rustvyper

I finished this about a year ago, just getting around to posting it now. I'm not a huge black rifle fan, but a few years ago I got a great chance to buy a norinco sks from a friend of a friend. He had left the rifle sitting on his tailgate & then tore out on a black top road. He heard it slide off & hit the pavement, stopped & went back to survey the damage. -smashed stock -damaged trigger guard & mag -twisted front sight base cover Plus a liberal sprikling of road rash all over. Well...after he shows me the rifle (he'd had it in a closet for a few years, & at this point & it had a liberal sprinkling of rust on it too), three andrew jacksons later I have a project rifle! It sat in my closet for 2 years before I saw the SG works bullpup release - couldn't not have it & ordered one. 15 months later (yes, it took that long) I took the sks to the sandblaster, knocked the front sight base off, threaded for a AK muzzle break, duracoated combat black & out she popped! I've always been partial to sks's since that was my first deer rifle.

Speaking of mausers under $200... Here's one I just finished - hard to say exact final cost because I traded for many of these items. -near as I can tell a stadard A&B 30-06 22" barrel - I traded for this in a lot of a bunch of stuff. I traded 2 enfield rifles which I paid $150 total for, so I think I did pretty good - 3 barrels, 3 stocks & misc other stuff. -Ramline stock - part of the trade above -cz-24, went to germany for the war - sold off as surplus to the israelis & coverted to 7.62 NATO. ROUGH! needed a ton of sanding & pit filling & only made an acceptable rifle when duracoated. I'm guessing it spent a long while laying on the battlefield or in a pile exposed to the elements post war. - $50 -single stage "commercial" trigger from sarco - $6.50 - brownell's (095-001-001WB) bolt handle - $14 -grab bag gunsmith special of scope mounts from numrich- $9 for around 30 mounts. Several were mauser & I grabbed 2. - sportsmansguide $20 barska colorado 3-9x40 scope special. - duracoat - around $30. Stainless steel throughout the whole rifle, mix of hk, combat black & gun blue for the bolt & trigger - Left hand no-name safety I got in a mix bag parts trade. Turned out purty good for such a mixed bag of parts.

Since most on this board regularly work on surplus german mausers, here's a question I ran up against the other day. I'm working on a mauser 308 that's going into a bell & carlson sythetic thumbhole. It had a rough life so it's getting the heavy sand/pitt-filling/duracoat treatment & eventually no one will ever be the wiser that: -it started life in Nazi germany in 1938 -was surrendered or picked up off a battlefield somewhere (assuming western front - the Ruskies didn't give theirs back or sell 'em) -went to Israel sometime in the late 40's & blasted arabs -got rebarreled to 7.62 NATO in the 50's It has all the stamps that mark it's lifetime of movement - waffen stamps, star of david, big "7.62" designation on top, etc. All these are getting covered in filler & duracoated over & I've usually never given proof marks a second thought. However...here's the question - on the bottom of the receiver, right behind the recoil lug, is a big swastika. Nothing else, just a big, ugly nazi stamp. Of course when the gun gets mounted to the stock, no one would ever know it's there, even if you took it apart you'd have to turn it over & give it more than a cursary glance...but this one stopped me in my tracks. I'm not usually a big symbol guy, but I had to think about this one. In all likelyhood, this gun was fired at british, canadian or US GI's & the symbol represents one of the most evil regimes in (well) recorded history. After a few minutes of thinking about it, I held it to the bench grinder & obliterated it for all time. What do you guys think? same situation, what would you do?

See? That's why I come here! You guys make me feel so much better...I start to feel ancy when it's been a 6 month project!!!

Haha - that's awesome. The only reason that I didn't get upset was because you tipped your hand when you said grandfather. I figure even YOU can't be that old!

Wah! Wish they were cheaper. That might be the ticket right there.

