Yes, its an old argument.

Tentman has it exactly right. It was designed for soldiers in the heat of battle so they couldn't stuff it up in extreme conditions. 500Nitro is also on the money when he says most Mauser '98's have been modified, to such an extent that the true CRF features are nullified.

The 6mm sounds like a simple re-barrel and not properly checked by a knowledgeable gunsmith. If it popped rounds then it should not have left the shop.

As a hunting rifle the Mauser brings one more aspect of reliability to the argument that many push feeds and modern Mauser '98 clones don't have. Slop in the bolt to eliminate jamming from ingress of debris. This only becomes apparent if you are hunting in really harsh terrain.

I only realised the importance of this after experiencing action clogging myself, from a severe dust storm. My CZ550 .308 became hard to cycle (due to its closer tolerances) and had to be wiped out. My son's .243 Parker Hale Mauser '98 kept working.

Reliability ? ex-mil Mauser '98 all the way for me, but not just because of CRF.