Ron J

I know everyone here was wondering this. Today is the 111th anniversary of the first commision testing of the 1898 Mauser. I know, big weeny. But it got me thinking. 111 years ago they were testing something that yet today, we are still fascinated with just as it was. Sure we clean, polish and alter somewhat, but we admire the design more than any of the others. I recently saw a Holland & Holland catalog. Their "repeating rifle", as they call it, "is based on the original Mauser design with refinements". In the picture was a beautiful rifle - drop dead gorgeous. It had a Mauser action. It had a thumb slot for crying out loud. They used an ex military receiver for a rifle that cost almost as much as my house. Are they being cheap? No. They are using what they feel is the best. I'm amazed at what the minds of some came up with 100 years ago. More so than new modern "break-throughs". Just my random thoughts. Walnut

Can't beat this place - thanks guys. Ron

Led and being followed grandly.

Bob. I don't shoot or load .308, but heres my logic. I assume you are thinking about volume of case changing with bullet depth and perhaps pressure variations resulting from this. I personally ignore cannelures except in magnum handguns where a tight crimp is needed to ignite some slow powders like H-110 or WW-296. With rifles I use a Stoney Point gage set and a dial caliper. I seat the bullets to .015"-.020" from the lands max. (Some later Rugers have so much freebore, if you try to hit the lands, it won't fit in the magazine!) If I feel a crimp is called for I use the lee factory crimp die. Hope this helps.

LL You're a far cry better than I with checkering. Monte Kennedys book speaks well about patterns. You kept a simple pattern and did it well. Far better than a decorative one that's too difficult to do well, especially when it's not a persons routine. You don't jump over your lines like I do. That's when it gets fugly.

Congrats!!!!!!!!!! That's a pretty good balance. Plus she's got three older brothers to keep things in check. Good luck all the way.

I understand all of your explanations. The question was hypothetical. It doesn't concern the Peruvian I recently bought that shows set back. That one will be cleaned - recarburized and then a new barrel installed. (no need to realign anything or shorten thread tenon) I was wondering about something like my Higgins. I have not checked it for set-back or put head space gages in it yet. However, if it were in need of this and I wanted to salvage recvr and barrel with sights, then I see the only way as going the .083". I understand also that .083 may not be the final number - other factors will influence. I guess I could go approx 1/2 turn assuming reattaching the sights and restamping any numbers. Ron

I'm pretty sure this has been gone over before, but here goes. Lets assume one has a commercial Mauser that has developed set-back. Touching up both faces on the barrel and re-chambering / re-heat treat would be the repair. But if it has iron sights and they are to be kept, can one complete revolution be removed safely? That seems like alot seeing as you lose one whole thread. Walnut

LL, Both are cool. But that stock on the Siamese is to die for. What a beautiful pc of wood. Great lines / contours, also. That's one of those you can spot 3 tables over at a gun show. Walnut

In October one of our rodent control cats at work had 5 kittens. 1 died and an adult male killed another. So I put the 3 in a large box, showed mom where I hid them and we kinda cared for them along with her. A guy took one at Thanksgiving for his sister and I thought, what the heck. Our dog is older and my wife likes cats. This will be a breeze. I've learned quite a bit in 4 months. Week 1) Crash course in the life cycle and extermination of fleas. Litter box training (I thought they just knew this) and why you don't change food brands overnight. They can't figure out the litter box if they can't get there fast enough! I looked like inspector gadget carrying scrub brushes, buckets of water, sprays and all else for about 6 days. Stuff for worms, mites and on and on. Okay they seem fine. Week 2+3) Visits to the vet for tests and vaccinations. $$$$ Week 4) More vaccinations and an appointment in a couple months for fixing - they are both females. $$$$ We named them Lucky (black one) and Trixy. The black one was the runt in the litter, but that has all changed. She follows me everywhere and has been into everything. She gets herself locked in the attic, kitchen cabinets, reloading room...etc. Yesterday she took a 5 minute ride in the dryer. If I wouldn't of heard the thumping she'd be a has been. So, old sayings do have meaning. Cats do have 9 lives. Curiosity will be the death of Lucky I'm sure. And you can scare the Sh&t out of a cat. (the dryer incident). Oh the gray one watches TV - likes the Steelers. [attach ment=1209:Trixy_3_22_09.JPG]

Very nice job, Brendan. You gotta bring it to Rods for the roast. It is well thought out to make the right choices about what you wanted to do yourself. So the things you did, you did well, because you could. I also want to weld a handle someday, but I'll practice on a lot of scrap before I ruin a bolt. I think that's the reason your "first" does not look like a first. Walnut

I like chicken...but pork over smokin apple wood for 5 hrs? That's a big chunk of candy. Sauce? Sure. A chunk of that pork in one hand and a glass of sauce from Munich in the other! Nice job my friend.

