rustvyper

Yeah, that was probably confusing. I didn't really know what I was talking about here. He was refering to the FN having the H config on the inside of the receiver. I was talking about something unrelated. Namely this: Sorry for the confusion. On another note. One of my 2 belgs has the H. Odd, huh?

Especially because my understanding was most of these mauser were captured war surplus & shipped to the new state of israel in 48 & 49. The 308 rebores came after the war for independance in 48-49 from what I understand. Back then, they were happy to take whatever they could get. I'm sure some of these rifles saw some hard action. There wasn't much quarter given then.

Nope, I was worried about that as well - but I had it smeared with heat paste. He applied the welder to each hole for less than a second. The receiver was cool to touch after the welds.

If you look here. I posted about how I practically stole a 98 action with a 25-06 barrel already mated to it. The action had been miss-d&T'd & the bolt had a cruddy attempt at a sporter bolt welded on. When I tried to clean up the weld, a crack appeared so I wacked it with a rubber mallet & it came off! The whole rig had a light speckle rust to it & hadn't been touched in years according to the guy I got it from. Well, while I'm on paternity leave I thought I had better try to get this knocked out! Decisions, decisions...the best part about sporterizing! I decided to put this into a choate 98 stock with the blind bottom magazine. I could have ordered new bottom metal with it, but I thought this would be lighter. I'm going to try to make this a lighter rifle for deer & pred hunting that I can tote a distance & can take a beating. With that idea in mind, I decided to also duracoat this gun in a stainless steel. That'll keep me from having to get to involved with finishing out this metal so I can spend time with new baby girl. I also am using the b-square allen head action screws since this one didn't come with any. The safety was missing off the bolt as well, so I'm installing a bold trigger with side safety. Step one...Here it is: As you can see, holes are missaligned. A yugo captured 98. As Clemson suggested - I marked the alignment of the barrel with the receiver by lightly marking it with the dremel. The one thing this guy did right was have a gunsmith install & true the barrel. (I know, I checked!) I call this the poor LT's barrel vise. It actually works if you clamp hard enough! This weekend I took the receiver & bolt over to a buds to MIG weld. I'd prefer TIG, but he doesn't know how, & I'm trying to keep this project cheap & ain't nothing cheaper than free! Here we are all ready to go. What a gorilla weld! This is gonna take some serious filing! But he did a pretty good job with the receiver. There seems to be a bit of a divet left on one of the front holes, but I'm drilling in a different spot & it'll be covered by duracoat & the weaver mount anyway. Say what you want about duracoat, it covers a ton of mistakes! Tonight I shaped the bolt handle & cleaned up the weld. It turned out to be a good job for as nervous as my friend was. I need to finish smooth it & get all the rust off the receiver. Saturday I plan on D&T'ing remounting the barrel to the receiver & if I'm feeling really froggy, duracoat the whole deal. Total cost so far: -$45 action, bolt, barrel -$103.62 stock & screws -$38 bold trigger -$? bolt handle (I don't remember how much I paid, it was laying around.) -$16.95 duracoat ='s $203.57 so far. Can't buy a POS remington from BPS for that! I'm proud of myself so far!

Interesting! I got two Belgs. I haven't even pulled them apart yet. I did 2 then banged the **** outa my thumb, got mad & went & worked on something else. Did the bolts have the H-lugs? of course mine didn't come with bolts. I'm really gonna kick myself because I just passed on 3 really pretty commercial mauser bolt bodies for $30 each. The only catch was that it had the H-lugs & I didn't want to put the work into grinding that lug off. I wonder what kind of safety issues arise about NOT having the H-lug on the bolt? I don't wanna find out!

Well I learned a lesson - that it's better not to cheap out! my 98's came & not one came with a bolt & only 2 came with bottom metal, both stamped. One action has heavy rust. I see jb weld & duracoat in that one's future. Otherwise they all were fairly ok. I'll post pictures when I finish breaking them down. The stocks are junk. 2 of the barrels are salvagable. the others I'm taking off with a pipe wrench - they are that bad. Guess I should have got the FI's - oh well, live & learn! They'll all make great guns eventually. I had to ask myslef, "would I have paid $43 for this at a gunshow or yardsale? the answer is yes, so I still got a good deal. I'm already making up a back story for one belg that - get this - has a shoulder strap woven of baleing twine! I'm sure this puppy killed a ton of haji's off the walls of jerusalem back in 48! They sure did come from the desert though. Soon as my hands touched that cosmo I winced - bad memories! they even smell like the desert - they stink!

I agree, the value will go up - but at 17.3 million made is russia alone I'm not sure they'll ever get quite as scarce at the 03's & M1's. Not it my lifetime anyway.

Did you get the poor incompletes? I ordered 5 as well. Total cost @ $43.79 each. If they don't come with bolts though, I may wish I had done the step up & got the nicer ones. I'll post pics when I get them.

I just called & ordered 4. Apparently it's buy 4 - get one free for the month of january! Better get them quick! PM me if you want the item #'s & phone number. You'll need to have an FFL on file with them to order though.

just got my century arms flyer. They are selling K98 u-fix-em's as cheap as $49.99 for multiple makes. German, Chech, Belgian, Austrian etc. These are poor-incomplete, but I figure the barrelled action alon is worth the price! I'm gonna order 4 or so & see how they come. These are all in .308, so I assume they are IDF retreads.

Wow! Thanks for the offer. I should be able to handle it myself NP. I'm planning on making this a 2 saturday project. I figure one day to pull the barrel & get it tigged & sand blasted. Then another day to put it all together again. We'll see if I can stick to that schedule. I'll post some pictures once I get started.

