What specific Mauser are you looking at? There are some real dogs around, and some very nice ones. If you give info about the make and model choices you're looking at it would be helpful. I'd take a CZ Persian long rifle over a Russian capture K-98k, for example. In generally I'd say get a Czech made one. They're still reasonably priced and are very well made.
There are many different types of Mosin-Nagants--far more than this list would show. The best aren't even on this list. The Finnish M39's and late model M91's and M30's are about the same price as the Swiss K31, and ammo is much much cheaper.