It's a waste of time and money to build a sporter from a military action unless you are a good welder, machinist, wood worker that doesn't count their time as valuable.
Well, then I wasted mine and a gunsmith buddy's time! 20 or so years ago, I bought an old beat up VZ24 and a .35 caliber Douglas blank. My old buddy screwed the old barrel off, lapped the bolt lugs, then threaded and chambered the blank to 35 Whelen, and installed the barrel. I installed a cheap Timney trigger and since this was to be an all-weather elk hunting rig, I had it Parkerized then bedded it into an old cheap synthetic stock and mounted a 4X Burris on it.
The sorry, good for nothing thing will barely group:
O.K...granted that group is an exception as most of the time (since about 2004) the same load normally groups between 5/8" and 3/4".
Seriously....
One of my bulls taken with the rifle (pictured) at 355 yds.:
98 Mausers, being designed as battle implements, are tough and reliable. My VZ24 has been snowed on many, many times in the mountains of New Mexico and never failed me yet. In fact last year it had so much fine snow in/on the scope and in every crevice of the action, that when I fired at a bull, I was blinded for a second or two by all the snow the recoil threw into my eyes!
I own quite a few rifles built on Mauser action and the one thing they have in common is they are utterly tough and 100% reliable. And too I don't find them any less accurate than any of my othe rifles. Accuracy begins with a good quality barrel. I also own a few Model 700's and have had the most problems with them, ranging from accidental disharges owed to their crappy triggers, to the sears not catching in very cold weather again due to their sorry triggers, down to the el-cheapo stamped extractors failing.
I love the Pre-64 Model 70's, but personally I'm not going to pay $1500-$3000 for a rifle to carry in a saddle scabbard and drag up and down the mountains. Other than impressing Gun Snobs, there's nothing a Pre-64 Model 70 can do that a good quality Mauser can't do.
35W