Checking the feeding of a Mauser in the shop of D’Arcy Echols, Wayne doesn’t expect malfunctions.

      Two protrusions bracket the ejector groove on the left side of the 98’s bolt face. They’re cartridge support lugs. The lower lug is precisely angled to guide the rim of the cartridge as the magazine spring pushes it up into an open breech. This lower lug must herd cartridges from both sides of the magazine into the center of bolt travel and coax the case rim into the extractor claw. Once there, the case head is held tight against the claw by both lugs.

      Case extractor grooves vary in depth. Weatherby brass from Norma is .010 of an inch deeper there than Remington’s Weather-by brass. Mauser extractor claws should spring .004 of an inch under tension, so on a custom rifle, a claw fitted to Norma cases will prove too tight for Remingtons, and one fitted to Remingtons will fail to grip Normas. In neither case will the extractor provide positive controlled-round feed.

      Paul Mauser purposefully did not engineer his extractor to jump over the rim of a single round loaded by hand. But the 98 has about .030 of an inch extra clearance broached in the right lug raceway of the receiver ring. The extractor claw, which subtends about 20 percent of the rim’s arc, jumps the rim when the rear of the extractor is pinched to the bolt body. To prevent cases from slipping from the extractor’s grasp, Mauser undercut the extractor tongue and its groove in the bolt so that force applied during difficult extraction would sink the claw deep into the extractor groove.

      The Magnum Mauser remains queen of the long actions and a popular if costly choice for big-bore custom rifles. It is roughly .375 of an inch longer than the military 98 Mauser action. For many years before the Second World War, Magnum Mausers were exported to Britain, mainly through Rigby, which supplied other London gunmaking firms too. The actions were machined in Oberndorf for specific magazines. Chambering determined not only internal box dimensions but also the width of the receiver recess. Fat rounds like the 416 Rigby couldn’t be stacked in regular fashion because the receiver wasn’t wide enough. The huge 11.2x72 Schueler and 500 Jeffery (12.7x70) could not be placed in a double column at all. They rated a four-round, single-column magazine.

      After World War II, Mauser "Werke" (works) became "Waffenfabrik" (arms factory), and Mauser’s business shifted toward the sporting trade. U.S. agent A.F. Stoeger, Inc. of New York assigned numbers to the various Mauser actions. By the late 1930s there were 20 in four lengths: magnum, standard, intermediate and short (kurz). The short action had a small receiver ring and was factory-bar-reled for three cartridges: the 6.5x50, 8x51 and 250 Savage. Magnum and kurz actions were made strictly for sporting use. Mauser did not adopt the Stoeger numbers 1 through 20, but they remain popular designations among collectors. Some Mausers had a square bridge, the hump serving as a scope mount base. Those not machined to take scope rings were checkered on top. "Double square bridge" Mausers feature a second hump on the receiver ring.

      Many military 98s have been barreled to long belted rounds like the 300 H&H, but this practice has few advocates now. Lengthening a magazine means trimming the feed ramp, even after moving the magazine back as far as is practicable. The short ramp forces steep entry angles on the cartridges. Ramp work takes metal from the bottom locking lug abutment, weakening it. Moving the magazine rearward reduces the length of the bridge, robbing the bolt body of support and increasing bolt play. Additionally, a long bolt throw reduces contact at the bolt stop.

      The Mauser bolt face, left, shows its signature split lug, claw extractor, and open bottom for controlled feed.

Mauser Competitors & Derivatives WvZ

      While the 98 was still teething, military establishments around the world began designing mechanisms for the new smokeless smallbore cartridges that were obviously superior to traditional infantry rounds. The conversions came as quickly as engineers could come up with functional bolt rifles. U.S. ordnance officers by-passed Arthur Savage’s lever-action rifle to adopt the Krag-Jorgensen, a Norwegian-designed bolt gun with a single right-hand locking lug, recessed bolt face and long, top-mounted extractor that grabbed the 30-40 case upon chambering. The ejector was a foot pivoting up from the belly of the raceway. Norway’s 6.5x55 Krag had a similar action and side-box magazine, but a third of the bolt face rim was cut away to allow the case head to slide into the extractor. Both actions work smoothly with loaded cartridges, but only the Norwegian Krag offers controlled-round feed.

      Britain’s 303 Short Magazine Lee Enfield also appeared in the 1890s. An improvement on the 1888 Lee-Metford, it featured dual rear locking lugs and a flush bolt face with a short claw mounted at 10 o’clock in a detachable bolt head. A pin in the left receiver wall served as ejector. Despite their stamped, detachable box magazines, SMLEs feed smoothly and reliably. The little extractor grabs the 303 case rim as soon as it pops free of the magazine. A well-used SMLE that I examined recently slicked up empty cases from the battered feed lips like a cat gulping sardines. Slamming the bolt home or closing it gently, I couldn’t jam the open-mouthed hull. Few rifles of any design will function flawlessly (if at all) with empties.

      The 1903 Springfield rifle featured Mauser’s dual locking lugs and an external extractor that grabbed cases immediately from the magazine. Its coned breech was something new. The first successful Winchester bolt rifle, the Model 54, showed Mauser and Springfield lineage. Its ejector derived from a Charles Newton design and eliminated the need for a slotted locking lug. Meanwhile Remington developed its Model 30, a sporting-class 1917 Enfield that also evidenced German ancestry. Winchester’s Model 70 appeared in 1937. It retained the coned breech, dual locking lugs, Mauser extractor and offset ejector of the Model 54 but wore a much better trigger. The 54 trigger, like the Mauser’s, doubled as a bolt stop. Sturdy and reliable, it had a long, heavy pull that could not be adjusted. The Model 70 trigger, still widely acclaimed by aficionados as the best ever for a hunting rifle, is bomb-proof and features adjustments for weight of pull and over-travel. A separate bolt stop interrupts the left lug.

      Model 54 rifles stayed in Winchester’s line until 1941, but production slowed to a trickle during the last 5 years. Shooters were quick to embrace the Model 70’s trigger and its low-slung safety that, unlike the Mauser-style 54’s, swung horizontally under a scope. Misfires that had plagued the Model 54 disappeared when Winchester added 1/16 inch to striker travel (though lock time increased 20 percent). On the Model 70, bolt-head gas ports got help from a vent in the right side of the receiver ring. The 70’s low, swept-back bolt handle mandated a receiver slot that served as a safety lug abutment. The bolt shoulder was later eliminated. Machined bottom metal included a hinged floorplate and looked classier than the 54’s stamped assembly. Winchester did not fit new barrels to the 70 because the 54’s hook-rifled tubes had earned a fine reputation. Fact is, the first M70 barrels had the same threads and contours as the 54’s; they were interchangeable.

      The Mauser’s British counterpart in the Great War was the Short Magazine Lee Enfield.

      In 1937 you could order a Model 70 in one of nine chamberings: 22 Hornet, 220 Swift, 250-3000 Savage, 257 Roberts, 270 WCF, 7mm Mauser, 30-06 — plus 300 or 375 Holland and Holland Magnum. Between 1941 and 1963 nine more rounds were added, though only eight appeared in catalogs (they omitted the 300 Savage). With only one action size, Winchester used fillers and blocks and, in the case of the Hornet, a special magazine to adapt the 70 to short cases. Its magazine had been designed to accommodate the 300 and 375 H&H cartridges, introduced to American shooters in 1925 but then available only in costly custom Mausers. The M70’s long action featured a magnum-length magazine, properly engineered to hold four cartridges. Shorter boxes tailored for the 30-06 held five. Incidentally, though the Winchester 70 emerged a Cadillac

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