Bramble,

One of the really useful features of this Forum is the window it opens on reference works I had never heard of before. One was "The Mauser 91-98 Bolt actions A shop Manual", which I had never heard of, and ordered with a certain amount of trepidation, since books like De Haas's "Bolt Action Rifles" are long on anecdotal experiences and short on useful technical information. I was happy to find it a real gold mine, one that my late lamented gunsmith friend, George Fullmer would have appreciated.

George had a Brinell testing machine and insisted on performing a hardness test on every action he received for rebarrelling, many of which he would reject, if not up to his standards of safety. He was dubious of any Mauser action not made by Oberndorf, although he did admit that the Czechs produced some acceptable rifles.

Mr. Kuhnhausen goes into details which I have encountered before in books like Stuart Otteson's "The Bolt Action", and I find it immensely useful.

Many thanks for bringing it to my attention.