Mike:

Sorry for having to show you up here but this post speaks of a complete misunderstanding of the Mauser.

You say "high end Mausers have to be excluded"

How can you when they are all one and the same thing.

Mauser 98 came in a number of lengths:

The Short action.
The Standard action ( military size)
The Intermediate action Built specially for Rigby for the 303 and 350 Rimmed cartrdige.
and finally the Magnum length action.

Then they also added differentiation in bridge shape, Single square bridge and double square bridge.... or round ring, the two former are actually "unfinished" round ring actions and were left squared so that scope mounts could be milled into the bridges.

Lastly there is the "pre 98" or "transition action" which is the earliest 98 action without safety rim on the firing pin.

So if you say Mauser 98 you have to include all of the above except the last one as they are all one and the same thing just differing lengths for specific cartridges.

By the way not only was the actions appropriate to the case length each had its "mathematically validated correct sized" mag box to go with it !

The good men at Mauser understood very clearly what was needed for the various cartridges available at the time and what is more I venture to say if they were asked to design a mag bog for a Weatherby they would have done so in style we are accustomed to