I agree with everyone else here. Too much. $175 or so is more like it for a hand select one. For $300, you're within about $70 of what'll get you a Rem 700 ADL synthetic.
The following is just my opinion, so take it or leave it as you please.
I would counsel against buying an unissued Mauser and then sporterizing it. Gives me chills to think about this!
First of all, you definitely *aren't* going to save any $ once you're done with all the work it'll take and you'll have butchered a 50+ year old warhorse. Look for a gun show special that has already been worked on or buy an off-the-shelf all-purpose rifle like the Steyr or Savage Scout.
If you're trying to build a Cooper Scout out of a military Mauser, you need to (at least) shorten & recrown - and maybe retaper - the barrel, get a new stock, have it drilled and tapped for a scope and have backup irons installed (not easy on the Mauser, especially with a forward-mounted scope), not to mention all the work to get it under the weight limits. This also assumes that you're going to keep it an 8mm. If you're going to convert it to .308, you're talking about rechambering and rebarreling it, too.
If you're going to do all this work, it seems like you'd be better off just buying the action and building up from there.
If you absolutely must chop up a Mauser yourself, find one of the cheaper Czech (under $80) or Turk models ($50) in Very Good condition and proceed from there. Another alternative is get a FR-8 which is already a Mauser carbine in .308. Again, just my $0.02.
Semper fi.
Bruegger out.
