large ring mauser project

A

alexander hamilton

New member
i have 2 large ring mausers. i thought i would keep one original and "sporterize" the other. i am an experienced engine builder with little to zero gunsmithing experience. just how hard is it to rechamber and rebarrel a mauser. i am also wondering if anyone has experience with the advanced technology stock? i am just wondering how solid a scope mount could be if its on the stock instead of the reciever. any opinions? i am kind of envisioning a .243 varmint gun coming from all of this.
 
info for you

I would think that if you are a mechanic, it wouldn't be too hard for you to finish chambering a short chambered barrel for your Mauser. A tap wrench to hold the reamer and the finishing reamer of the caliber you want along with a barrel vise and a receiver wrench with some antisieze compound will get the job done rather quickly for you.

You can rent the reamer from several places but I like to use these folks:

http://www.reamerrentals.com/chamber_reamers.htm

As far as the stock you selected, if you are going to be using a good stock, why not go ahead and get a decent stock and mount your scope base to the top of the receiver, I think you will be much happier this way. The one you asked about I have not seen personally, but if the stock is made of wood, I know the scope mount cannot be very sturdy, even if it is a fiberglass stock as well.

You can use something along the lines as the Wheeler scope mounting jig that you can get from MidwayUSA, or if you have access to a mill and a edge finder and a couple of good drills and taps of the size you choose, 6x48 or 8x40, you should be able to drill it and tap it as well.

I have to warn you though before you get started, it can get expensive tooling up to do this for only one rifle. If I was you and was not going to be doing this on a regular basis, I would see what your local gunsmith would charge you to do the work for you. A good barrel vise and action wrench can be made rather easily, but by the time you add your labor and the materials to build them or the cost to buy them plus rent or buy the chambering reamer plus the headspace guauges, you can normally have it done much cheaper. Best of luck with it whatever you decide to do with it.
 
A large part of the fun is doing it yourself. I bought Wheeler jig, etc. Only used once. Be sure to drill scope mountiing holes before the barrel is added. You avoid hole in chamber for sure. Have fun!! daleltaylor@att.net
 
Last edited:
I've never run into a stock mounted scope, but I doubt there is any way to make it as repeatable as either a barrel mounted (scout) or a receiver mounted (conventional) scope. In either of the latter cases, should the action shift in the stock, the scope will go with it, maintaining relative alignment to the bore. In the case of the scope on the stock, unless it is linked by metal parts in the stock, you are asking too significantly dissimilar materals plus bedding compound to maintain that alignment. My concern would be shift due to heating causing the different materials to expand at unacceptably different rates. But, as I say, I haven't actually tried this.

Get Jerry Kuhnhausen's book, The Mauser Bolt Actions, a Shop Manual, and read it before proceeding.

Nick
 
thanks for the replies fellas. all of what you have said has basically reinforced my thoughts on this. im not sure about rechambering but i think doing the scope mount is in the near future. this may be beyond the scope of this post(pun intended), but do you fellas have an opinion on 1 piece, 2 piece, weaver, picatinny, etc. mounts? btw, i successfully completed a slight smoothening of the trigger on the aforementioned mauser. i found that the triggers contact surface on the reciever must have been milled by one very dull mill. it took about 2 hours of sanding and polishing(by hand) to smooth it out.
 
mauser project

Dear Sir:
Congratulations on your moxie!
By all means use a good stock - Boyd makes an excellent laminated stock that will be beautiful and not warp to change point of impact.
Being a mechanic I'd suggest you use the Redfield one piece base so no alteration of the rear of action needs to be done (two holes in front, one in the rear)
You can either cut the existing bolt handle down and weld or get a Brownells bolt handle and weld it on. Not to be self serving but you can find my Mauser instructions somewhere on the forum. You'll need to search.
douglas barrels in Charleston W Va can furnish you an FTC bbl that is fully chambered - all you need to do is some measuring and get your headspace figures and have a friend with a good lathe to take some off the breech.
What kind of Mauser is it - Turkish or VZ24, or what?
I'll try to find my article - it will give you a running start.
Happy times Harry B.
 
thanks for the input!
the mauser i am planning to "hook up" is a yugo m-48. the one i am keeping original is a german pre-war. i really want to add a vz-24 to my little collection though. i will check out the redfield one piece scope base and the barrell from douglas barrells. on the bolt handle, i was under the impression that only the straight bolts had to be modified/replaced. mine is bent. however, i guess its not quite as bent as some sporter types.
 
