dirtyjim

your lop will also change with the style of stock you making.

a standard american style closed grip stock will be 1 1/2- 2" shorter than a open grip european style stock.

the length of your forearm to trigger finger rule works ok for closed grip stocks.

i haven't started any new projects or bought any good donor rifles here lately.

good actions for a decent price are getting harder to find. i can find actions for scoped builds all day but a nice action for a open sight builds are getting scarce

not to bad, that will make a good truck, loaner rifle. how do you like that stock after fixing the forearm? numrich has them on sale right now & i was thinking of picking up a couple of them for test mules since my wooden mule stocks are getting pretty rough

the bolt handle thats on it right now isn't the one thats going on it, it just held the rifle at a better angle for pictures. i'll more than likely put a butter knife handle on it or move the handle to the rear and weld on a oberndorf mauser style handle.

i still need to do a little bit of tweaking to the magazine and to the receiver to make it feed. the magazine is about .030 to narrow at the front, i'll either file .015 per side or just spread it apart a little since it doesn't have to be opened up very much. the magazine opening in the receiver needs to be opened by the same amount. i'll show some pics of the receiver and magazine mods as the come together

i finaly got around to rust bluing the metal, i still have to rust blue the gripcap and the ends of the recoil crossbolt.

the stock has been sealed and after i give it a few days to dry i'll start on the finish. it will get red oil, blo-tinted with alcanet root, for a classic style finish.

i also have a canvas & leather sling from jeff's outfitters for it.

i picked up a new howa 375 ruger barrel for next to nothing a while back and finally got around to doing something with it. i cut off the chamber then threaded it for a mosin.

it will end up being a 9.5x54R. to cut the chamber i'll use a 7.62x54r reamer with a 375 pilot then use a 375 neck & throat reamer to finish it.

norma brass necked up real easy. the barrel came out to 20 1/2" and is very light for a 375. i have a couple of old weaver k2.5 scopes that should be about right for it.

9.5x54R dummy round with a 300grain rn next to a 7.62x54r

i cant think of any reason for them to put star shaped lock washers on a rifle, they are normally used to make a good connection on electrical fitting

a nice tiger stripe stock is one of the few things that will stop me from building a sporter but they can make also make very nice sporter stocks when done right.

i have a vz-24, a swede m96, a turk k-kale and a spanish 1916 with tiger stripe stocks, i also have an oberndorf gew98 with tiger stripes and mineral streaks that was cut down to a sporter style before i bought it that was probably one of the nicest military stock in existence before it was cut.

I am trying to get a barrel unscrewed, and it is on TIGHT!. It won't budge. I'm soaking it in Kroil. I've heated it and beat it. So far, no luck.

the first couple of mosin barrels i pulled were done without cutting a relief groove and they were extremely tight, after i started cutting a relief groove about .030 in front of the receiver they came off real easy.

the shank on a remington 700 barrel will just clean up for a mosin.

nice job and a good looking rifle.

your stock making method would also be a good way to make a pattern stock to be duplicated

very nice rifle.

how thick is the floorplate? is there enough meat to smooth out the floorplate & remove the antelope head

i've got a few of them in the works, a couple heavy barrel projects and a couple of big bore projets.

i've also rebarreled one to 220 swift.

i'm planning on doing another in 22-250 but the donor rifle i ordered showed up as a near mint matching hex 91/30 so i didn't whack it in the head and gut it out like i planned.

what part of it are you having trouble with?

i did a little bit of it years ago on a dash peice for a friends firebird.

we actually used a drill press, valve grinding compoud & a pencil turn upside down and it came out preety good for not knowing what we were doing.

nice build.

i have a 35 whelen on a brazilian 1908 that is my main deer & hog rifle

i use a htc aria, $50 bucks at wally world and came with a $100 gift card so i actually got paid $50 to buy it.

i like it so far

i'm replacing the bolt simply because its easier than rebuilding the handle. the handle was ground down to about 1/8" thick to clear a scope.

the ser# was removed when the handle was ground if it was still on the bolt i would have build up the handle with weld then shaped it back.

i started on the stock today.

i've shorted a few magazines but nowhere near as much as the rifle in that linkbut i think a m93 7x57 similar to that rifle would be neat.

the last one i did i basically wedged the magazine. i kept the rear stock ferrul the same lenth and shortened the front pillar about 1/4" then cut the magwell to fit.

at one time you could get aftermarket triggers that were 1/2" shorter for building these types of rifles but i don't think they are available in the us anymore

now that huntin season is over i can get to work on this one.

i have 3 bolt bodies and one complete bolt, so i think i'm covered on intermediate bolts.

i ordered the taper pins & reamer to plug the holes in the front ring & a repro intertwined logo buttplate.

i still need to order the swivel band

the barrel bands have to be peened to fit the taper of the barrel. i have a small ball peen hammer that i use. just order the band slightly smaller than the spot on the barrel you are going to put it the slide it on a lightly peen around the band till it slides into position, then sand out the marks.

