractor was tight and was not cut right,it didnt look original,probably a replacement at the distributer..the ring had the eagle stamp but it was oversized.way too tight.it as pushing the rounds in at a slight angle sideways under spring pressure of 4 before it then on the last round,bam.I shoulda known by the heavily scratched cases.why I tried polishing everything,no harm,just even better now.I can operate the bolt with just my thumb now and it locks up tight.

it feeds perfect now,I took it out and test fired it again using the only ammo I could find round here quickly, expensive mitchels mauser ammo...15 bucks a box o 20..ouch..soft point lead heads, and the bullets remained seated tight after 5 times each extracting them.no more scratched cases neither.

the smith pointed out that all the parts on my gun are early war,milled, cept the matching receiver, barrel and bolt which were made in 1944.I can live with that.he had a stack of 50 all matching sitting there.wow.this surplus thing might get addictive.might have to sell off another to get a springfield to match.:D


one thing I'll mention, he said surplus corrosive is fine to shoot in these.one only needs soapy water and hoppes solvent to clean them.some homemade solvents like windex mixtures will cause rust.
 
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