Some designs never really go out of production—they just wait for someone to build them right again. That’s the story behind the Mauser M98 Das Original, a bolt-action rifle that takes the most influential firearm design in modern history and rebuilds it, by hand, in Germany, with zero shortcuts.
If you’ve ever run a bolt-action rifle—any bolt-action rifle—you’ve felt the fingerprints of the original Mauser Model 98. Introduced in 1898, it went on to become the most copied rifle action ever built, with more than 100 million produced and its DNA showing up in nearly every controlled-round-feed bolt gun that followed, including the Winchester Model 70 and the Springfield 1903. Only the Kalashnikov has been imitated more. When people talk about a bolt gun that “just feels right,” they’re usually describing something that traces straight back to this action.
Mauser didn’t reissue an old blueprint and call it a day. Das Original is a faithful, modernized recreation of the 98 action—the same solid steel receiver, the same controlled-round feeding that’s famous for its reliability in the field, but built with materials and finishes that weren’t available to the rifle’s original engineers. The bolt wears a diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating for smoother cycling and long-term wear resistance, the barrel and receiver carry a plasma nitride finish, and the safety has been updated to a three-position design in the spirit of the Model 70—so hunters get the classic feel with none of the old compromises.
Then there’s the wood. Every stock starts as hand-selected Grade 5 Turkish walnut, cut to a classic sporter profile and finished in a matte oil that lets the grain do the talking. Add gold-colored trigger and floor-plate lettering—a nod straight back to the original 1898 rifles—and you end up with a gun that looks like a family heirloom on day one.
This isn’t a display piece. The standard model wears a 22-inch barrel with open sights and a receiver that’s drilled and tapped for scope mounts, chambered in .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, or—new for this release—.300 Winchester Magnum, the first time Mauser’s factory M98 has been offered in that caliber.
For hunters chasing bigger game, the magnum configuration steps up to a 24-inch barrel, a multi-leaf express sight, a double square-bridge receiver with integral scope mounts, and a safari-style recoil pad to help tame the chamberings on offer: .375 H&H Magnum and .416 Rigby. This is a rifle built with an eye toward dangerous game country as much as the whitetail woods back home.
Pricing reflects the craftsmanship: $12,000 for the standard model, $14,500 for the magnum. This isn’t an impulse buy—it’s a rifle built to be handed down.
There’s a reason gun writers keep coming back to the M98 action more than a century after it debuted: it works, and it works in a way that’s hard to improve on. What Mauser has done with Das Original isn’t reinvent that formula—it’s built it to the standard the original design deserved, using every bit of modern metallurgy and finishing available. For hunters and collectors who appreciate a rifle with a direct line to the gun that shaped everything after it, this is about as close as you can get to owning the original, brand new.
Whether you’re drawn to it as a working hunting rifle for your next trip afield or as a piece of firearms history you can actually shoulder and shoot, the M98 Das Original is worth a look. Stop by Rivers & Glen to talk through calibers, fit, and whether this one belongs in your safe.
Rivers & Glen Trading Co.
