[mlammers]

Hey all, I got started today, and except for hacking off the wife(never a good thing by the way)because I was gone so long, all went very well. I made a lot of progress. I picked out my rifle to start with from a selection of over 100, very confusing and hard to sort through but fun. Then it was over to the gunsmith's house to get started in earnest.

The rifle was packed all over in cosmoline or what ever the turks used. The rifle is a Turkish model 1938 long rifle made in 1943. The rifle was in pretty good shape overall, and had a lot of blueing left. The Turk mauser is a rather interesting and robust rifle. The rifle is nearly 50 inches in length with a 29inch barrel. The action is Large ring model 98 Mauser in most respects with a few exceptions. The Turk Mauser has a flange that sticks out beyond the barrel joint about 1/4 inch, and they are threaded for small ring barrels, which is where the robustness comes in. The thickness of the receiver around the barrel threads is significantly greater than the large or small ring mausers. This thing is massive in thickness, just imagine a small ring opening in a large ring reciever. The bolt is interchangable with all large ring bolts, as is the rest of the hardware from the rifle.

The first step was removing the barrel, which went quick. Next the action was trued, and fully checked over. The bolt was lapped and set to go, except for bending the handle which is to be done later this week. Next we took the model 700Rem .270Win barrel and modified it to fit. The procedure went like this, turn down the shank to small ring mauser spec, cut the new threads to the 12tpi of the receiver, and set the shoulder, check for function. Then we cut the newly threaded shank to proper length on the lathe, and threaded on the receiver. Everything worked great and we tightened up the barrel and receiver combo. So far so good.

Still to come this week is, removing the clip guide, final chambering(to minimum specs for good tight chamber)filling in the sight screw holes, and final polish/blue. The polishing will go quick as the barrel is already a high gloss blue, so it just needs the blue removed. I will be using side mounted bolt safety, and for now the factory trigger, working it up a bit. The scope will be one I have on hand, in redifield mounts and bases, after drilling and tapping.The stock will be one of three I am looking at, Boyds target varmiter(4wk wait), Wenig still deciding on style based on inventory, or Richards Microfit Wildcat Thumbhole.

I will try to post pics later, if not it will be in the mornig after I get home from Sniper Quals. I will post them of the rifle as purchased, and of the barrel/receiver in the white. Let me know what you think

 

[muzzleblast]

Very, very cool.

A hundred mausers at your fingertips to pick from...whoa! I do like the thought of the Turk. Nice to know you have so much beef around the barrel and that its quality. I've been impressed with em ever since I saw Mel's Twede. Good luck doing the rest of the work and you kicked a lot of ass in one day.

I'm sure everyone's waiting to hear more and I'm anxious to see the pics.

Are you gonna tag it with a name?

 

[mlammers]

Yeah, trying to come up with a name will be tough though till I get it finished.

The smith dropped everything and helped me for about 5hrs staight, it was awsome, he had everything ready for us when I got there. I also found out he called the guy who had the Turks, and told him I was coming, and to make sure he had them all out for me to look at. One side note I heard him wrong when he gave me the price it was 75 not 25, but still a great price, and I got to crawl through all of them till I found the one I wanted. I had to get soem stuff done here at home(make the wife happy, since she was feeling ignored today) so I will get the pics up soon.

 

[muzzleblast]

Yup, still a great price. and for 5 hours thats still doing a lot..hmmm...with the Qual coming up and the trip to Chicago, best spend some time with the Missus Lammers Gun later.

 

[OLD TOUCH]

Sounds like you are making good headway even what with having to distract the wife, I would love to have been with you when you picked it out, there is something about taking the cos off of them and finding the treasure underneath hahaha, indeed do keep us up to date Man, I hope that she shoots to your satisfaction for you.
Rusty

 

[muzzleblast]

You're right, OLD TOUCH. There's something about watching the mystery unfold lol. I'll never forget giving my M1 a bath...

 

[mlammers]

Here are some before and progress pics. In the Morning i am going over to work on her some more, We will work on some polishing, remove the clip guide, plug the sight holes, bend the bolt, gether ready for the blue tank. The pic in the white are after using acid to remove the blueing, and the first polish on the barrel, a ways to go though. I did not start on the reciever polish as we still have to remove the gude so there was no point. I think I finally have all the grease out it was everywhere.

The process to remove the blueing is to use navel jelly, or as I did Birchwood casey blue and rust remover. It goes pretty quick, and also removes any rust in the pits. Be sure to plug the barrel and chamber, and to use gloves this stuff will eat your hands, and follow the directions on the bottle, and it works real good.

 

[mlammers]

I went over to work on my rifle at eh smiths shop, and found out he was down with the flu, so I decided to do some work at home today. I went ashead and tacled the clip guide on my owna nd am very happy to say it went well. All the work was doen with had tools and abrasive paper ranging from coarse emry cloth to 400 grit so far. I still need to work on some file marks and tooling marks in the receiver, but it's coming along nicley. Here are some pics, let me know what you think. I am not sure if I should bother with trying to get all the tooling marks out that wil be below the wood line. By the way the stock will be a Richards Microfit Wildcat thumbhole in the blue laminate.

 

[mlammers]

Hey all,

Made some progess again today, got the trigger guard reshaped and will polish it up in the morning. I got the rifle drilled and tapped and the bases mounted. I also got the screw holes filled and they look great, cant even tell there were ever screws there. The bolt is now bent and will be cleaned up and polished out in the morning. The bolt now angles down sharp and flares out and back nice for a real custom look. I will finish the polishing it all out in the morning, and then wait for the stock, get it fitted and then blue the rifle.

