JC's Mauser 98 Adventure....

[jcchartboy]

Mauser 98 Adventures...

Hey Guys,

This is going to the first installment of a series of posts outlining my adventures in researching/creating/buying a modern military custom mauser. While I am clearly no authority on the subject, my goal in creating the posts is merely to document my work over the past year and hopefully to provide some useful info to others that may be interested in the subject. The majority of the info that I will post will be directly related to my personal experience. However, if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask as I will only be posting portions of what I have learned.
(1).Please keep in mind much of this information will be presented in a very general format as an in depth discussion would be impossible, basically, I will be writing for the 1st military mauser buyer.(2).Please keep in mind this project has taken place over many months, in fact closer to two years. Therefore the post will start off very basic and move along in much the same way my progress has. (3).Most importantly, if all goes well, I hope this original post will grow into an on going discussion within the forum helping the modern firearms forum to gain in overall popularity along with the rest of the board?


Action Background:
Without going into great detail there are three primary choices in actions for an individual that is interested in creating their first custom Mauser.

1)Standard Mauser K9. While these are usually the ?classic? German WW-II mausers they can be had in many different varieties. Basically, the main differences between all of these mausers are the factory and year of manufacture. Generally speaking those actions from the 1925-1935 are the most desirable, while the WW-II actions from 1940-1945 are best avoided for numerous reasons. As a general rule these actions are moderately desirable for building a custom action. Avg Cost 150-250

2) Czechoslovakia VZ-24. The VZ-24 rifle was designed shortly after WW-I and was produced in Czechoslovakia from 1924 to 1942. (VZ is an abbreviation for vzor, which translates to model, 24 of course represents the year of the design). These actions are simply a specific version of K-98 and are generally considered to have some of the better ?fit and finish? of all of the K-98 variations. Most importantly the metal in these actions are considered to be relatively hard, making them highly desirably for custom actions. Avg Cost 125-200

3) 1909 Argentine Mauser. In 1909, Argentina adopted new firearms to replace their 1891 model rifles and carbines. Dubbed the Modelo (model) 1909, the new rifles and carbines were based upon the 98 Mauser rifle design. Without going into further detail, these action as without question considered to have the best ?fit and finish? of all military mausers ever created. While the actions are not ?hard? as the Vz-24 the quality of the workmanship outweighs that fact. In most circles these action are the most highly desirable of all Military actions. Avg Cost 250-400

My first Action:

Starting off as a Newbie to the market for a custom military mauser, I immediately gravitated to the VZ-24 actions. Good quality, strong, and relatively cheap. After a fairly lengthy search I finally purchased my first military arm to begin the process. A 1937 BRNO Mauser?

1937 BRNO Mauser:

This is where I began?.

 

[jcchartboy]

Removing the Stock:

Now that I finally had the gun hom,e the first thing I wanted to do was address the state of the action. While an action may look great above the stock line it can be a whole different story once the stock is removed.
For anyone who has not tried to remove a stock from a nearly 100 year old firearm it can be quite a surprise as to difficult a job it can be. In my case, I had virtually all of the parts removed in order to separate the action from the stock, but I simply could not get one particular screw to budge. To make a long story short, the shaft of the screw eventually broke in half. Till this day it is still frozen in the original part.
Fortunately, after all was said and done I was able to remove the stock from the action without damaging anything except that one old military screw which is of no use for a custom conversion.

First View:

Here is the first look...(ouch...or not?)

 

[Rifleman]

JC I like what your doing here and look forward to reading about the rest of your project. I have a good friend who builds custom guns from old mausers like you are doing. They are a work of art, but he won't do it for anyone but himself. Too much work involved for him to see a return on his time. He just does it as a labor of love.

 

[jcchartboy]

JC I like what your doing here and look forward to reading about the rest of your project. I have a good friend who builds custom guns from old mausers like you are doing. They are a work of art, but he won't do it for anyone but himself. Too much work involved for him to see a return on his time. He just does it as a labor of love.

Thx Rifleman,

I am very grateful to have learned an enormous amount of information from other mauser shooters and custom builders. These posts are my way of sharing my experience, and hopefully passing some of that knowledge on to others.

The reality is, learning what not to do when building a custom mauser is actually more important than learning what to do. If I can teach a few people to avoid some of the mistakes I have learned about, and personally experienced, then that is all I can hope for!

(Not to much mention, I hope it hopes makes for an enjoying read... )

Jeff

 

[jcchartboy]

More of the story....

