Guns, Bows, Shooting Sports, and Hunting Interarms Mark X rifles/actions

[Dl5treez]

I know these are the Zastava Mausers, like the Charles Daly/Remington/EAA offerings.



Is there any specific reason they aren't commanding a good dollar figure? I mean, for a legitimate Mauser 98 commercial large ring action, I would expect to see many beautiful customs made off these... . but they seem to languish in the $400-500 range at the gun shows.



The finish looks nice, bright blue, the bolt doesn't seem overly sticky and probably could be lapped out very well.



What am I missing here? $550 for a never fired 375 H&H Mauser 98 with a walnut stock just seems to good to be true, but they're popping up everywhere in calibers from . 243 to . 458... .

 

[sheamc]

I would think for the numerous offerings out there, the prices will stay low. The Mauser name doesn't carry that much weight when compared to Winchester and Remington. Ten years ago I acquired two Mark X actions (new) consecutively numbered. I recall paying $250 per at the time. Will make some nice rifles for my son and I one day on these actions. My preference may be the Mausers, but that is because we worked on many of them in school and I am comfortable with them. Buy what you want, then hopefully you won't regret it later.



Shea

 

[Dl5treez]

Thanks for the reply!





The only Winchester bolt I prefer is the 'classic' or pre-64 and that is pretty much just a Mauser 98 with a fancy safety.



Never been a big Remington bolt action fan... . the only one that peaked my interest was the Model 798 and that is a Zastava, just like the Interarms.





Looks like due to American tunnel vision I have found a great bargain in rifles.



Cool.

 

[HHhuntitall]

One thing you'll notice on MarkX actions and similar made 98s is how poorly the bolt fits the action. It's called Investment Casting, and they're pretty sloppy compared to the old Carl Gustav Mausers or Pre'64 Winchesters. The bolt body fits fairly tight in those old rifles, where the newer rifles are considered good as long as they have a decent lock up when closed. Cycling the action will tell you a lot, and when the bolt is closed without the firing pin in it, the rear of the bolt will typically move around several thousandths in all directions. The problem with that is it can cause problems when the bolt closes, but the firing pin doesn't catch on the sear..... I've got two Mark Xs I have built custom rifles on for myself, and one is a really nice action, while the other is loose as goose, and I had to order an extended sear trigger from Bold to make it work. You don't have problems like that on a pre'64 Win. unless it's had 30,000 rounds through it. That's why competition shooters like such actions as Kelbly-Stolle, Surgeon, BAT, Old Remington 40x, and similar. But not everyone is as picky as those guys... .

 

[Dl5treez]

One thing you'll notice on MarkX actions and similar made 98s is how poorly the bolt fits the action. It's called Investment Casting, and they're pretty sloppy compared to the old Carl Gustav Mausers or Pre'64 Winchesters. The bolt body fits fairly tight in those old rifles, where the newer rifles are considered good as long as they have a decent lock up when closed. Cycling the action will tell you a lot, and when the bolt is closed without the firing pin in it, the rear of the bolt will typically move around several thousandths in all directions. The problem with that is it can cause problems when the bolt closes, but the firing pin doesn't catch on the sear..... I've got two Mark Xs I have built custom rifles on for myself, and one is a really nice action, while the other is loose as goose, and I had to order an extended sear trigger from Bold to make it work. You don't have problems like that on a pre'64 Win. unless it's had 30,000 rounds through it. That's why competition shooters like such actions as Kelbly-Stolle, Surgeon, BAT, Old Remington 40x, and similar. But not everyone is as picky as those guys... .

Good info thank you!

 

[GHarman]

Heat treating

Hopefully the QA/QC in regards to the heat treating on these actions is better than in the past! If you have a used rifle, reach inside the receiver ring with your finger on the locking lugs and feel for any setback in the locking lugs. The 98 pattern Mauser actions have been historically soft.

Setback in the lugs increases headspace. This causes case stretching and can cause a case head seperation and destruction of the action and possibly injury or death to the shooter. While the design is sound and has been copied in many examples, a consistant heat treating process has not been one of the strong points in this particular action. Different factories will have different procedures. It is worth your time to investigate. GregH

 

[HHhuntitall]

Yes, certainly heat treating used to be a real problem, as most Mausers manufactured prior to approximately 1954 were only surface heat treated, and many prior to @ 1910 were not heat treated at all. Most common problems with early Mausers resulted from gunsmiths "trueing" the bolt lug surface area, which comprised of removing metal from the lug faces, and removing the hardened surface with it. This allowed the softer metal underneath to be exposed and to "compress" or be deformed, allowing the bolt to back up, enlongating headspace, causing separated cases and sometimes, complete action failures. Inconsistent heat treating could often be found up to the end of WWI, and then again during the second WW. The more expensive Mauser actions, such as Santa Barbara, Carl Gustav, Brownings(which were typically Santa Barbara's), and Husquavarna, were all machined to much tighter tolerances and consistently re-heat treated to give a lifetime of trouble-free service. Some war surplus actions were refitted using other bolts for tighter fits by Gustav, but all were submitted for heat treating before use. Later manufactured actions, like the Zastava's used by Remington, and Interarms, use investment cast steel, machined out and mass produced by machinery left over from the last century. Poor tooling and quality control are the only problem with these rifles. I've even seen a Stainless Steel prototype in the Zastava, made for Remington, but I haven't seen any production actions. If you are looking at buying an older Mauser, I'd say manufactured prior to 1954, I'd certainly try to research it before purchase. Don't forget that these actions were designed prior to smokeless powders, and some are not designed for the high pressures todays modern cartridges produce.