So I got this licked...it wasn't easy but I finally outsmarted Capt. Sergei Mosin! So basically I used the spring & follower out of a WASR-3 AK magazine (single stack mag). There were a couple of problems I was running into. -The first was there was nothing to keep the follower from popping out the top of the receiver after the last shot. I licked this by slightly widening the follower, then it was held down by the protrusion of the interupter. I had to anchor the spring to the follower with JB weld to keep it from moving when it hit the interupter, however, this spawned 2 more problems! Now, the interupter is too far down in the magazine, so it would hold the follower TOO far down & so the bolt could not pick up the final round in the magazine. PLUS, often times the rounds would jam on each other. The 54R being rimmed was the problem, if the round above's rim was BEHIND the one below it would catch. -2nd solution: To solve the problem of the interupter keeping the follower too far down, I cut a notch into the side of the follower. This allowed the follower to rise past the interupter to the correct height, then the interupter would make contact with the bottom of the notch keeping the follower & spring secured inside. -3rd solution: I studied the orginal follower & realized it ended well short of the back of the magazine well leaving a gap. The reason why became obvious. if the back of the rimmed round was resting on the follower, it pushed the round up just far enough to sometimes grab the rim of the round above it. This was an easy kill, I simply secured the follower farther up in the magazine leaving a gap the same as the orginal design. I've attached a crude illustration & I'll take several good photos once I get it all polished up. Time to press on & finish this build!

JB weld works like a charm, if you're gonna duracoat.

The best way to tell a warped action is to simply put a bolt into it. The swede action is probably one of the smoothest mauser actions out there. It should work like butter with no sticking or difficulty. Also, always visually inspect for cracks or discoloration from previous heat treating. Aside from that, it should make a very nice sporter. Here's a great article on one a guy did: http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=news&file=article&sid=42 Pictures: http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=67 I'm currently building one myself in the orginal 6.5.

Possible - yes. Extremely difficult though. The rear screw's threads are located in the rear of the triggerguard (backwards from a mauser). So you'd have to engineer a way for the screw to anchor in a blind magazine. One day soon, I do intend to attempt the impossible & convert a mosin to a 30-06. At that time I'll attempt to convert the action to a mauser-style stagger stack, that will require milling the bottom of the receiver. I'm not sure you could do it with the x54R round. The rim makes stagger feed actions problamatic at best (though the soviets found a way with their squad level "sniper type rifles).

I think I'm going with the ak mag follower. I giv Col. mosin his due, his follower system is ingenious but bulky. I solved the problem using the original system by shortening the bottom spring. However, it's too bulky & doesn't compress enough to fit 3 round in the magwell. With the ak follower I can do a 3+0 as opposed to the 2+1 the modified original affords me. I think I'll do a thin metal cutout that slips between the mag & the receiver. The bullet is only *slightly* smaller than the follower, which is only *slightly* smaller than the magwell opening so it'll be an interesting fit. I'll post some pictures soon of the design (if it works)!

Yep, I've got this article in PDF format. His description is sketchy at best. I'm doing basically the same thing he is, making my own aluminum floorplate & replacing the triggerguard with a $3 shotgun bow I got at a gun show. From near as I can tell he relocated the pin in the original follower. I tried that, but it makes the follower protrude past the top of the magazine. I guess you could thumb-depress the follower to close the empty bolt (aka military Mauser style) but the new angle keeps it from feeding reliably as well. Cotfield may have had the same problem, he doesn't say. The AK follower works perfect, it just won't stay in the mag well. Maybe I just need to study it so I can figure a war to engineer a stop.

Here's an illustration to better show what I'm babbling about.

Well I've been taking a lot of pictures & I intended to not post until my "simple" project was complete, haha, but being a engineer I can't keep things simple so I'm gonna throw this out in the intertubes for you guys to digest... I'm always trading this & that & somewhere along the way I aquired an ATI mossy oak sporter stock for the Mosin, an ATI scope mount & a 1942 Izhevsk 91/30 that is rouuuugh, but shoots on a dime. So, I thought to myself, "self" ('cuz I always talk in the 3rd person to myself) "self, you have all the parts, why not build a simple sporter for dad's farm." All we have there right now is a norinco sks & a nice scope rifle would not be amiss. Anyway, the SIMPLE way would have been to weld an ATI style bolt, D&T, chop the barrel to 22", recrown, sand blast & then duracoat, but that would be too easy, wouldn't it!?! I decided to shorten that ugly magazine to something flush with the stock. I was hoping to take a 5+0 design & go to a 3+1 or somesuch. Now, as you all know, the mosin nagant follower is not a simple "W" style spring like most of the mauser children are. I decided my teo options would be to try to reutilize the orginal design, except I anchor it farther up to a new pinned position. This was my first idea. This worked fine, except the follower would move past the orginal position so you coulnd't close the bolt on an empty chamber. The second idea was to use the spring & follower from a WASR-3 single stack AK mag I had laying in a drawer. The follower & spring fit like a glove, except there's nothing to keep the follower from shooting up through the chamber once the final round is out. I tried cutting the spring to the correct length, but it doesn't have the tension to reliably feed the last round in that configuration. So...here's the question to the internet collective. Can you think of a way to engineer a follower that will reliably feed 3 rounds, yet stay in the magazine when the bolt is open & the gun is empty?

