Gregory Gauvin
New member
My uncle recently discovered a M1924 Mauser in his father's attic. It had been sitting up there for 25+ years. He gave it to me to go through it, clean it up...etc. It's amazing in pristine condition. All matching ( sadly somebody took a very nice M1924 and sporterized it - i.e., bent and swept bolt, jeweled it, took off military sights and dropped it into a wood sporter stock and fitted with lyman 57 SME sights. The stock had a few dings and blems. I went through the rifle thoroughly. The rifle was not re-chambered - the original 8x57 barrel was the best looking 8mm barrel I have ever saw - no pitting, no wear...in fact, I do not believe the rifle had been fired, ever. I steamed out the dents, re-blued some of the metal, gave the stock a beautiful hand oil finish. I spent a month turning the rifle into a piece of art. I checked headspace, fitting a safety (which was missing), got a .040" lyman peep aperture for it (also missing) to work with the 1/16th target sized gold front sight bead. I polished the feed ramp, and bolt (leaving the jeweling on the body), polished cocking sleeve, trigger contact points and pins...etc I can go on.
There was a small, near invisible hairline crack near the tang area of the stock. It was not deep, nor did it extend to the tang screw. Front recoil lug showed no signs of cracking or stress. My main concern was that this rifle, in 8x57, fitting in a light weight sporter stock would not hold up to recoil. Needless, I used thin cyanoacrylate to penetrate that small hairline crack. I was hoping the stock cracked here from stresses of temperature and humidity extremes being stuck up in an attic with no central air.
http://postimg.org/image/f46xhd3a5/
I had warned my uncle...that 8x57 is a pretty potent caliber. Needless to say, range day arrived. I had bore sighted the rifle and was on paper. A few clicks to dial in windage and after bore had fouled out (around 10-15 rounds - I had cleaned barrel down to bare metal, not that it was copper fouled to begin with) produced groups I had never seen before in any 8mm chambered rifle. I was firing 63 year old surplus ammo, and producing 3 shot groups smaller than a quarter. Unfortunately, my fears became reality. Firing stopped at 25rds. The crack at the tang area of the stock had begun to open up, elongated and then turned 90 degrees down against the grain.
I am going to having my former woodshop teacher and gun collector take a look. He has repaired 1903s with tang stock cracks - however, they were not fired again. I would like to have this rifle be able to be fired and withstand recoil forces, and not just sit around and be pretty. I know there are several methods of repair.
I don't know what my Uncle would want to invest into this project, but me, personally, I would scrap the wood stock and go with a pillar bedded laminate stock and glass bed it. As far as repairing the current stock...besides cosmetically fixing the crack, what method would can render this rifle from further abuse? Sleeve the tang screw? Pillar bed? Glass bedding?
Trigger is great, rifling is sharp, it's like a NIB rifle. I didn't expect it to clover leaf groups with old surplus. With handloads, this rifle will be one heck of a shooter. If I glass bed the stock, even more so. But glass bedding alone won't stop that stock from splitting into 2 or more pieces. How should I proceed?
There was a small, near invisible hairline crack near the tang area of the stock. It was not deep, nor did it extend to the tang screw. Front recoil lug showed no signs of cracking or stress. My main concern was that this rifle, in 8x57, fitting in a light weight sporter stock would not hold up to recoil. Needless, I used thin cyanoacrylate to penetrate that small hairline crack. I was hoping the stock cracked here from stresses of temperature and humidity extremes being stuck up in an attic with no central air.
http://postimg.org/image/f46xhd3a5/
I had warned my uncle...that 8x57 is a pretty potent caliber. Needless to say, range day arrived. I had bore sighted the rifle and was on paper. A few clicks to dial in windage and after bore had fouled out (around 10-15 rounds - I had cleaned barrel down to bare metal, not that it was copper fouled to begin with) produced groups I had never seen before in any 8mm chambered rifle. I was firing 63 year old surplus ammo, and producing 3 shot groups smaller than a quarter. Unfortunately, my fears became reality. Firing stopped at 25rds. The crack at the tang area of the stock had begun to open up, elongated and then turned 90 degrees down against the grain.
I am going to having my former woodshop teacher and gun collector take a look. He has repaired 1903s with tang stock cracks - however, they were not fired again. I would like to have this rifle be able to be fired and withstand recoil forces, and not just sit around and be pretty. I know there are several methods of repair.
I don't know what my Uncle would want to invest into this project, but me, personally, I would scrap the wood stock and go with a pillar bedded laminate stock and glass bed it. As far as repairing the current stock...besides cosmetically fixing the crack, what method would can render this rifle from further abuse? Sleeve the tang screw? Pillar bed? Glass bedding?
Trigger is great, rifling is sharp, it's like a NIB rifle. I didn't expect it to clover leaf groups with old surplus. With handloads, this rifle will be one heck of a shooter. If I glass bed the stock, even more so. But glass bedding alone won't stop that stock from splitting into 2 or more pieces. How should I proceed?