Reigning Supreme - FN’s great action in increasing demand

It appears that the appetite for fine rifles, and the demand for good actions upon which to build them, is gaining momentum, rather than the opposite.

Every fine custom gunmaker I know is backed up, with delivery times for whole rifles measured in years, and even the high-quality components, such as custom scope mounts, taking a year or more for delivery.

The all-time favourite action upon which to build such a rifle is, of course, the Mauser 98, followed by the pre-’64 Winchester Model 70. Since Winchester officially closed its doors two years ago, demand for pre-’64s (and for actions of similar design made by Winchester after 1993) has gone into orbit. In a gunshop in Craig, Colorado, last year, I saw an extremely ho-hum pre-’64 rifle for sale for $1895, and there was great interest even at that price.

Similarly, the Mauser 98 market is extremely lively even as supplies of good military actions dwindle and any remaining commercial actions from the Mauser plant at Oberndorf command extraordinary prices. The two most desirable Oberndorf actions, the Kurz (short) and the largest magnum, sell for thousands of dollars.

No one knows how many military 98s were made altogether. It was definitely in the tens of millions, dwarfing the available pre-’64s by a factor of a hundred, at least.

Military 98s were made in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium, among other countries. Under the exacting eye of Mauser engineers, top-quality munitions factories filled government contracts for dozens and dozens of countries. These countries have, in turn, given their names to individual Mauser actions, such as the 1909 Argentine and the Mexican kurz. Military Mausers are now traded like vintage wines.

Between the millions of military actions and the tiny precious supply of commercial Oberndorfs lies a somewhat neglected area: commercial actions made elsewhere. Some were pretty questionable, such as certain periods from the Zastava plant in Yugoslavia, which produced the Mark X. Some of these were so roughly made as to be unsalvageable for a fine custom rifle, and many gunmakers flatly refuse to work on them.

Other commercial actions, however, were every bit as good as the German Oberndorfs, DWMs, and Sauers. These include actions made at the Czech Brno plant, and those made at Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre – FN – in Liège, Belgium.

FN is one of the greatest arms-making companies in the world, renowned for its innovation and the high quality of its products. Although it is primarily a military conglomerate, FN has also made civilian firearms for more than a century.

When he could not reach a deal with Winchester to produce one of his guns, John Moses Browning took it to Europe and struck a deal with FN. For more than 75 years, FN produced the Browning Superposed shotgun, among other Browning designs. Today, FN owns the Browning company, as well as the Winchester name in gunmaking.

As a major military contractor, FN filled many government contracts for Mauser 98 rifles, and sold the actions in the white to gunsmiths and small rifle companies. In 1941, when its supply of Oberndorf commercial actions dried up, Stoeger listed an FN action, the ‘Peerless,’ in its catalogue, but none were actually delivered.

After the war, Firearms International began importing Mauser actions from FN, and there began a line of steadily improving civilian 98s from the plant in Liège. The first ones were military actions pulled off the line, with military safeties and two-stage triggers, and the thumb notch on the left side of the receiver. While the quality was superb, they required considerable alteration to adapt them to a hunting rifle with a scope sight.

The Peerless gave way to the DeLuxe. In 1957, a new model, the ‘300’ was introduced, and it evolved into the FN Supreme action – the finest Mauser 98 action FN ever produced. As the Supreme gained ground, the DeLuxe was dropped, and for the next 15 years FN Supremes were used on a wide range of very fine custom, semi-custom, and production rifles.

The later FN commercial actions are characterized by a single-stage civilian trigger with sliding safety to the right of the tang, a redesigned bolt shroud without a safety, and elimination of the thumb notch, which made the action stiffer. In much later years, even more changes took place, and not necessarily for the better. The traditional Mauser bolt stop was replaced by a more graceful design that lies close to the action; I like it, but others do not.

The best-known of the commercial rifles based on the FN Supreme is the Browning High Power line from the 1960s. Made in three grades (Safari, Medallion and Midas), the High Power was as pretty a rifle as you would find from any factory. Even the Safari had nice walnut, and the stock design was elegant and subdued. Most distinctive about it was its back-swept bolt handle, with the action polished and completely in the white (unblued). The underside of the bolt knob was milled flat and knurled, a distinguishing feature of the Supreme. This lovely action with its unique appearance became the hallmark of the Browning High Power, and of the FN Supreme generally.

During this period, the Supreme was also sold as an action or barrelled action. Actions alone had no serial number, the factory assuming the gunsmith would put on a number of his own. This is one way to pinpoint the origins of a Supreme.

There were different models – a regular length, magnum, and a single-shot intended for target rifles. The magnum was simply the standard action, opened up. Toward the end of the High Power era, Browning began building rifles for smaller calibres on Sako actions, using the Supreme for cartridges from .30-06 to .375 H&H and .458 Winchester.

Other companies in the U.S. either imported rifles based on Supreme actions, or imported the actions and turned them into rifles. Many of these have the characteristics listed above, and since many have in the meantime been stripped down and turned into complete custom rifles, it is often difficult to determine what the action might have been originally.

At one time, you could pick up a used Browning High Power for a few hundred dollars, but now it is rare to see one for less than a thousand. Some other Supreme-based rifles, lacking the cachet of the Browning name, sell for much less. I know of gunmakers now who are buying any Supreme they find, action or rifle, just to keep as stock for future custom jobs, the way they stockpiled the best military Mausers in the past.

Such an action is a good investment, and here’s why: There have been attempts to produce a ‘modern’ commercial 98, and the results have varied. In many cases, the quality has been lacking. In others, corners have been cut to save machining operations; such an action is not a Mauser 98, regardless of advertising claims.

In instances where a serious effort has been made to replicate the design and quality of an Oberndorf Mauser – the most obvious being the Granite Mountain in the U.S., and the Johanssen in Germany – the price has reflected the effort. A Granite Mountain action today, if you can get on the waiting list, will set you back at least $3,000.

I expect that in future a rifle with a Granite Mountain action will command a premium price, exactly the way an Oberndorf does today.

For the rifle-lover on a budget, keeping an eye cocked for any rifle of any calibre based on an FN Supreme action may be, for the time being, the most cost-effective starting point toward a fine custom rifle. The Supreme can be opened up and turned into a .375 H&H or even a .458 Lott, making it an eminently practical choice even for a stopping rifle.

Frank de Haas, one of the most knowledgeable bolt-action experts of the 20th century, and author of Bolt Action Rifles, stated flatly that “FN actions are made to the usual exacting FN quality, a quality so outstanding that no one should question it.”

A word of caution, however. There have been attempts to copy the Supreme’s appearance. Interarms Mark X (Yugoslav) rifles of the 1970s had the in-the-white action with the swept-back bolt handle. Recently, an Italian company making investment-casting 98 actions incorporated the flat, knurled bolt knob. So outward appearances can be deceiving.

Anyone embarking on a search for stray Supremes should get both de Haas’s book, and Mauser Bolt Rifles by Ludwig Olson, and keep them close by when examining a prospective acquisition.