Barrels and Caliber's

When Re-Barreling your Mauser there are several barrel manufactures and caliber choices to choose from. The quality of a barrel will be reflected in its price you truly get what you pay for in this category. A new barrel can range in price from 70 bucks to the high hundreds of dollars for a match barrel. When changing barrels the new barrel will always need headspaced for proper clearances by you or your smith before firing NEVER install a barrel and try to shoot it without checking/adjusting headspace first.

Caliber's - The caliber choices for the mauser are great as long as the head on the cartridge is .473 [ or 12.01 mm ] and no longerr in length than a 30-06 shell [ shorter cartridges are fine and usually feed without any modifications.] Your barrel swap should be easy when barreling for a non magnum cartridge.
However If you decide on a magnum caliber the bolt face will need to be modified or replaced with a magnum sized faced bolt, the magazine box will need to be lengthened and the feed rails will need modifications which is all best left to a smith. However changing your stock military barrel to a .308 , .22-250, .35 whelen, etc.[ list above is for common manufatured barrels with twist rates, magnum calibers are stated as so]... A non-magnum caliber is enough for most of us and is fairly an easy swap just remember always have the headspace checked and properly adjusted.

Contours - Barrel contours are the slope or angle at which the barrel tapers from the receiver towards the muzzle. They vary from no taper at about 1.25 dia heavy /bull barrel full length down to 1.25 at receiver and .650 at muzzle. Each manufacture has a chart showing the contours which should help you find the best contour for your application.

Fluting - Fluted barrels are the grooves you see cut either straight or spiraled down the outside of heavy/bull and target barrels. The reasons for fluting is to reduce weight and to increase the surface of the barrels area to allow more/faster cooling.

Barrels - See Barrel Manufactures