to line up the sights i use 3 12" long sections of 1/4" keystock. i place one section on top of a short piece of 1/2" keystock thats in the bolt raceway then use a level to level it up, i use superglue to keep it in place while i'm working.

i then place the front sight in position with a piece of 1/4"x12" long keystock on top of it. i then get behind the rifle and sight down it, and rotate the front sight till both sections of keystock are parallel. i then tighten the set screw & solder it on. i do the same with the rear sight but once its lined up i clamp the base in place, move it to my drill press & drill & tap through the holes while its still on the barrel. i have a old crafssman radial arm drill press with a x-y table so its pretty easy to line up the holes but still nowhere near as good as a mill would be.

Ok Jim,

thanks for the info. Where do you get the galzan pad? I like the rifle so far. I really want one in 375 H&H someday but ive read it takes too much out of the feed ramp and it weakens the action...you obviously dont agree?

How do you go about fitting the barrel band swivel? I wanted to do one of those my self.Where did you get the front sight? Ive seen some from NEGC but they are pretty expensive.

i got the pad from Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company they are the maker and have them instock unlike midway. they also sell a black version called the technically superior pad that would look real nice on a more modern style build.

galazan pads

the barrel band swivel and front sight are soldered on with hi-force-44, front sight is a necg banded from brownells or midway.

the the same smiths who say you cant open up an action for a 375H&H also cant produce a picture or any proof that one failed because of it.

Jim,

 

Looking great! How did you handle opening up the action? Did you split the difference and open up the receiver from both the front and rear or did your magazine cause you take most of it out of the feed ramp? I've thought about doing a project like this forever but have always been warned off by the gunsmiths I know.

 

-Jason

i opened the action up mostly in the front. the bottom metal used determines where you open up the action.

the back wall of the receiver is cut square with smp bottom metal bringing the mag box slightly back and i did end up cutting cut about .010 off the bolt stop, but the vast majority is removed from the front. i had the move the feed ramp forward .188".

basically all you do is cut the back wall of the receiver square so the bottom metal will bolt on then scribe the insides of the magbox.

mark where the shouler of the cartridge is going to be them scribe another line about .050 towards the action opening to push the cartride towards the centerline of the action as the bolt is being worked. if you hold a stripped action upside down and push a 8mm cartridge down the rails you should be able to see what needs to be done. i've also seen actions the didn't have the bump in the rails that fed just fine too.

i opened mine up with a x-y table on a drill press with a carbide burr since i don't have a mill yet. it worked but required a lot more polishing afterwards than using a mill would have. i should have my mill before i do another.

the stock is bare wood in the pictures, now that hunting season is over i can get back to work on it.

i have one of gag's oberndorf stocks on another project.

the pad i have on this rifle is a galazan period pad & the widows peak is part of the pad. all i did was sand and file the back of the buttstock square then placed the pad on the stock with the widows peak on top of the stock. i then marked the tip of the widows peak with a pencil and drilled a 1/16" hole on the edge of the mark in the center of the top of the stock.

then i place the pad on top of the stock lining up the tip of the widows peak with the hole that i drilled and scribed the sides of the widows peak. i then inletted the top of the stock down for it. mounted the pad and used my hillbilly disk sander(bench grinder with a 6" piece of wood with a 80 grit sanding disk attatched to it) to grind the pad to shape.

i have about 40 rounds through it now.

brad, i'm going to plug the holes in the front ring with taper pins then file them off flush.

they should blend in very well like that. the top of the E in mauser is the only lettering that will be affected. i'm going to wait to see how it looks after its plugged before i decide on having the lettering redone.

i'm going to start working on the stock this week, i'm going to add about 1" more LOP & a little more drop to it.

i think it may have been left to close to a camp fire and singed the stock, the metal isn't affected. if it was in a fire the wood would have been completely burnt, it actually looks much worse in the pictures than it actually is.

what on earth happened to that poor, poor gun?!

i hope i never find out or sink to that level.

this gun takes butchery to a whole new level.

at least the bore is good

i picked up this butchered model b in 7x57 cheap.

it needed a new bolt, front sight, stock and barrel band sling swivel.

i just happen to have three bolts & a front sight from my years of scrounging.

this one takes the intermediate length bolt like the turk 1903. i still have to swap the extractor to the new bolt since its matching to the receiver.

the stock was heavily sanded making the trigger guard about 1/8" proud and has burn marks on the butt. i'll build up the stock and make a new fore end then have it duplicated.

the two holes in the front ring will be filled with taper pins to make them practically disappear and i'll either buld up the charger bridge with weld then machine it back to its original shape or graft a new bridge on from one of my junk actions.

once its finished i'll rust blue it.

after all the work i should have around $600-700 tied up in it.

new bolt fitted