I have one in bad condition that was given to me. I plan on making it into a 7.62x39 as a starter rifle for my daughter. So far I have the barrel, mag kit (internal) trigger, cocking piece (cock on open) and updated safety. I havent done any machine work outside of disassembly and glass beading.
My plan is to square up the lugs, lap them, face the receiver square then have the receiver and bolt gas nitrided (case hardened) and then reassemble, headspace etc... before test fire then bed into a sported military stock.
There is no shortage of my cousins, best friends, ex-husbands, dad blowing the receiver up with 308 ammo. My question is can I expect any safety issue with this rifle by doing the above? x39 max PSI is 45k compared to 308 max of 62k PSI. The last thing I would want is to injure myself or much worse my daughter. I wouldnt have went through the trouble to buy the parts if I wasnt comfortable with the conversion. However some have said that any spanish mauser is a wall hanger. From that advice I have done countless web searches with no first hand account of catastrophic failure (a few lug setbacks with 308). It seam that most (if not all) of the undocumented issues are due to poor headspace either from wear or mismatched bolts.
I want a safe reasonably accurate gun with low recoil that my daughter can learn with and hopefully take a whitetail. I know I can buy a new CZ for the effort and $$ I will have into this. I want to build the rifle regardless of value.
My plan is to square up the lugs, lap them, face the receiver square then have the receiver and bolt gas nitrided (case hardened) and then reassemble, headspace etc... before test fire then bed into a sported military stock.
There is no shortage of my cousins, best friends, ex-husbands, dad blowing the receiver up with 308 ammo. My question is can I expect any safety issue with this rifle by doing the above? x39 max PSI is 45k compared to 308 max of 62k PSI. The last thing I would want is to injure myself or much worse my daughter. I wouldnt have went through the trouble to buy the parts if I wasnt comfortable with the conversion. However some have said that any spanish mauser is a wall hanger. From that advice I have done countless web searches with no first hand account of catastrophic failure (a few lug setbacks with 308). It seam that most (if not all) of the undocumented issues are due to poor headspace either from wear or mismatched bolts.
I want a safe reasonably accurate gun with low recoil that my daughter can learn with and hopefully take a whitetail. I know I can buy a new CZ for the effort and $$ I will have into this. I want to build the rifle regardless of value.