Just as an aside, the mauser action does have some minor flaws. Mainly, weak bedding points. Still, the main streangth is if/when things go wrong, the gasses etc. are drirected away from the shooter. Also, they get knocked for having a stepped barrel. The common logic or view is that this is due to make for cheap manufacturing. Notice in my story above, about a stepped barrel on a sporter Mauser. This wasn't from the Mauser factory,which would have been big buck, but a custom shop or smaller manufacture in Germany. In that case, I doubt they were trying to cut cost. From what I was told, a barrel has a certain amount of harmonics to a particular cartridge and its load, ie grains of powder and bullet wieght. If you place the steps at the right places, the harmonics will be negated. Thus a more accurate barrel, for that particular load. That also goes for the twist of rifleing.
Also, high end english shotguns are choked to a particular load. I have heard that even changing the type of primer, will open or close the shot pattern in a shotgun.
Tom