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Wow, that is a tall order, before you can decide on what action; you need to decide a couple of other things first. What is the gun to be used for? Is it to be a hunting rifle? For big/medium game? Varmints? Is it to be a target rifle? A simple plinker? Or is this a project to learn how to build rifles and barrel them? After these are answered we can move on to decide what action is best. I personally like the Mauser 98’s and enjoy sporterizing them but it isn’t for everyone nor is it the best choice for some applications. Many people don’t think the 98 is or can be accurate enough (or accurate enough for them) we get good accuracy especially for a hunting rifle. Is cost and issue? It will be cheaper to buy a commercial gun and rebarrel. Anytime you sporterize a military you are talking about a lot of work and time and cost. If you have decided to do a military conversion there are some 98’s that are a bit better than others. We will go into that later. As far as the barrels are concerned, any of the name brands make good barrels, Douglas, Shilen, then the little costlier ones such as Pac-Nor, Lilja, Hart, Krieger, etc etc. I would decide on whether you are going to sporterize a military first before you buy a barrel as the barrel is one of the last things you buy for the military conversion. Let me know what you have decided and I will help in any way I can.

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The rifle is to be a hunting rifle. This is come about because I can’t find a .358 Win. The only one who makes them is browning in BLR and the barrel is only 20”. I’m a bigger guy and 20” barrels are just to short for me (uncomfortable I guess). The BLR is the only one I’m aware of. I’ll use it for white tail deer possibly black bear. I have not rebarreled a rifle yet. I don’t have any machine shop tools yet either. If it is more cost effective to buy a used factory rifle that would be fine. I can refinish the stock my self. May be I could find a 70 or 700 to do this cheaper and with less work. I thought it would be good experience to do a project like this, whether it is a Mauser or a commercial rebarrel. Another question; The .358 is a .308 case with a .35 cal. slug.(correct?). So if I look for a .308 factory rifle the bolt should be good to go? And I should be able to use the 308 headspace gauge? Thanks again

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Well, the Mauser will definitely be accurate enough for those applications. Since it doesn’t sound like you have all the needed tools, ie Mill, Lathe, TIG machine, you may want to go with a commercial gun and rebarrel but you will still need a Lathe. You can use a pre-threaded barrel but I do not care for them and if things don’t line up just right you have as much or more work to do than just using a contoured barrel blank, and sometimes there are problems that can’t be corrected. (Don’t want to go into that now). The .358 is just as you described and it is a very good cartridge. Too bad it didn’t have more success in the industry. (Hopefully the .338 Federal will do better). So now the ball is in your court again. You have to make the decision on what action you want. A Mauser will be a BIG learning experience, but a commercial action/rifle such as the Rem 700 or the Win 70 or other brands in .308 will be quicker and easier. You may want to look at the AGI video on tuning and truing military bolt actions that I made to see how much work is needed to build a good safe Mauser or Springfield. Then if you decide to do a military conversion you will want to get the Custom Mauser 98 video that Gene Shuey made as well. The things I show are things that must be done before the gun can be barreled and stocked. Let us know what you decide,

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Why would the pre-threaded barrel possibly give a problem? They turn those threads on a lathe the same way or not? Here’s anther way to go. www.montanarifleman.com. They make barreled actions, Blued 4140 $989.70-stainless $967.60. Add a Boyds custom stock and you’re pretty much in business. They say you can build a custom for $1000.00.I emailed them to see if they give FFL discounts. Ill let you know what they say. I just found these guys and don’t know a lot about them yet. Has anyone done any business with them?

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There is no such thing as a drop in part. Many “drop in parts” will drop in and work but NONE will drop in and work correctly. So a pre-threaded barrel will have threads but will they be tight, loose, or what? Will the shank be the right length? If the barrel is for a Mauser will a groove be cut next to the shoulder so the barrel will screw in flush with the shoulder? (the answer to that one is yes, and the groove weakens the barrel where the chamber is) . This isn’t too much of a problem with standard calibers such as the .358 Win but it isn’t correct and we do not like that). Most pre-threaded barrels are short chambered as well and will have a chamfer at the chamber mouth. This chamfer is either never quite enough which is easily fixed, but if it is excessive you must set the barrel back. The chambers are often oversized from what we have seen and the reamers we use are good ones so the chamber is big and when we finish the chamber reaming there is a step where the oversized chamber steps down to the new chamber. This looks very bad on fired cases and the life of the case is shortened as well. So if you just buy a blank or a tapered blank you can thread it to fit YOUR SPECIFIC gun, then you can safety breech it correctly if your action is a safety breech model, then you can cut the chamber with one reamer that will give you a good fit. Hope this shines some light on the pre-threaded, pre-chambered barrels. Like most things we don’t just wake up and dislike something, there are reasons we dislike them. Not picking on you at all just trying to explain. Don’t know that much about the Montana Rifle Man Co. There was a company a couple of years ago at the SHOT show that was making a copy of the pre-64 Winchester but it was virtually all cast and quite rough. If that is the same co. hopefully they have a product that is cleaned up more than the one I saw, as it was very rough.

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Thanks again, hard to know if you don’t know. The Montana Rifleman as far as I know makes bolt actions. In the Sept 2006 issue of Buckmasters Gunhunter mag. there is a picture in the article called poormanscustoms. The rifle in the picture looks nice. They also make just barrels. Thanks again, I appreciate your input and always learn more when I ask questions.