Just the Metal:

As you can easily see from the pictures above, despite the sparkling metal above the stock, things were looking rather grim below it. The first thing I did was spray the whole action down with WD-30. The mixture of the solvent and the oils helped me to slowly break away the years of grime, and even some of the unfortunate rust. Although the action looked much better after a good cleaning I was a bit disappointed to see both signs of rust and pitting remain when I was done.

To say I was concerned was an understatement. However, by this time I had already been researching mauser action for some time and I had developed a small network of rather knowledgeable craftsman/gunsmith that were willing to field my questions.
I was quickly reassured that it was too early to determine the state of the action, and was instruction on the next steps to take.
Without going into great detail it was now time to get out the Norton India stone and begin the process of polishing the exterior of the action. It would not be until I proceeded with this process that I would now the true state of the exterior of my action.

(TBC...)

JC

 

[Grouse]

Keep track of your Overtime. I'm going to follow your project Jeff. I think what you are doing is cool.

 

[RAF]

This is getting interesting. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[jcchartboy]

Thanks Guys,

While the project might not end exactly where everyone might think, that is part of the fun of working on Mauser's. Once you get started you never know where it may lead you...LOL.

In any case, as this is an ongoing project I will continue posting info about my past experiences until I get caught up to where I am now. After that the project may become more interactive as it will give me an opportunity to discuss where I/others may consider going in the future.

The best part about a project like this is that it really never ends...the perfect project for discussing in this forum!

JC

 

[jims]

A nice read.

 

[big6x6]

For me...the obvious question is.....Of course I don't want to spoil your
adventure...and don't tell us if it will....but...

What caliber is it going to be? :lol:

 

[jcchartboy]

Chuck,

As mentined earlier this is an ongoing project and it is still taking unexpected turns. However, I can tell you that I eventually decided the 7mm Rem Mag was the most practical choice for my initial mauser needs!

(Basically, there are a number of factors inherent to the military mausers design that lend it to conversion to the 7mm Rem vs. other Mag calibers, (not to mention it is an extremely versatile caliber that I did not already own.))

JC

 

[jcchartboy]

While we are on the topic of caliber selections. Here are some generally accepted rules concerning the feasibility of converting military K98 actions to a few specific caliber groups.

The cartridges that the Mausers were originally made for were primarily the Mauser cartridges and we still have their derivatives that run through Mauser actions with zero modifications except for the new barrel:

8x57
7x57
6.5x55 (actually has a marginally larger head size, but typically not enough bigger that the bolt won't work with it. American cases have same head size as 7x57 and 8x57)
6mm Remington
257 Roberts
6.5x57

The next group will generally feed with no trouble at all, but military cartridges may exceed the magazine length and require a magazine box lengthening (not difficult):

.25-06
6.5-06
270 Winchester
280 Remington
.30-06
.338-06
.35 Whelen

The next group can be made to work in a Model 98, but the guide rails of the action or the magazine follower may have to be altered, and the magazine may have to be blocked. In other words, feeding problems are possible to likely:

.243 Winchester
.260 Remington
7mm-08
.308 Winchester
.358 Winchester

Small-bore, purely varmint cartridges for the Model 98:

.22-250 Often becomes a single shot because of feeding difficulties
.220 Swift Generally feeds better than .22-250, but a semi-rimmed cartridge.

There are dozens of additional factory and wildcat cartridges that will fit the Mauser boltface and magazine.

The 7mm Remington Magnum series of cartridges will fit with only a bolt face/extractor opening and perhaps lengthening of the magazine box.

Credit...written by, Clemson of THR

JC

 

[choc-dog]

mauser

My brother bought a clean and I mean clean VZ-24 Mauser action off ebay for $50.00 less cocking piece.

He is presently waiting for the return of a VZ-24 custom with a Shilen barrel in 257 Roberts. He loves the "BOB"

Nice reading....it will be fun following you thru this project.

Choc-dog

 

[jcchartboy]

Re: mauser

My brother bought a clean and I mean clean VZ-24 Mauser action off ebay for $50.00 less cocking piece.

He is presently waiting for the return of a VZ-24 custom with a Shilen barrel in 257 Roberts. He loves the "BOB"

Nice reading....it will be fun following you thru this project.

Choc-dog

Choc,

Great price on the action...Though I would be careful about discussing the forum it was purchased through... :wink:

As for Shilen, I will be mentioning them in the next part of my story...Seems almost everyone I have talked to has been happy with their Mauser work...Of course their prices are nearly impossible to beat as well!

