A few months ago I spoke with J D Steele about using ’98 Mauser actions with rimmed cartridges and promised I’d post some pictures when I could arrange some technical help. Here are ’98 Mausers in .30-40 Krag and .405 Winchester. The bolt face of the .30-40 is shown together with a standard ’98 for comparison. The .405 bolt face appears alone and is very similar to the .30-40. The extractors require a small notch at the breech of the barrel. These modifications, I think, are similar in design to the 1917 Enfield for the .303 cartridge. This work and changes to the action rails were done by Dennis Erhardt in Helena, Montana.
I built the .30-40 rifle first and thought it might need some slant to the magazine box for reliable feeding. I fitted wedges of buffalo horn at the front and rear of the box, and it worked well. It maybe hard to figure out this arrangement from the pictures, and it may not have been necessary to do. The .405 cartridge length doesn’t leave room for this magazine modification but feeds fine without it.
Having used Siamese actions and been frustrated with loose tolerances and poor materials, I was pleased to find that the regular ’98 Mauser would work well for these rounds at least. I can’t say if the .45-70 would also work.
Photos to be added as soon as I can figure out how, or request via email at: davegcm@montana.com
Bill Ferguson
