drgoose

Hello everyone, I have been pretty busy lately but I am starting to plan my next build which will happen over the christmas vacation. Here is a list of stuff that I am planning on using. I want to end up with a nice range/target gun. I am debating if I really need to have the three position safety, please give me your opinion on the current components. I will be using a K98 byf 44 action. -Shilen Match Grade Barrel Mauser Series 3 308 Winchester #7 Contour 1 in 10" Twist 26" Chrome Moly in the White Product #: 641438. -Bell and Carlson Medalist Varmint/Tactical Rifle Stock Mauser 98 with Aluminum Bedding Block System Varmint Barrel Channel Synthetic Black -Timney Sportsman Rifle Trigger Mauser 98 without Safety 2 to 4 lb Blue -Dakota Mauser 98 Bolt Shroud with 3 Position Safety Steel in the White -Weaver Grand Slam Rifle Scope 6-20x 40mm Adjustable Objective Fine Crosshair Dot Reticle Matte -Leupold 1-Piece Standard Scope Base Mauser 98 Gloss

what brand of stock is that?

Timeny trigger installed and WOW what a difference. Money well spent.

So here it is. Took it to the range today it shot some fairly decent groups. Still has the stock military trigger. A timney is on its way.

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted something. I have not had much time to work on my little projects lately but this weekend I finally got to it. Here is a picture of my almost completed K98 action on a featherweight stock and an F54 308 Adams and Bennett Barrel. This rifle still needs to be chambered but that will be for next week (the reamer got mailed to the wrong address by 4D). With this rifle I did my first bedding job and my first durabake finish. The durabake was surprisingly easy to use but I failed to listen to the warings about not baking it in your oven unless your wife is going to be at least 4 hours away from the house but the lashings were not that many.

As a new memeber I would like to contribute to the community. Is there a list of reamers that are already in existence. I doubt that contributting a 308 win reamer would help a lot. Is there a particular reamer that would be a good contribution?

So I tried the 85 grains and either I found a good load or I am the victim of randomness. I think I will try to develop a load around the 85 gr SMK with 45 gr of Varget. The 140 Cor-Lokt I guess could work as a hunting round.

So I loaded a bunch of 123 gr with Varget and no luck. Will try 85 gr tomorrow.

Thank you

So yesterday after cold bluing the Swedish Mauser I put on a different scope. It was a Bushnell banner and boresighted it. Loaded up a bunch or rounds. I loaded 142 gr SMK , 123 gr SMK and 85 gr sierra varminters which is what I found at the local gunshop. Went to the range this morning and after sighting the rifle at 25 yrds took the target to 100. I fired the 142 gr first AND IT STILL SHOT LIKE A SHOTGUN Needless to say I was quite dissapointed but then I fired the 123 gr rounds. It looked much more promising. The 85 gr look even more promising. The barrel is SOOO temperature sensitive, but I guess I will just live with it.

The cold blue came in a kit with a degreaser and a rust and blue remover. Pretty easy.

So today I cold blued the trigger guard and the reciever of the swedish mauser using Casey's Super Blue. I think I am quite happy with the result. Here are some pictures. Before After

My goals with this particular rifle were to learn how to sporterize a mauser. Since I am not mechanically inclined, so far so good. Learned how to dissasamble the thing, forge the bolt down, drill and tap the action, remove a barrel, hand ream a barrel, bed an action and now in the process of cold bluing the thing. So far the goals have been achieved even if it end up shooting like a shotgun. I really appreciate everyones advice, this has turned out to be quite a fun endeavor.

Yes oxy.

OK so I pulled off the barrel from the swedish mauser and put on a "Adams & Bennett Barrel Mauser Series 2 6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser F14 Contour 1 in 9" Twist 21" Chrome Moly in the White" and hand reamed the chamber. I had to open up the channel on the ramline stock and it is now free floated all the way up to the reciever. I took it to the range today and with some Privi ammo that I had the thing shoots 3 inch groups at best. I will try to shoot of some sand bags tomorrow but I don't think that the stock is touching where the tripod is attached. I don't know where to start. Here are my options. 1)Handload a bunch of rounds with different powder charges using the bullets I have in hand. (Varget and Sierra Match Kings 142 grs) 2)Handload a bunch of rounds with different bullet weights 3)Rebed the action and the barrel channel since it has been pointed out that ramline stocks suck. 4)Get different stock (Boyds). Since I don't hunt I had never had a rifle with this kind of barrel profile (and probably never will again), man that thing gets HOT fast. 5 rounds into it and you can't hold the barrel. Any suggestions?