Concerning the project, I will say up front, it is far from being done, (at least not in the sense that I originally visioned). For the most part I am trying to write the posts in the context I was thinking as I began working on my initial expectations.
Hopefully by writing the posts in the "past-thought" tense readers will get an idea of the difficulty of producing a custom mauser that meets their own personal expectations. Hint...Once you start getting into the project your expectations and goals change inevitably change wildly.

The reality is much of the information I will be sharing will end out being about how you can do it...as opposed to how I have done it... :lol:

In the end, I am just happy to have other folks to share the experience with, and hopefully to exchange idea's on what will eventually be the final product...


JC

 

[n8dawg6]

great posts, i am interested to see how this will turn out.

 

[jcchartboy]

A Lesson Learned/Hindsight:

At this I should point out one of my first and certainly the biggest lessons learned about building a custom Mauser. Like many things in life there are many different ?degrees? of building your own custom Mauser. However for the most part I believe building a custom gun can be broken down into 3 basic categories. (Which category each builder falls into depends mainly on the individuals desired outcome.)

Category 1).This person is looking to actually ?build? their own custom gun and does most or all of the work themselves, (sometimes regardless of the quality of their own work). Generally, the goal of this type of builder is to simply to say ?I built it?, or did it ?for x dollars?.

This group can then be broken down into two subgroups A.) The novice builder that is expecting to build an ?inexpensive? rifle that can call their own. B.) The Advanced builder that can create rifles of varying quality for a price far cheaper than that which a professional gunsmith would charge. (Total cost?Lowest )(Generally Expected results?Lowest to Average)

Category 2.) An individual that knows exactly what they want, but is still very cost conscious and is willing to ?farm? the work out to the lowest bidders. In this case there may be many different gunsmiths involved, and depending on the knowledge of the owner/planner the gun may, or may not, end out as expected. (Total Cost?Moderate)( General Results Good to Great)

Category 3). This buyer is looking for a very particular rifle and accepts the fact that a true custom mauser may cost thousands of dollars to produce to their exact specifications. (Total Cost?High)(Generally excellent)

-------

While every hopeful Mauser builder considers these options before they start working on their gun, virtually no-one ever ends out completing a rifle in the same category that they originally planned!

Lesson learned?When building your 1st Mauser remember?.your plans will change before you are done!

JC

 

[jcchartboy]

My Plan:

At the time I started working on this VZ-24, I was clearly planted in the first thought group mentioned above. I honestly believed that I could build a custom mauser to specifications I would have deem acceptable by completing some of the work myself, while hiring a gunsmith to do the rest.
(Personally, my goal in taking that route was twofold. 1) If it worked out, it would save a great deal of money. 2) Even if it did not work out I only had very little invested in the project, and hopefully I would have learned enough to make the investment worth wild in terms of consider how to approach future projects.)

Once this decision is made there is no turning back. This is due to the fact that in order to start working on a custom Mauser the first irreversible step that is taken is to honestly ascertaining the exterior condition of the action. This is done by hand, through the use of abrasive polishing stones. (Norton being the brand of choice)

Once a home gunsmith begins putting these stones to the exterior metal of the action they can very quickly damage an otherwise perfect action if not handled properly. Improper use of these stones will render action essentially useless for later conversion to a high end custom mauser.

Of course I decided to go ahead anyway?.

The basic idea when starting to polish the action is simply to remove enough material to ascertain whether or not the pitting is deep enough that it could comprise the integrity of the action. After that process is done, assuming the action is in good shape the goal is to true, or straighten as many exterior surfaces as possible.

Instead of attempting to describe the process myself, I recommend that readers visit the link located at the bottom of this post.(Very simply there is no way I could a write an explanation that comes remotely close to the pictures/explanations Jack Belk gives in his piece. For anyone that has not heard of Jack, he is truly one of the masters.)

Below are the pictures of the action after a few hours of work on the front ring and sides of the action!!

Before:

After!!

Jack Belk Action Polishing:
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/alb ... jITCPUJoFZ

 

[JD]

Great Job cleaning the action up. It really looks great JC.

 

[big6x6]

Great Job cleaning the action up. It really looks great JC.

Yeah it really does.. Did YOU do that? 8)

 

[n8dawg6]

you did an excellent job on that action. the factory lettering is very crisp.