Remington barrel, Mauser action - ??

A

Al Thompson

Staff Alumnus
Friend of mine has a Remington take off barrel in .308. It's varmit weight. He also has a Vz-24 he wants to put this barrel on.

Is it possible? Is it practical?
 
Has he got a lathe?

Remington barrel shank and threads are different from Mauser; 1.05" 16 threads per inch vs 1.10" 12 threads per inch. He would have to cut off the shank of the Remington barrel and turn and thread to fit the Mauser action. Then he would have to rechamber because he would have cut off about half the chamber.

Somebody reported rethreading a Remington barrel to fit one of the Turkish Mausers which has small ring threads, which may have let him save the chamber. Still a pretty good lathe job.
 
I have several rifles built on Turk Mauser actions and I used Rem700 take-offs on all of them. As far as difficulty goes, threading isn't the simplest operation on a lathe, but it isn't so difficult that someone with good access to a lathe can't attempt it and be successful. I say "good access" because you will want to practice (and make all your mistakes!) on some round steel stock before you chuck your barrel and go for it. One thing that you learn about threading is that you are 100% committed once you start to cut metal!

The nice thing about the Rem700 threads is that the minor diameter is just a hair larger than the major diameter of the threads on a small ring barrel.

You will still need to get a chamber reamer to finish the chamber, because the Rem700 extractor goes into a notch that is cut in the Rem700 barrel ... this means that even with the 1938 Turk action you still end up removing some of the chamber ... but not nearly as much as you would with the VZ-24.

I asked a BUNCH of questions about this project here and got a TON of help. This group is a great resource!

Saands
 
Thanks guys!

My thought was that he could do the project if he cut the chamber end and rethreaded as well as cut the notch for the extractor.

I suspect he'll get a gunsmith to do this - probably cheaper in the longrun.

Anybody know anybody in the SE that can do this?
 
Uhhh ... I haven't done a large ring conversion, but I don't recall the need to cut any extractor notches.

Saands
 
Mausers don't have extractor notches. One issue with take-off barrels is that you have to index the barrel to the proper orientation for sights and inscriptions to be vertical. It might be more cost effective to buy a threaded and short-chambered new barrel from Midway or Brownells.
 
One issue with take-off barrels is that you have to index the barrel to the proper orientation for sights and inscriptions to be vertical.
Click to expand...

True ... but only if you are using a take-off with sights ;) While indexing sights is a true challenge, it is much easier to index a barrel so that you can still read the caliber stamp :D
 
Ya know, you can learn something new everyday. Mausers don't have extractor notches! Winchester M70s do - I assumed them to be the same! Shame on me!

No sights on the barrel, so only issue would be the lettering.

Clemson, know anybody in state you'd recommend?
 
Al, the guy I used to use was in Greenwood, but he is no longer in business. I do my own barrel work now. What you want to do is uncomplicated, so any gunsmith who does rifle work should be able to handle it.
 
Interesting.. I used to get some stuff done in Greenwood too. Can't remember the name of the shop, but the guy I spoke with when I visited was "Pat". I see him at gunshows hanging out with the pawnshop crowd from Taylors.

Columbia has a dirth of gunsmiths. We're going to try Al Clark down in Summerville.
 
My Dad has mounted some Winchester barrels on Mauser actions; called them "Mauchesters." What's this to be called - a "Mausington?"
 
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