Have to qustion "Kimber-converted 96s to .308 Win - most or many had locking-lug setback". Like Horsefly I know of several of these that have had lots of 7.62 and .308 through them without problem. I've yet to see a Kimber converted one with bolt lug set back. I keep hearing about so and so says his buddy heard about one from some guy at a gunshow but would someone show me one? I have seen no recall of them from Kimber. I would think if "all" of them had lug set back we would have seen something more official that posts on internet forums.
In pre-internet "oh don't do it times" I picked up a Spanish M93 action made in '28 and put a .308 barrel on it. I shot thousands of M80 thrugh it plus a few boxes of factory .308 and thousands of my handloads. I was young and dumb back then and managed to blow a couple primers and most of my handloads were right up at max. After I shot that barrel out I put another .308 barrel on that action and proceded to shoot it out to. I've no lug set back and the action now has a 2 groove '03A3 barrel on it set back and chambered to a cast bullet cartridge of my design. The rifle is still going strong. I might add that it also has been converted to cock on opening which is another no-no I guess. Granted there are M93s and other milsurp actions along with numerous commercial actions that have been abused or are worn out that I wouldn't use. It is my impression from years of reading and research that Mauser designed his actions as strong as he could because of the rapid advances in cartridge capability. I would really like someone to prove to me that SR Mausers are "designed only for 45,000 psi". I do not advocate making magnums out of the SRs but I've found that given an action in good condition either the original cartridge may be loaded to potential or it may be rebarreled to a standard cartridge that fits the action and it may be loaded to it's potential (factory) capabilities.
Now about the M 96 (or M38) Swede; I've found it to be a very strong action. If you take a good look at it along side a M700 or M70 push feed action you won't see much difference in design. Not that I've tested it to it's limits but I have loaded it in 6.5 to equal the european loads and have, as mentioned earlier, seen several digest .308 Win with aplomb. I have used numerous M94, M96 and M38s over the years. I still have 3, a M38, a M96 and the M38 that I sporterized into a scout rifle. The scout (pictured) has been converted to cock on open, a single stage trigger added, D&T'd for regular scope bases, bolt forged, a scope base made for rear sight base and front sight made into a post and is pillar bedded into the glass stock. I use 3 loads; for big game the 140 Hornady SP at 2740 fps, for varmints the Sierra 100 HP at 3225 fps and for a general purpose the Sierra 120 SP or Nosler 120 BT at 2957 fps. All loads shoot sub moa. As to rebarreling the M96 to other than 6.5x55 I'm partial to the 6.5x57, the 257 Roberts, the 6mm Remington, a 30x57 (shortchambering usinga 30-06 reamer) and a 9x57 (short chambering using a .35 Whelen reamer). All are excellent cartridges of which the M96/38 is quite capable of handling.
Larry Gibson
