After spending the better part of my spare time this winter working to restore (resurrect) a commercial FN Mauser .270 the prognosis is not too good at this point...
I hand polished the action and barrel which look great except for some tiny tiny pin hole pits around the FN cartouche which could be covered with scope mounts. The lettering is crisp, the edges are square... The bolt is excellent- super smooth and the face shows little if any wear... No problems.
The rifle was drilled and tapped for a 1 pc. mount. I don't think this was FN's practice- all I've seen have .500" rear bridge hole spacing. I think the rear hole is off center by as much as .100". My measurements could be suspect but it looks off. Naturally, I want a 2 pc. QD mounts like Talley or Warne... Could pose a problem.
The barrel was cut and roughly recrowned at 23.5" and the silver soldered factory ramp was removed. The area polished up well but will definitely have to be recrowned- I have the 11 degree crown cutter and I will get a .270 pilot . Minor problem with solution at hand.
I did a preliminary bore inspection before I started working and it seemed dirty but smooth. I ran a couple patches of Shooters Choice down the bore and they came out dirty but not too bad- except they kept coming out dirty. I got tough and ran an old .22 brush soaked with Sweets 7.62 solvent and let it sit for a few minutes and followed with a patch- the patch came out like a blue ink pen burst in the barrel...
Several sessions with the Sweets yielded a mirror bright bore when examined from the breech. From the muzzle, the grooves have some crispy frost "spots" and the lands are clean... I kept scrubbing hoping they would go away... I suspect I know why the rifle was cut and crowned... Heavy Frost at the muzzle- big problem.
I had big plans for this barrelled action! I was going to set it up as a British Express Style Rifle- a nice reddish Bastogne stock with short forend and ebony tip, pancake cheekpiece, red rubber recoil pad, barrel band swivel and front sight and a Marbles #20 rear (fits the step contour perfect) all with a nice rust blue...
So, am I beating a dead horse? Should I have just bought a plastic .270 Rem 700 ADL at MalMart and forgot about it? I love Mausers though- especially the FNs... I really don't want to rebarrel the gun as it would lose some appeal for me. I could cut off another 1" of barrel- the frost seems to be heaviest at the muzzle? I could TIG the hole in the rear bridge and redrill for .500" mount if I had a TIG welder? I could drill one more hole .500" from the other and hope the mounts align? I could not worry about the frost- hey it's going to be a fair weather hunting rifle, right? But I do want SOME accuracy... Or am I creating a very pretty fairly expensive trunk gun for shooting rocks at 50 yards???
Well, that was a long post. I guess I had to vent. Gunsmithing is tough-- I don't know how you guys do it for a living...
Any thoughts, inspiration or solutions to the above dilemmas would be appreciated...
I hand polished the action and barrel which look great except for some tiny tiny pin hole pits around the FN cartouche which could be covered with scope mounts. The lettering is crisp, the edges are square... The bolt is excellent- super smooth and the face shows little if any wear... No problems.
The rifle was drilled and tapped for a 1 pc. mount. I don't think this was FN's practice- all I've seen have .500" rear bridge hole spacing. I think the rear hole is off center by as much as .100". My measurements could be suspect but it looks off. Naturally, I want a 2 pc. QD mounts like Talley or Warne... Could pose a problem.
The barrel was cut and roughly recrowned at 23.5" and the silver soldered factory ramp was removed. The area polished up well but will definitely have to be recrowned- I have the 11 degree crown cutter and I will get a .270 pilot . Minor problem with solution at hand.
I did a preliminary bore inspection before I started working and it seemed dirty but smooth. I ran a couple patches of Shooters Choice down the bore and they came out dirty but not too bad- except they kept coming out dirty. I got tough and ran an old .22 brush soaked with Sweets 7.62 solvent and let it sit for a few minutes and followed with a patch- the patch came out like a blue ink pen burst in the barrel...
Several sessions with the Sweets yielded a mirror bright bore when examined from the breech. From the muzzle, the grooves have some crispy frost "spots" and the lands are clean... I kept scrubbing hoping they would go away... I suspect I know why the rifle was cut and crowned... Heavy Frost at the muzzle- big problem.
I had big plans for this barrelled action! I was going to set it up as a British Express Style Rifle- a nice reddish Bastogne stock with short forend and ebony tip, pancake cheekpiece, red rubber recoil pad, barrel band swivel and front sight and a Marbles #20 rear (fits the step contour perfect) all with a nice rust blue...
So, am I beating a dead horse? Should I have just bought a plastic .270 Rem 700 ADL at MalMart and forgot about it? I love Mausers though- especially the FNs... I really don't want to rebarrel the gun as it would lose some appeal for me. I could cut off another 1" of barrel- the frost seems to be heaviest at the muzzle? I could TIG the hole in the rear bridge and redrill for .500" mount if I had a TIG welder? I could drill one more hole .500" from the other and hope the mounts align? I could not worry about the frost- hey it's going to be a fair weather hunting rifle, right? But I do want SOME accuracy... Or am I creating a very pretty fairly expensive trunk gun for shooting rocks at 50 yards???
Well, that was a long post. I guess I had to vent. Gunsmithing is tough-- I don't know how you guys do it for a living...
Any thoughts, inspiration or solutions to the above dilemmas would be appreciated...
