scott63 Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 Here’s the story on this rifle: I was talking to a coworker about hunting and guns when he asked me if I had ever heard of the 6.5X55 cartridge. I told him that I owned two Swedish mausers that are chambered for that same cartridge and that I reload the ammo. He then told me that he has a rifle in that caliber that I can have. He tells me that several years ago he had a swede mauser rebarreled with a Hart 18.5 inch barrel for his girlfriend for a deer rifle. They broke up and he never finished the rifle, so I could have it. It was drilled and tapped, headspaced, and the bolt had been re-welded but not finished, and it was in a cut down junker stock. I finished the file work on the bolt and prefer a straighter bolt, but couldn’t do much about the sweep since that was done. I narrowed the trigger guard, draw filed the guard metal to clean it up and installed a low safety. I bought a semi finished stock and inletted it and glass bedded it. Finish is with an oil finish topped off with lin-speed. I don’t have the bolt stop in, I’m doing something a little different with that and will show that in a week or so. I was expecting 2 inch groups with this gun and was very happy to get honest 1-1.25 inch groups with nosler 140 gr. partitions at about 2500 fps. At first I just painted the barrel to protect it and took two nice mule deer with it. At any range under 300 yards I am very confident of this rifle/cartridge abilities. After owning this rifle for several years I finally decided to bead blast and re-blue this rifle and did just that the other day with oxynate 7. This and another rifle (not yet reassembled) was my first attempt at the caustic salt bluing method. I honestly doubt if I will try this again, it just isn’t worth the trouble. I will probably try another method next, but this method is really a pain unless you were doing this full time with numerous rifles at a time. Don’t get me wrong, this was a great learning experience, just now that I’ve done it I’m ready to try other methods. No, unfortunately, my coworker has no more guns he wants to give away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemson Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 And about how much money do you reckon you have in that "Free" Swede now? Nice work! Clemson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doble Troble Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 Sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott63 Posted February 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 And about how much money do you reckon you have in that "Free" Swede now? Nice work! Clemson About 20 bucks for the safety, and when I bought the stock I believe it was 80.00. The bluing process took 5 years off my life, so that was the expensive part. Salts and tanks were a gift from a friend who upgraded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
724wd Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 i REALLY like how sharp you kept all the lines on the gun! fantastic! the metal looks pristine! and for FREE?! we all hate you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott63 Posted February 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 i REALLY like how sharp you kept all the lines on the gun! fantastic! the metal looks pristine! and for FREE?! we all hate you. Thank you for the compliments, the metal came out pretty good for a newbie with files. I am looking forward to getting better. Every step was a learning process and I think sucessive projects will get better. I have a twede that I blued all the small metal, had to have the barreled action blued by a friend cause my tanks were 1/4 inch too short! Believe me, there was no small amount of cussin going on when that problem materialized. That project will be posted next, probably be at least a week. There were several lessons learned on that project too.......Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken98k Posted February 3, 2007 Report Share Posted February 3, 2007 Looks very good. I'm really impressed with your blue job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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