scott63 Posted February 23, 2007 Report Share Posted February 23, 2007 Here is what I hoped would be a light tweed. The action is a 1944 K.Kale and the barrel is a 6.5X55 96 swede cut down to 24 inches. The barrel was a left over from a project for my daughter. I borrowed a lathe from an acquaintance and he helped me cut and crown it similar to how Remington does it now. I drilled and tapped it for two piece mounts, but after putting them on I think I’ll go with the one piece base. The stock was free from a friend who was tired of it taking up space. The only thing I know about the stock is that it is a fiberglass shell, is foam filled and was inletted for a sporter barrel. Because of this, there was enough room around the swede barrel to grow a potted plant. I tightly wrapped the front of the action and barrel with saran wrap and lightly sprayed it with Pam cooking oil. Then I mixed up a batch of bondo, filled in the sides of the barrel channel and tightened down the action. After the bondo set I re-shaped the barrel channel and it came out pretty good. I glass bedded the front and rear of the action. I primed the stock then painted it with textured paint. After it cured for a few days I sanded it with 400 grit paper which smoothed out the sharpness of the texture quite nicely. I installed a limbsaver grind to fit recoil pad. I contoured the trigger guard with files and it came out pretty decent. I installed a Bold trigger and a Timney safety, that I reshaped. The pics have an unblued cocking piece as I haven’t modified the blued cocking piece yet. All the metal was glass bead blasted and I blued everything except the barreled action as it was ¼ inch too long for my tank! The action was blued by a friend who blues commercially, and it came out great. The bolt was already welded for scope mounting. I tried to contour the military bolt ball a bit and it came out ok, but I’ve already posted my thoughts on that waste of time. Weight on a digital scale as pictured is 6 pounds 12 ounces, not exactly a featherweight. I learn a lot with each project, and here’s what I learned on this one: 1. Measure object to be blued prior to firing up the tanks! 2. If I’d known how much swede 96 barrels are fetching on ebay I would have sold this one and bought a nice sporter barrel in whatever caliber I wanted. 3. Don’t contour a military bolt ball, cut it off and weld on a brownells bolt handle. 4. Bondo has a thousand and one uses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
724wd Posted February 23, 2007 Report Share Posted February 23, 2007 scott, i'd say you've built a nice rifle there! and under 7 pounds... well, that's pretty good for a 24 inch barreled mauser. great job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hodgie Posted February 23, 2007 Report Share Posted February 23, 2007 nice job, that looks fantastic. i was wondering if you always blued your bolt? i never have, but it looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott63 Posted February 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2007 nice job, that looks fantastic. i was wondering if you always blued your bolt? i never have, but it looks great. Thanks for both the compliments, I've only done two rifles and I blued the bolts on both. I also satin nickel plated a Remington action, including the bolt. I masked off the bolt head and lug contacts before plating. I'm considering trying a black nickel plate, but not anytime soon. My next rifle is a swede mauser in .250 savage for my daughter. She's chosen a black synthetic stock (gasp!) so it should be pretty easy......Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzRednek Posted February 23, 2007 Report Share Posted February 23, 2007 Excellent to say the least!! You showed some real creativity with the stock. Bondo is wonderfull stuff but from the picture I can't see it. Just curious, why are you picking 250 Savage instead of 257 Bob for your daughter's project?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott63 Posted February 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2007 Excellent to say the least!! You showed some real creativity with the stock. Bondo is wonderfull stuff but from the picture I can't see it. Just curious, why are you picking 250 Savage instead of 257 Bob for your daughter's project?? Only reason for the 250 Savage is that I already have one, and all the reloading equipment for that caliber. Where I live, Northern Ca--2.5 hrs from Oregon, the deer aren't that big and the smaller calibers work well. I like everything I've read about the 257, but didn't want to start all over with the reloading aspect. The barrel channel that I filled in with the bondo came out nice, well a lot nicer than the huge gap that was there, and the bondo is very tough but easy to sand/shape..............Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott63 Posted March 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Well, I'm not disappointed with the accuracy. At 50 yards(range limit, but close to home) Winchester factory 140 grain will put three shots touching. Should end up being about an inch at 100 yards, can't wait to try some handloads. VERY pleasant to shoot, has me thinking about building a fleet of 6.5X55's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doble Troble Posted March 9, 2007 Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 Schweet! Really nice looking rifle. The only problem is that you need to move 2.6 hr North. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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