Traditional Mauser Sporter Questions

I’m looking at starting a build of a pre-war/rigby highland stalker-styled Mauser sporter. I’ve got the barrels and actions for it, but am curious on what the most cost effective way to obtain a traditionally-styled stock would be. I’m considering sending a monte-Carlo stock to be reworked down to style, anything else more obtainable than that? Additionally, what modern mounts and optics in this day and age are fitting for this style of rifle? Rigby looks to use some kind of proprietary QD mounting setup, I don’t know if I need to go that far but I am curious on what would look the part without having to mill down the stripper clip guide on the bridge. Is Zeiss the best bet for a traditional scope? Thanks in advance, I’ve been wanting to do this project for a while and appreciate the good taste folks on here have.

Leica Fortis for the scope.

A Husqvarna Mauser would be a good place to start.
A horn forend tip or a shortened forend in the Rigby style and express sights are about all one needs to be quite similar to a pre war Rigby.
I’ve thought of doing similar but the one I own is probably too nice to rework.

Garciamarquez1918 said:

Leica Fortis for the scope.

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Gloss is a good call for sure, didn’t know Leica has that so I appreciate it!

Huvius said:

A Husqvarna Mauser would be a good place to start.
A horn forend tip or a shortened forend in the Rigby style and express sights are about all one needs to be quite similar to a pre war Rigby.
I’ve thought of doing similar but the one I own is probably too nice to rework.

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Love my Husky’s. I think I’m going to use an Argentine 1909 or similar “true” 98 action to keep it more true to form of the pre-war guns.

Coues106 said:

Love my Husky’s. I think I’m going to use an Argentine 1909 or similar “true” 98 action to keep it more true to form of the pre-war guns.

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A 1909 Argentine is an excellent choice - nice bottom metal very much like an Oberndorf sporting rifle on those. You’ll need to silver solder or micro weld a protrusion on the trigger bow release lever and trim the little wing on the bolt release but other than that and reshaping the bolt handle the ‘09 Arg. is an excellent action that will need little work otherwise.
That said, some of the Husky’s are true FN ‘98 actions too and as far as the stocking goes they are genuine pre-war rifles designed for open sight shooting just as most of the Rigby Mausers were.

If you keep the stripper clip hump, I think you're stuck with a 3-screw one-piece mount. This is what I did with my Czech 98 Mauser build. Because I went with 30mm tube scope, I switched to a very low discontinued Weaver base and low Warne QD rings. SARCO sells one-piece semi-pic bases that don't look too tactical. The cutout for loading is not slotted. I used one originally but changed to old Weaver base with thicker scope.

Personally, I prefer modified Monte Carlo stock. I want my cheek exactly where it needs to be for instant acquisition when the gun hits my shoulder. I'm very good at hitting animals on the fly and that is partially why. Fit is paramount. With scope on or off, the gun is instantly on target. Maybe not strictly stalker-ish looking but it still looks classical enough for me. I'm told this design may produce more recoil than the classic straight comb. But with my sketchy retinas I'm not shooting a 404 any more than necessary. Shooting paper never interested me much anyway.

My stalking rifle is 30-06 Springfield with almost identical stock fit, rings, and base. That rifle has killed a ton of game over fifty years. A lot of them were snap shots offhand at animals on the run, including this gemsbuck bull shot in the neck.

I’ve built a couple of Mauser 98 sporters, one 7x57, one 9.3x62, on which I used the old Weaver pivot style two piece bases. Instead of grinding off the stripper clip guides, I contoured the underside of the rear mount to fit the rear bridge up against the clip guides. Some folks are opposed to the Weaver pivot mounts, but I have never had any trouble with them, and they have always returned to zero after having been pivoted to the left. On the other hand, a 9.3x62 with Pilkington levers was a pta due to the levers being susceptible to loosening from bumps and from repeated sliding in and out of scabbards.

If you want it old school traditional.

G&H Side mount, I find them ugly but people like them.

If you want to swallow a $1500 scope mount, the Smithson is the best there is.

