Mauser to .30-30 conversions

[VThillman]

A collector friend has a Mauser that's been converted to .30-30. It is single shot only, feed from the magazine wasn't accomplished. I looked at one Mauser forum on the Web, and gathered that nobody there had seen a .30-30 conversion repeater. (.300 Savage was touted as an easier conversion, but I couldn't tell from the posts if they ended up being repeaters. My interest in the .300 Savage one is academic, I don't know where to find brass for it - and I have over 100 .30-30 cases on hand.

Does anyone here know of a successful repeater conversion to either cartridge?

 

[rcmodel]

A .300 Savage or .308 Win conversion would be as simple a changing the barrel because the rimless case has the same head size as the Mauser, and the magazine will feed it.

The rimmed 30-30 would be far more involved getting it to feed, if even possible.
I would hate to try it.

rc

 

[VThillman]

Thanks. The guy says he has a.300 Savage conversion too, I'll ask him for a peek. Maybe suggest he keep a feeler out for a .308 conversion.

 

[Edarnold]

Have you checked the bore diameter of this rifle? The official factory conversion of a '98 Mauser to a rimmed, single shot configuration would be to the 8.15x46R target cartridge. These were widely used for midrange target shooting in the period between WW1 and WW2.
Because the bore is considerably larger than the 30-30, the longer ( 7.62x52R) case might still chamber. Just a possibility, can't imagine any other way somebody would go to the trouble of converting to that caliber.

 

[Jim K]

To each his own, but the additional cost of converting a Mauser (any model) to .30-30 (vs .308 Winchester) would be many times the cost of 100 cases. Just tinkering with the feed rails to accommodate the rimmed cartridge would eat up a lot of expensive hand work.

Jim

 

[VThillman]

Have you checked the bore diameter of this rifle? The official factory conversion of a '98 Mauser to a rimmed, single shot configuration would be to the 8.15x46R target cartridge. These were widely used for midrange target shooting in the period between WW1 and WW2.
Because the bore is considerably larger than the 30-30, the longer ( 7.62x52R) case might still chamber. Just a possibility, can't imagine any other way somebody would go to the trouble of converting to that caliber.

I think the gun I saw has a .308 barrel with .30-30 chamber. The Mausers (91-95-98) were almost indiscriminately popular for awhile between World Wars. The 7X57 ammo was readily available when I was a kid, 8X57 not so much, the others rare. So, a lot of conversions.