Turked Mauser (1954 Atf) Build

[diggerdanh]

Gents, for your amusement are pics and description of my second custom Mauser project. My first build was nothing more than adding some parts and a Swede barrel to an 1894 Brazilian receiver and dropping it in a stock. This one was much more involved including lots of metal prep.

 

To keep it fairly simple the inspiration for the build was classic 50's/60's sporter look.

 

This rifle started out as a Gew 98 and was reworked by the Turks in 1954. It is marked "ATF 1954" on the ring and "98. Th." on the left side rail. I got it from AIM Surplus several years ago when they were selling fair/good Turk mausers for $39.99 each. It is a large ring receiver and has a large ring barrel. It did have the handguard lip cut in the receiver like other Turk reworks.

 

The barrel was in good shape so I just took off the sights, cut it down to 24", and recrowned it. The receiver was in good shape, but a little rough so it required quite a bit of filing and stoning to clean it up.

 

The stock is used stock I bought from Ebay cheap. The seller said it was for a small ring so I thought I'd stash it away for a couple of 7x57 Chileno projects. When I got it I realized it was a large ring stock but it was very slim. I figured it would go well with this project. It is nice and slim and I like the look, but it was so slim that the trigger guard is a little proud at the rear of the magazine box and I had to slim down the tang quite a bit to get it to sit fairly flush. The stock finish is nice, but I haven't spent a ton of work on it. I just cleaned it up a bit, applied a little stain and a couple of coats of tung oil. It looks good enough for a hunting rifle, though I'll probably add a couple more coats of tung oil over time.

 

Parts include Timney Buehler style safety, Timney trigger, Wolf springs, Brownell's extended floorplate release, Redfield 1-pc base, and Millet rings. Pretty standard stuff. I bought the forged bolt off one of the auction sites. It's topped with an early 70's Japan-made 3-9x40 Tasco scope that looks brand new and looks to have been never mounted on anything until now.

 

The finish is Duracoat "gun blue". I really liked the entire duracoat experience. Finish looks great and it was a piece of cake to spray. From start to finish it only took about 3 hours to apply and that's counting time for sandblasting, other prep and cleanup. The "gun blue" looks fine on this rifle but I'd probably stick to black or flat black for the next couple of projects I have planned. All external parts except for the extractor spring and the safety were sprayed with Duracoat. The safety had a decent blue finish and I decided to leave it like that. The extractor spring and the bolt are polished. I may jewel both once I get all the parts and pieces for bolt jeweling ordered.

 

I did all the work myself except for forging the bolt, which really just means that I pulled the barrel, D&T'd for the scope, and did a lot of filing, stoning, sanding, etc.

 

Things I don't like about it: it doesn't close on an 8x57 go gage (discussed in another thread) so I'll probably clean up the chamber with a reamer before I shoot it. From now on I will always measure headspace on a mauser rifle before I start tearing it apart if I plan on using the original barrel for the build. As mentioned above, the stock is a little too slim and the fit in the magazine area and tang were not great. I probably could have cut down the top of the trigger guard a bit to get a better fit but I was hesitant to screw it up just so it would look better in a $40 stock. The barrel rides a little high, too. The stock was cut for and originally had a sporter barrel in it so there are some big gaps in some places with the military barrel. The stock also had a lot of bedding already in place for its previous action so I had to cut that out and do a lot of bedding myself to fit mine. Looking back I probably would have been better off spending another $50-60 on a Boyds or Richards stock and saved myself a lot of time and it probably would have ended up with a better end result.

 

For the most part, other than the minor gripes mentioned above, I am pleased with the end result, especially for my second build. And it's definitely a budget build - even though I replaced safety, trigger, springs, etc. I have less than $250 total in her including mount, rings, and scope. I think it looks like a classic sporter. I'll like it a lot better if it's a shooter.

 

Okay, enough babbling. Here's the pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gun nutty]

Very nice looking rifle. The stock looks nice to me. That appears to be a nice, "clean" walnut stock with very uniform grain (at least forward of the wrist). I don't think it looks too slim.

[diggerdanh]

Thanks, gun nutty.

 

It really is a beautiful piece of wood. Funny you mentioned about the front half having very uniform grain. I had not thought about it too much but the area forward of the wrist almost looks like completely different piece of wood than the buttstock area. The buttstock area has tons of figure and I didn't get a great picture of it but the buttstock has a lot of nice tiger striping, too.

 

The profile is great, very light and easy to handle. I haven't weighed her yet, I'll have to do that.

 

I wanted to mention that the second pic makes the duracoat look an electric blue color - it is definitely not that blue. Must just be a lighting trick. It's a dark, dark blue. Some of the pictures make it look black and it's not that dark, but it's definitely darker than the color in that second pic.

 

 

[diggerdanh]

Thanks, guys (Clemson said it was a nice looking rifle on another thread). The pictures make it look better that it is, but like I said I'm pleased and I'm not the kind of guy who can't take a compliment . I consider it an honor and am extremely proud to have guys like you "nod and approve". I consider everyone here to be my peers, mentors, and heroes.

 

I've been a member and avid reader of this board and its predecessor for a long, long time. It's been great watching everyone's builds get better and better as time has passed. I see lots of guys write posts saying "Thanks guys, I couldn't have done it without this board and your help". Now it's my turn. I don't want to get too sappy, but truly I never in a million years thought I could have built my own custom rifle with just a few hand tools, some custom tooling, a drill press and a small air compressor (for sandblasting mostly). I'm amazed at what a guy like myself can do with a small budget and good instruction. It it wasn't for all your answers, tutorials (on things like how to file and stone a receiver, how to bed a stock, how to finish a stock, how to break loose a really tight barrel, etc), and inspiration in the form of pictures of your own guns I would have never had the balls to take up a hobby like this or keep pressing on when things seem too difficult. The shared experiences increases the collective skill. It's amazing how I can remember how to do something like I'd done it myself in the past though I had only read about it here on this site. Your wisdom, patience, and friendliness is beyond reproach and much appreciated.

 

Thanks again.

 

 

[Spiris]

That's a fine looking rifle diggerdanh. It's a clean looking build, and a source of pride, I'm sure.

 

I also started out by acquiring a few K.Kale Turks when they were cheap, and was fortunate to get some fine examples of those actions to work with.

 

I took it a little further than you and bought a mini-lathe and a few Remington take-off barrels and fit those barrels to the actions myself. I did some dealing for Mauser parts back when ebay still allowed it, including the barrels and altered bolts.

 

I too learned a lot about sporterizing at this site. A great bunch of guys here and a wealth of information given freely.

 

 

Spiris

[Brenden]

Thats a good looking gun. Stock is very nice, i noticed the grain diffrence between the butstock and forend, thats pretty cool. You did well and it looks good. Alot of what mine looks like, the early sporterization. Gotta love that era. Well done.

 

Brenden