How much did that upper run you in cost, if you don't mind me asking? I'd love to build one in 7.62x39. I already have one in 5.45x39.

There yah go. Put it in a ATI stock, .308, duracoat it multicam pattern, hang a rail & bipod on in & call it a tactical, sniper rifle. Final price: $10,000.

What do you want? wal-mart caliber (30-06, 270, 308, 7mm-08, 243); bass pro caliber (25-06, 300 savage, 257, etc); internet/handload territory (any wildcat, 6.5x55, 7x57, etc.) There's not much you can't do with a 98, although I would stay away from magnum cartridges if this is your first time.

There's some very nice spanish 1916 complete actions for sale on gunbroker right now for less than $70. That'd be a great candidate for a 300 savage imho.

I've been a directv customer off & on for about 5 years & have nothing but good things to say. Sometimes we've paused our service for 6-9 months as we've pcs'd or I've deployed (just to break the tv habit). Other times we've signed up for a seemingly good deal from the local cable company. In the end, we always come back to direct. Recently, I returned when they offered a two year contract, free HD for life, plus a DVR all for $29 a month +taxs. My tv bill is $32.12 every month & once you have a dvr you'll never look back. I hardly ever turn on the tv looking for something to watch. Everything is prerecorded or I use the ondemand feature where you can downlaod directly to your dvr. Also, directv offers youtube & my 3yo & I watch tons of loony tunes or mickey mouse right from the internet. It's great!

Guy posted a barreled cz commercial action in 30-06 for 100 bucks on our local backpage. By the time I called a few hours later it was gone. snooze you lose!

I had a similar reclaim once. The screws engaged, but they were a little wobbly & I knew they wouldn't hold for the long term. I filled the holes with job weld, waited for it to cure, redrilled with a 7/64" bit (slightly smaller than the #31) & the ran the 6-48 tap through. A little blue loctite on there & they haven't budged in literally hundreds of rounds!

It's a 98 - I diagnosed a longer trigger/sear piece would solve everything right away, but dang if I could find one out of the 15 or so I had in my drawer that would do it. I guess I'll get going on stoning down the safety & CP. It shouldn't be much to get it. Thanks guys.

So I have a Frankenstein sporter I'm putting together. Everything is mismatched from my parts drawer. The problem I'm having is that the safety doesn't clear the cocking piece by a hundredth of a inch or two. I'm using a offset, low scope sporter safety & a single stage sporter trigger. I've tried the original safety & multiple cocking pieces, shrouds, firing pins & bolt bodies - still no change. I've done 6-8 Mauser sporters before, I've just always gone with a FN style shroud & aftermarket trigger with side safety. Can anyone clue me what I'm doing wrong?

$5 for a mauser action stripped bare is a win in my book. Sounds like yah did good!

Let me put on my mechanical engineering hat here & chime in. When we talk about how much pressure a receiver can withstand, we're talking about worst case scenarios where you have a case-head failure on the round & all of a sudden you flood the action with all the pressure that was meant to blow out the correct direction of the barrel. When people say they've never had a problem, that's because they've never had a problem. With modern ammunition & a modern barrel (which I assume they used when they changed the caliber) the chance of a catastrophic failure is probably much smaller than dying in a car wreck, however, if you DID have a failure, the action will not handle it well. The small ring doesn't have the lug strength or a blast shield on the shroud to vent the escaping gasses away from the shooter's face. I've seen a picture of a failure on M96 swede & the entire side of the action splt. Worst case, you could have lug failure on the bolt & have the bolt blow back & impale you in the head. Now, can you make the small ring safe for high pressure? No reason you can't. Firstly, install an FN style aftermarket shroud with shield like the 98 has. Next, look at any modern action & you'll notice they have a small hole(s) drilled to vent gas away from the shooter. The goal of a properly drilled vent is to keep the pressure number well below the action's rated specs so it never has a chance to fail. But like what was already mentioned, there are still plenty of 98s around.