Thanks Clemson. I didn't think of marking the barrel but that'll make it a lot easier to get it welded. Now I just have to find a shop in the area. Normally I'd just send it off to my brother in law, but he's in iraq right now. Actually, I don't think you are too far away from me. I drive through clemson anytime I go back to NC.

guy I work with just sold me a yugo captured m98 that his dad had tried to sporterize. The action has been miss-drilled & tapped, but he didn't drill all the way through. The charging hump has been partially ground off. & best of all there's a brand new 25-06 barrel fitted & headspaced (I checked - apparently he had an actual gunsmith do that part). Also came with a badly welded on sporter bolt handle. I actually knocked it off with a rubber mallet! But the bolt itself is good & I'll get that done right once I get the bolt cleaned up. No trigger group or bottom metal, but he did give me the orginal stock which I'll flip on ebay. Total cost? -$45!!!!! When I asked him how much he wanted he named the price & I just goggled. He said, "too much?" & I said "SOLD!" I've never really wanted a 25-06, but guess I'll have one now. I plan to tig the holes shut that the guy drilled then re-D&T. Finish the grind job on the charging hump & install a nice bold trigger with side safety, & put a commercial shroud in place of the old one...oh yeah, the safety was gone. He swore he had it, but couldn't find it so I said no big deal. Then I think I'll put it in one of the choate blind bottom stocks & duracoat the metal a nice stainless steel. See how she turns out. Shoot I woulda bought the barrel alone for $45! Brand new, only fired once by the GS who installed it. Question, I've never D&T'd a reciever that's had bad holes tigged shut, or had the barrel already installed. Do I need a plug tap to do the threads? Anyway, I'm psyched about this deal. I reckon I can knock most of this out on a saturday once I get the holes tigged.

I have a mosin nagant that I sporterized out of a 19/30 action. I cut down the barrel & recrowned to 22". The shots hold together real well for the first couple then they start scattering real bad. Any idea what the issue may be? Perhaps the crown needs to be redone? Thanks!

Well the stock was def going to be the weak part of the build. As I worked on it more & more, I realized I would never be happy with the inleting job boyd had done. It was just waaaay too bad. I now wish I had sent it back to Boyds when I got it, except it came while I was in the desert & my wife just stuck it in the workshop for a few months before I actually came home to get it. The good news is, a week ago I got a sweetheart of a deal on the exact same stock (boyds ria yugo 48) from a guy for $40. He had bought it a few years ago to do a project & had just never done it. The stock was full of cobwebs & had a little mold on it, plus it looks like he put the cosmoline covered action in it for a test fitting when he got it. So that crap had all soaked in & dried But...it fit's like a freaking glove! I was so happy when I tried it. so now I have to re-open the barrel channel & re-cut the notch for the bold safety, as well as, bed the action & cut the bolt handle notch, but it's lowered my total project cost by $40+ dollars & is going to make the rifle looks a LOT better! Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with the piece of crap I got direct from boyds. Probably destined for a truck gun? One thing boyd's is doing now, that I guess they didn't used to do, is they now pre-drill holes for the slings. But they could do away with that for all I care, & just concentrate on inletting better! I think I'll have a finished product in 2 weeks or so.

Alright, the action is blued (& soon the be waxed!). Only thing left to blue is the action screw heads & bolt-release. Per request I'm uploading several pictures. I also made a pillar for the rear action screw. The boyds hole was off-center anyway, so it really had to be done. I apparently have a lot more to remove from the barrel channel as well I thought I was pretty close, but when I put it all together it was super tight. Weaver77 is flying on my butter-knife bolt handles. I actually sent him another one to use on a project down the road. Big props to him for getting them done so quick. He said he'd have them in the mail tomorrow when the USPS opens back up. Question - what do you guys use to inlet your barrel channel? I've been using a large dowel wrapped in 60 grit, but that takes a long time!

The loose ones you can always tighten up - but if they're crooked your aim will never be true... ...wait, are we still talking about guns here?

Just like taste in women...we all have our standards!

True enough...which is why they are only $80's. Which is just fine with me. It's a decent walnut stock that requires (little) comparative work. One day I'll have a shop where I can turn my own blanks - or better yet - turn old friends onto my farm into cherished heirlooms, but that day isn't here yet!

Yeah - it looks good. I've used them before on a mosin nagant (see picture below). I was kind of dissapointed on the inletting on this one. I'd give it a B-. It's taken a lot of work to get it tight. There were a lot of uneven edge all away around the stock - both on the mag well & the barrel channel. I also had to sand the crap out of the barrel channel to get the f34 to fit. They inlet them for the military barrels. That being said, the mosin stock fit like it had been made for it. minus a little sanding in the barrel channel for glass-bedding, I had to do very little.

http://www.boydsgunstocks.com/BrowseEbus/Riaall.asp #300-950 Ria

Wow! they want $170+S&H on ebay! yick!

I'm getting there...just working on getting all the commie knicks & scratches out now. Now waiting on my bolt from weaver77 to inlet the stock & waiting on ebay for a good deal on a white-line recoil pad which I'll need to grind to fit. The gun itself is about ready to go to blue, just a bit more work. I think I'm at about 60% of the way... P.S. The silver ball in the picture magically appeared when we had those tornadoes blow through last week. Anyone want one!?

wow - have they discontinued that line? I looked on boyd's & all I saw were the rias tha were specifically inletted for the yugos. Thanks!

How difficult did you find inletting Boyd's JRS style for the yugo? I love their nutmeg style like you did. I assume you ordered a small ring & just removed the excess to make the larger chamber fit? Thanks!