Mauser project:

Alexander Hamilton:
Any help you need on your Mauser project just post it and we'll help.
I have a Yugo in the corner - you're right to save the VZ24 it's the best action but the Yugo is OK!
You can make you're own action wrench - get an 1 1/2 square bar, get a 3/8" rod and heat and bend around an 1.400" stock - mark the holes on the bar and drill (threaded rod) and use the flat on the bottom of reciever - put bolt in and unscrew bbl. If bbl is no good use pipe wrench on the bbl!!
I'd still true up face of action.
Set headspace with loaded factory Federal premium ammo - you just want to feel the bolt close on the loaded round.
Doc and I are building 9.3X64s. on vz24 and Turkish actions!
Douglas will fit your bbl for a nominal fee - be extremely careful of the "experts." An "ex" is a has been and a "spert" is a drip under pressure!
Some will tell you to have the safety lug to make contack - DO NOT! Only the two front lugs do on all Mausers!!!!! Harry B.
 
my current thinking on this project goes as such.
i have not even begun to handload for 8mm yet. i think i may accurize/learn some gunsmithing on the m48. thinking adjustable stock, glass bed(never tried this before), more work on trigger or possibly buy a trigger, true action(never done that either), scope it(not decided on the scope yet but the base will be redfield), and explore 8x57mm handloads. i will buy the above mentioned mauser shop manual beforehand. i figure this will be a learning gun that i dont mind messing up a little. it is a yugo after all:) . i am particularly interested in the truing of the action and lapping bolt lugs. i have tons of lapping compound laying around for doing valves so i may try that sooner rather than later. the research i have done in the last hour on this forum has turned up some excellent info. mental note: keep eyes open at gunshows for decent vz-24 action.
phew, and i thought my first gun build would be a g3.
 
I have M48 Yugo I picked up with Paul Yeager 270 barrel and double set triggers. I had to have Jim Roberts weld bolt handle from Brownells. Harry is nationally recognised expert. I'll help any way I can. daleltaylor@att.net
 
Last edited:
You could do alot worse:eek: than the original 8x57 caliber.

I sporterized a Turk (it was junk except the barreled action). I spent some time accumulating parts, and I only have $200 in the whole thing. One thing I find with many/most milsurps is "cleaning rod wear" at the muzzle. so I shortened the barrel and re-crowned it (it was REALLY long anyway). Found a heavy target stock at a garage sale for $8 (!!!!), drilled and tapped the scope mounts myself (2 piece)...Bent and welded (brazed) the bolt handle. Glass bedded the stock, and free-floated the barrel. also ported the barrel (I'm recoil sensitive due to a shoulder injury) and added a recoil pad.

Anyway, if you have a reasonable amount of experience with tools and such, you CAN do it yourself.

It now shoots commercial ammo at about 1 MOA, started to play with reloads.

edited to add: I'm now working ona VZ-24, that will be in 8mm-06, already have everything but the scope mount, less than $200 invested.
 
The AT stock is injection moulded and not strong for the weight like the good stocks. It is also not stickey for glass like the good stocks. But it is cheaper than the good stocks.

The good stocks:
1) Laminated synthetic stocks
2) Walnut stocks
3) Laminated wood stocks

The cheap stocks:
1) Hardwood walnut stain stocks
2) injection moulded synthetic stocks


The worst problem with the AT Mauser stock is that tightening the action screws causes the stock to flex and bend into contorted shapes.
 
alexander hamilton,, I'm glad you started this thread. It has already helped me today...

I'm doing almost the same thing you are, but I don't want to sporterize my shooter K98, I want to leave it as original as possible, but add a scope and make a few sleeper mods,,, like a counterbore job, ports, clean new trigger,
ect....

Hey dfaugh, this caught my eye;
Glass bedded the stock, and free-floated the barrel. also ported the barrel
Click to expand...

If you have time could you go to my K98 scope options thread and hit me with some info about what you did, and how it affected the accuracy?
 
The VZ24 stocks are ugly, but I have one shooting 0.4 moa.

They take glass bedding well.
I clearance around the barrel and glass the action and first 1" of barrel.
 
hey fellas,
i went to a local gun shop and checked out some scopes today for my project. i figured my first scope job should be less than $100 or right about that much just for the glass. i was pretty happy with the bushnell banner 1.5-4.5 scope. anyone have any input on that one? i will be using it on deer hopefully in a few weeks. the store was brightly lit so i have no idea what it will be like in the woods. also, how high should my rings be? i would rather not have to modify the safety if at all possible and the bolt is a bent unit.

thanks
 
I have a much more basic question. Where do you all find Mausers that are worth working on? I keep reading that lots of them continue to arrive in the USA but the ones I see at gun shows and the local gun shops are junk, with worthless barrels, holes drilled in the darndest places, deep pitting, and on and on. I would like to just spiff one up in original caliber ( it's a pretty good one) new stocks, polishing, new bolt ( I would love to show my mentor how my welding skills have improved ) mount one of the scopes I have on hand, and see if I can get a good shooter for a few hundred bucks. It looks like getting a good barreled action will require forking over $300 to $400 to folks like Mitchell's Mauser. I recently bought a one hunting trip, minute of angle Savage 7mm Rem Mag, with factory installed 3-9x scope for $300 ( how a reputable gun shop can in all good conscience recommend/sell such a rig to a diminutive, 135 lb, 5'6", novice is incomprehensible at least to me) and a NIB Savage 30.06 for $289. I guess the notion of owning a genuine Mauser is just not enough of an incentive for me. .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top