This is making me wonder if we're talking about the same gun.

Are you sure that the ones you handled were made in 1998, and not of the 100 that Sigarms made when they took over the Mauser name? Sigarms also made some sort of commemorative run which consisted of 100 .416Rigbys and 100 .375H&H. The Sigarm 416Rigby I mentioned in the above post for example is not nearly as smooth as my action (the Sigarms number is 90something out of 100). It's a mag mauser action, and they made 100 of them, but there ends the simularity.

The reason I ask, is that the Prechtl action on my rifle is without doubt very, very smooth. Friends who have handle both Ritterbursh, Johannsen (all his actions are made by Prechtl) and other very high-end actions have commented this too. Other shooters who are used to Sauers, Heyms, Remingtons, and other "normal" production rifles have all been amazed over the feeling of the action, and say they've never felt anything like it...

Granted the wood isn't of the Ritterbursh class, but then they go for Euro 10.000 and up...

So, are we maybe talking about 2 differant rifles?

Maybe you could check it out? It would be interesting to know if there were major differances amongst the 100 made of each calibur.

Erik D.