So I got my rented reamer from 4D rentals (extraordinarily good customer service) and I put on my Adams and Bennet 6.5x55 barrel on my nice K 98 action. Mount the action on an action holding fixture, mount the reamer on a socket extension and using some of brownells cutting oil I got down to reaming the chamber. Reamed a little, cleaned, checked with go gauge and repeat until it was about to close and then it hit me, I was putting the bolt in with the EXTRACTOR. Needles to say I took off the extractor and the bolt slammed on the go gauge and on the NO go gauge so now I have to find someone with a lathe that can shave off I guess aprox 0.010 off the barrel. So after feeling majorly stupid I got to the swedish mauser that I am working on and took of the original barrel and replaced it with another Adams and Bennet 6.5x55 and this time reamed it without the extractor. I took it to the range and it functioned well, no markings on the case, no difficulty ejecting the cases so I gues I JUST REAMED MY FIRST BARRELL. :)

It was probably not a great idea that the first thing I ever tried to weld was a bolt handle but anyway. It did not work well, but anyway. I had to try, I guess I'll have to learn on some scrap pieces of steel. I don;t think I was using a big enough tip because I was not able to get a "puddle". When I tried it on some thinner pieces of steel I was able to get the "puddle". In the mean time, I will take the bolt and bolt handle mounted on a jig to the welding shop that is a couple of blocks away from my house.

OK, so over the weekend I did my first bolt bending. I used bronwell's forging blocks and heat sink, brownell's heat pase and a Harbor Freight oxyacetylen torch as instructed. On my first attempt apparently I used WAY TO MUCH heat paste, not that it hurt but apparently just a waste and I was very concerned about not getting the root of the bolt to hot. Little did I know that THAT WAS EXACTLY what I needed to get hot, so after bending, the bolt obviously did not clear the scope. It looked really nice but did not work. so after speaking with Tanglewood, I went back to the forging blocks, with less paste and after grinding the root round. This time it came out much better. Another lesson learned is that I should do this with the scope installed and check the clearance of the bolt handle before starting to file and polish the bolt. (I learned that the hard way)

Could I drill one or two holes through the stock from one side to the other and cement or acraglass a wooden dowell through them?

I pulled this stock of a Turk on which I am working. I have no interest on using but since I have it I might as well learn something useful on it. I will eventually sand it and refinish it just for the practice and will probably bed and action on it for the same purpose but I am interested in finding out how to deal with the crack that is running longitudinally from the trigger hole through the tang. Im thinking opening up the crack a little and pouring either cyanoacrylate or acra glass. Thanks drgoose.

And some more pictures

And here is today's work. First I bent the bolt. I don't think that the angle is going to work out, I think I left too much of the root unbent but I was really worried about not heating up the root of the bolt too much. I then dressed the bolt first with a file and then with coarse-medium-fine emory cloth and then with 320 grit paper. Today I also got my barrel from midway usa for the other swedish mauser and I placed it on the turk, does anyone make short chambered barrels that will not leave the big step off for the turk? Hopefully more progress tomorrow. Base and rings should be here so I will find out if the bolt clears the scope or is it going to be back to the forging blocks. I think I am going to try welding the next bolt.

And away goes the hump!!! I just filed it away.

Ok, this is my first official project that I am doing by myself, my previous one was done at a gunsmiths under his tutelage. I got this k.kale turkish in the mail a couple of days ago, yesterday I took it apart and cleaned it. It has a smooth bore and the stock has a large longitudinal crack at the tang. I am keeping both of them to learn other skills on them but that will be the subject of a future post. So because my bench is not quite sturdy enough and I have a small trailer parked outside my house, I drilled two holes into the trailer and bolted the barrel vise to it. It took me three tries to get the barrel off the dang thing. I had read how to do this several times on the internet and no where did the mention that YOU HAVE TO USE A SMALL ENOUGH HOLE IN THE OAK BLOCKS SO THAT AFTER TIGHTENING THEM BOTH HALFS DONT TOUCH EACH OTHER, or else you are not increasing the pressure on the barrel. It sounds pretty obvious but I just could not understand why the dang thing kept turning. Eventually I got the stupid thing off. I then put the action on a vise and I filed off the barrel shroud. So far I am pretty pleased with myself. :D

So I put the action back in the original stock and after inletting the trigger and the bolt I went to the range. I fired 5 groups at 100 yards with the same point of aim (center of diamond) and again the groups basically walked "down" aproximatedly 3-4 inches between the first and last target. I think I am going to pull the barrel and put a new one. (The added benefit is that it will be the first barrel I hand chamber). After I measured the targets they are all around 1.2 MOA which I guess is not bad for the original barrel with a military trigger, but still the walking of the groups is VERY annoying.