Make it a good one.

Looks good from here! What kind of wood and how long did it smoke? Man I haven't done that in a long time - should do somemore.

Bob, here is the Ottmar stock I was refering to. Our scanner is lousy with photos, but I think you can see it. I'm not a schnabel freak, but like them on a rifle where they belong. My .257 will be all American sporter style, the FN European and the Rigby British. I like them all! Contrasting walnut is cool especially if you can find some with some figure. Tough. Maybe Woodcraft. The have spindle turning blanks and chunks for bowls that are sometimes sharp. Ottmar_stock.pdf

Exactly like that. Yes the screw hole. A true walnut plug as opposed to a section of dowel that will show end grain, may be the easiest to hide. I'm going to do something like this with the stock that is on the Peruvian FN I recently bought. Another option is something I saw in Steven Dodd Hughes book, Custom Rifles in black and white. There is a beautiful German style custom in there by Maurice Ottmar. He put what is described as a 'bag" grip. It's more rounded (spherical) than the shotguns you posted. It has a contrasting wood section at the very bottom of the sphere, very small just the tip. I think it's sharp. I will try to scan the picture in and post it. It's not real noticeable in black and white, but you should be able to get the idea. I'm going to use a pc of Ebony if I go black buttpad and Paduk if I go red. Oh I almost forgot. Those are some beautiful shotguns - especially #5. Wow.

Everything you want to do seems like just what this stock needs. It's a blessing when there's too much wood. Looks like it'll be a cool project. How about a Paduk grip cap if you go with a red pad? Maybe not traditional enough? Maybe a ball grip and no cap. I'm wanting to do that with my next one. That may help with opening up the grip also.

Thanks. It makes sense to me now. I see it as the group of true small rings, small thds non 98 style recvrs (94's, 95's, 96's and the like). Then the std 98 large ring, large thds (VZ-24 style) and this oddball group in between that have small rings, some large thd - some small thd, but never the less styled as a 98, meaning cock on open, large 98 style shroud and so on. We 're these a design between the smalls and standards or were they made that way specifically?

Somethin tells me not just anyone's grabbin that ball!

I'm confused as usual. Are there small ring (body, not threads) 98's with a step on the side rail?

Another thing that worked for us is sour apple. They sell it in a spray. Not quite sure how you would do an island, but maybe around the house. It stopped our Brittany from tearing apart our live Christmas trees.

Our Brittany has eaten or chewed just about everything imaginable. Ate the heads off a book of matches, chewed through Bic lighters, earings, batteries...all kinds of odds and ends. The worst was when I found a splintered up CD. The next day there were pretty long slivers of silver and blue plastic in her poop. The pieces must have turned just right because that would have done her in. I think Brittany's were originally bred with some goat in them!

Bob, the cross pins in it now are .500" ebony caps over a .375 dowel. Crossbolts have .437 dia heads. There also isn't much meat to have the head and a cap within the sides. This assumes I understand what you're saying. I like the block in a mortise idea myself, but there will be alot of smallish sections. The cross dowel is not right behind the action lug either, like it should be. It's back a little so there's another thin section that will get sandwiched where the pounding is the greatest. Keep in mind this is what my mind is thinking - I haven't done this before. LL - It is in fact a 30-06. It's one of those FN's that was barreled by High Standard and sold through Sears under the JC Higgins name. Thanks for the input so far, guys.

I finally got around to working on the Higgins stock. The wood under the action is broken and oil soaked. Someone put a 3/8 dowel through it to help, but the real problem was incorrect inletting. Anyway, I'm taking out much of this wood to repair it. It will be hollowed top to bottom and all the way back to the mag box once everything thats bad is removed. The question: Should I try to make a wood replacement and epoxy it in? It will end up all small sections with not much "hold" to the original stock. or: Leave the dowel, clean around it and fill with epoxy. This will need to be done in steps creating dams along the way. What do you guys think? Also I'm thinking the devcon steel putty is the ticket here. Is there a specific number for this one? Devcon has many. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Ron

Vlad, would it be too much trouble to get a couple more pics of the bolt handle. I've wanted to make one of those for a while and every time I see one it's different. At least this one is Oberndorf. I've wanted to do something up in that flavor since Don posted his build and Mike put some of his pics on. And yes, that is beautiful. I love European and British styles. Thanks, Ron