For a Mauser 98 action there are a lot of options, 1913 rail, Talley one piece, Talley two piece (yuck), Leupold 1 piece. Redfield styled mounts, EAW swing mounts, claw mount, Dentler system.

Lots of options.

I have a 1913 rail on my m98 9,3x64 and a Zeiss rail mounted EAW system to attach it. It's ugly, but it's tough.

Redfield mounts are actually an old system.

The number of people that can fit claw mounts in the USA is probably a number you can count on one hand.

There is a mount for every budget.

DB404 said:

I’ve built a couple of Mauser 98 sporters, one 7x57, one 9.3x62, on which I used the old Weaver pivot style two piece bases. Instead of grinding off the stripper clip guides, I contoured the underside of the rear mount to fit the rear bridge up against the clip guides. Some folks are opposed to the Weaver pivot mounts, but I have never had any trouble with them, and they have always returned to zero after having been pivoted to the left. On the other hand, a 9.3x62 with Pilkington levers was a pta due to the levers being susceptible to loosening from bumps and from repeated sliding in and out of scabbards.

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I did a similar thing on this sporterized Sauer and Sohn M98 last year. It took while hand-filing the underside of the rear base to accommodate the stripper clip hump, but I was deliberately moving slowly to get the angles and height just right. In the end it worked out just fine.

I have most all the parts here to build a rigby style rifle in 275 rigby, barrel, sights, barrel band, grade three x stock in rigby profile, bottom metal with the obendorf lever, had a receiver lined up and a vintage set of rings and bases(don’t know the brand) and would have then started the build, but then two nut job islamic extremists decided to shoot some jews and our stupid government had a "look at me" knee jerk reaction and started to attempt to restrict firearm ownership whilst hoping that no one would notice that they were on a watch list, but ignored for security reasons. I’ve put everything on hold till we know what’s going to happen here
Gumpy

cash_tx said:

I did a similar thing on this sporterized Sauer and Sohn M98 last year. It took while hand-filing the underside of the rear base to accommodate the stripper clip hump, but I was deliberately moving slowly to get the angles and height just right. In the end it worked out just fine.

View attachment 761488

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One or two screws in rear base?

Coues106 said:

I’m looking at starting a build of a pre-war/rigby highland stalker-styled Mauser sporter. I’ve got the barrels and actions for it, but am curious on what the most cost effective way to obtain a traditionally-styled stock would be. I’m considering sending a monte-Carlo stock to be reworked down to style, anything else more obtainable than that? Additionally, what modern mounts and optics in this day and age are fitting for this style of rifle? Rigby looks to use some kind of proprietary QD mounting setup, I don’t know if I need to go that far but I am curious on what would look the part without having to mill down the stripper clip guide on the bridge. Is Zeiss the best bet for a traditional scope? Thanks in advance, I’ve been wanting to do this project for a while and appreciate the good taste folks on here have.

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Civilian rifles with Mauser actions were manufactured en masse over a century, making it very difficult to choose anything particularly typical. The stocks, in particular, have changed considerably over time. You will have to look at various classic Mauser rifles yourself and then decide on a specific model. The same applies to scope mounts. If you really want to stick to a classic look regarding the scope mounts, you will have to choose a turret mount or perhaps better, a classic SEM/ Suhler Einhack Montage.

Also take into account that scopes were not a classic feature on pre-war rifles in GB.

I refer to this Danzig sporter Mauser as my poor man’s pre war Rigby. Perhaps call RJ Renner for help on sights and stock help

The stock of the rifle is typical of pre-war German designs. The diopter was added later.

The peep sight makes this $600 rifle very accurate.

@Altitude sickness - I really like the Schnabel forend and Prince of Wales grip on that stock. Those features combined with the finish on the wood give it an 'old world' look.

Is that a steel butt plate? Damn, that is 'old school'.

I let this Geco Mauser in 9x57 go a while back, was considering rechambering to .35 Whelen as it was very cheap & had the look !

Ontario Hunter said:

One or two screws in rear base?

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Two screws, which was surprising to me, because whomever drilled and tapped it somehow managed to get the forward screw hole partially into the stripper clip hump. First time I've ever seen that, and I'd prefer it be the last time.