Too many people don’t know the difference between the old small-ring FR7
and the Large-ring, far —stronger— FR8.
I am going to debate about the "far stronger" statement, as action strength is complicated. What is true, is that the M98 is a superior design to the small ring Mauser. The large ring Mauser has many safety features that are not in the small ring. If the firing pin breaks in a M98, if the bolt is out of battery, the firing pin will not hit the primer. The M98 has a safety lug on the bolt, a small ring bolt will blow out if the lugs shear. And I am aware of a case where a blown bolt from a small ring killed someone. T he old lugs sheared, probably due to fatigue, and the shooter died. But you do something stupid in a M98, at some level, it turns into shrapnel.
The story was, this modern Whitworth M98 Mauser was chambered for 270 Win and someone fired a 30-06 round. Big, badda, boom.
This was stated to be a modern FN Deluxe bolt, used in a factory rifle in 264 Win Mag.
Clearly the cartridge thrust of a belted magnum was too much and the shooter discovered the fatigue lifetime of the lugs. I am not going to state there was anything wrong with the metal or heat treatment, though there could be, but a belted magnum provides a lot more bolt thrust than an 8mm Mauser cartridge, and one should expect therefore, a shorter fatigue life. I wonder if the lug cracked before the barrel shot out, which is around 800 to 1000 rounds for 264 Win Magnums.
This is a new bolt. This happened in the standing stage of a NRA Highpower match and I got to take pictures after the relay was done. The shooter had brought a new M1a out, he had only sighted it prior to the match, and was firing military match ammunition. This is a new bolt, made from new materials. Either the materials were crap, or the heat treatment was crap. Whatever the cause, the lug cracked before 20 shots were fired standing. And it should have lasted 10000 rounds, at least.
The M98 has all sorts of gas protection features for the shooter, which you can claim make it "stronger" , but I would need an analysis to prove that makes the action stronger. But for certain, for less than receiver busting catastrophic events, that gas protection means the shooter won't loose an eyeball with the M98, whereas he probably would with a small ring.
I do know the M98 seats the cartridge head deep, and that does make for a "strong" action.
Mauser barrel: case supported just to extractor groove
M1903 barrel: sidewall of case out of chamber at extractor cut. It will require less pressure to blow the sidewall of a case in a M1903 barrel
case head support is also important in pistols
I don't know if a case in a small ring action is supported as well, or worse, than a M98. What you can be sure of, a torrent of hot gas,mixed with brass particles and powder particles will be coming down the receiver rails, the firing pin channel, under the bolt, directly into your eye, with a small ring Mauser.
But you look at the materials and lugs sizes, the small ring used the same materials, and the shear length in a small ring is the same as a M98. So from an absolute lug shearing perspective, they are about the same.
The material in a small ring was not made for, nor hardened to, 308 Win surface loading. This is a Swedish small ring, I believe chambered for 308 Win, and guess what, it blew. Now I don't have a failure analysis, but I am going to claim that the receiver seats set back, the case sidewall blew, and the receiver ring disappeared.
This is one of the risks of those old antique actions. Heat treating the things won't turn their crap steels into something great either. You cannot get the residual containments out of those old steels. Today with vacuum smelting, steels can be made much purer, the old stuff was Bessemer converter, air blown through, but it left the non oxidizable elements such as Ti, Cr, Cu, Ni, Ca, etc. A whole spectrum of crap that unpredictably screws with material properties, and none of it good.
Incidentally, modern steels should be better, and they are if properly made and heat treated. But if you want a surprise, go over to
https://www.1911forum.com/ and search for
slide cracking. All sorts of modern 1911's with slides cracked, or cracked off! Modern metallurgy is better, but it is not perfect!
I think the Rem M700 is a wonderfully safe action and it will stay together in incidents that will blow older actions to pieces.
The reason is the support Mike Walker gave to the case head
Patent for BREECH CLOSING CONSTRUCTION FOR FIREARMS 2,585,195
Merle H. Walker, lion, N. Y., assignor to Rem ington Arms Company, Inc., Bridgeport, Conn., a corporation of Delaware Application
Prior art firearms of the type employing fixed metallic ammunition have always been dependent upon the metallic cartridge case for securing obturation with the walls of the barrel chamber and preventing the rearward escape of gas from the barrel. As a result, the head of high intensity center-fire rifle cartridges has always been a massive chunk of brass of usually adequate strength to bridge over gaps between the end of the bolt and the chamber mouth, or clearance cuts for extractors, ejectors, and the like. However, in spite of this massive construction, the heads of cartridges, due to metallurgical deficiencies, barrel obstructions, or other difficulties, all too often fail in service, releasing white hot gas at pressures in excess of 50,000 pounds per square inch into the interior of the receiver. With some modern commercial and military rifles the effects of a burst head are disastrous, completely wrecking the action and seriously injuring or killing the shooter. One of the better known military rifles presents in alignment with the shooter's face a straight line passage down the left hand bolt lug guide groove, which, even though the receiver proper does not blow up, channels high pressure gas and fragments of the cartridge head into the location where they can do the most damage. It has been often, and truthfully, said that the Strength of most rifles is no greater than that of the head of the cartridges intended for use therein. The primary object of this invention is the provision of a firearm construction which is not thus dependent upon the strength of a cartridge head, ordinarily formed of a material of relatively low strength by comparison with the ferrous alloys used for the firearm structure.
Still, I am sure if I looked, I would find blown M700's. At some pressure level, the structure gives way...
If you are going to keep a nuclear razor in the house, make sure you keep it out of the hands of the grandchildren. And there goes the island.....