Mauser M98

Landmark model

Specifications

Maker: Mauser
Type: Rifle
Action: Bolt action
Era: Classic (1890–1945)
Produced: 1898–
Magazine: 5 rounds
Swedish class: 1

Chambered in

8×57 IS
9.3×62
.30-06 Springfield
.375 H&H Magnum

Stock

Wood

What it is worth

$572

Second-hand · priced 2026-08-05

TrueGunValuevalue guide$572 2026-08-05

Indicative only. A second-hand gun is worth what its condition, chambering and provenance say — these are published figures, not an offer.

Chapter 01

Overview

Paul Mauser’s 1898 action is the one every other bolt rifle is measured against. Adopted by the German army that year and copied, licensed and cloned for a century afterwards, it is the ancestor of the Springfield 1903, the Winchester Model 70 and most of what a European hunter has ever shouldered.

Chapter 02

How it works

Two forward locking lugs and a third safety lug, a controlled-round-feed claw extractor that grips the case rim the moment it leaves the magazine, and a blade ejector driven by the bolt itself. Nothing about it is fast, and nothing about it lets go of a cartridge it has picked up.

Chapter 03

Variants

The military K98k is the version most hunters meet, usually sporterised. Mauser still builds a commercial M98 in Isny, and both the magnum action and the standard length are made new for dangerous-game calibres.

Chapter 04

In the field

It earns its keep where a jam is expensive: driven boar, dangerous game, and cold enough that gloves are on. Controlled feed means the rifle will chamber a round with the muzzle pointing anywhere, which is the whole argument for carrying an action this old.

Sources

Written from: Mauser Model 1898 — Wikipedia — read 2026-08-05

Cross-reference