I will now pose a question for all to chime in on. The smith who I trust completely has built many rifles over the years in laminate stocks, and other than careful fitting, and standard stock screw pillars as used on Military mausers, says he does not think I should bed it. He free floats the barrels, but does not glass bed in laminate stocks unless the rifle will not shoot without it. I will do this based on his experience and the fact that I have seen many rifles built by him that shoot 1/2 MOA or better.

My stock is going to be a Wildcat Thumbhole in Laminate from Richards Microfit, and the Rifle now has a name LOSOK 1(Lammers One Shot One Kill). Let me know what you think.

 

[OLD TOUCH]

LOSOK !

It sounds as though you have made a great deal of progress in a very short time, I hope that it preforms as well or better than it sounds like it should, I realy like your choice of names for it, it sounds a little mid-evil.
The Black Knight LOSOK awaits unseen, in silence to kill again!! LOL
Rusty

 

[mlammers]

Hey all,

Another update, the bolt handle came out awsome, but I forgot the camera to take pics. Today the polishing was completed on the trigger guard, and the bolt. Just a little more to go on the whole rifle. The trigger guard looks real nice, tapering the guard fron to rear and then flaring it out towards the top looks sweet and gives it a custom look.

Today we finished the bolt by adding a low swing safety. The last thing on the bolt will be cleaning up and polishing the shroud. I am leaving te bolt polished, blueing the main part of the shoud and leaving the striker highly polished. The thing shold look real nice.

We then set the new chamber, and headspace it to minimum spec. Next the action was placed in a test stock(only has about a 5 inch forearm) and fired. We fired 5 rounds and every one had exactly the same marks on the primer, perfect dead center strike, with no signs of flattening, so the chamber is good.

Next came a trigger weight check, as it was scary heavy, and weighed in at 8.25 pounds with lots of creep. The trigger surfaces were polished, both on the bolt and the sear, and two coils were taken out of the fireing pin spring, plus oneouut the return spring on the trigger. The end result is a greatly reduced pull of 5 pounds even, with almost no creep, and very crisp break. I will leave it like this for now as I really like that pull, it's very close in weight to my match garand's, so I am used to it. Now I am just waiting on the stock to arrive so I can fit it up and do the blueing.

 

[subThermal]

If it were me, I would do my best to get rid of any and all tooling marks I could possibly get rid of. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to working on stuff.

You can always glass bed the action yourself, it is not that hard, if I can do it...

All in all, I would appreciate if you replied with more pictures! :lol:

 

[mlammers]

Rest assured more pics are coming, I just forgot to grab the camera yesterday, and I was so busy working on the rifle on thursday, I just did not get any taken as I kind of pressed for time. The next pics will show the polished bolt, guard and bases installed, along with the bolt handle shape. I can also disassemble it and show the trigger work with non modified parts for comparison purposes I think. I will try to do better with the pics, its hard to stop and take them sometimes when I get rolling though.

 

[muzzleblast]

Sounds like awesome work, man!

I picture a Reminton 600 or a P-17 Enfield, maybe even Ruger when I think of that bolt. Must be a looker.

So its actually been test fired already? Good stuff!

Sounds like a kickass job on the trigger as well. Feel like the key's last turn on a can of spam at first? Must be a nice pull now.

Can't wait to get started myself

 

[mlammers]

The stock arrived today, below are some pics of it. It is a Richards Microfit in Electric Blue Laminate. I have just started to work on the prep of the exterior tonight. I have a lot of work ahead of me but it should turn out real nice. I will take more detailed pics of the channel and the rest of the inletting as I begin the work there. The only real inlettig I can see it needing at this point is the barrel channel which is cut for a military step barrel. I realy like the rosewood accents. The stock was $119 delivered. I have to shape the tip but i ordered it cut square as I wanted a full length wide forearm. The forearm is 2iches wide and flat bottomed.

 

[OLD TOUCH]

custom stocks

Kinda wild, cant say as I have ever seen that camo pattern and I am not sure where you could hide with it that you would not be seen but where ever you go it is going to look sorta classy, be nice to see the finished project and the way things have been moveing along that should not be to far off.
You never told us how the test fireing went ??
Rusty

 

[spade]

yeah, i actually did this stock here for my g/f's 10/22 buildup.
It worked very well and she seems to love it. We might swap it out for a different one though as she doesnt quite like the feel of it.

OH mel, you talked about doing an HMR for your daughter, ive got the perfect stock for ya, and you could get dead roman to bubble gum up the action and barrel for ya...lol

:lol:

 

[mele]

Wow... certainly not something you see every day!!

anxious to see the end product

MEL

 

[mlammers]

Yeah this one will be kind of wild looking, but I figured since I am doing this as a full custom, in highly polished blueing camo was not a real factor. I just wanted to see how super classy I could finish her out. The test fire went real well. All the cases(5) had the same dead center hits from the pin, all same depth and no primer flattening, or the like. The firing was done as double check after checking head space, since we had cut a new min spec chamber by hand. We had no sights on the rifle at the time, but everything worked fine and all the shots hit the big dirt back stop HAHA. Once I get the stock fitted she will be blued, and the glass mounted.

Two guys at work already want to buy it and they have not seen it done yet, but I dont want to sell her just yet.One wants it as a present for his son whenhe returns from the Marines in Iraq, so I guess he might get first dibbs if I sell, but that will be 8 months or so before he gets back, and I know the
guy will keep bugging me. I really want to give her to my dad if I dont keep her or maybe my brother. Well off to work in the snow and ice, to help people whe forget how to drive. Spade, those look awsome where did they come from, you did great work on them?

 

[mele]

Spade,

Wow! Thats perfect for my daughter!! You are right, dead roman could do a nice bubblegum pink on the metal and my daughter would just be 'tickled pink'.... (pun intended :wink: )

MEL