[mele]

Well, I suppose its time for another installment of "mel's stuff". So here is the 2nd item from my gun vault.

This rifle has a very special place in my heart, as my son (6 years old) and I built this together. It is "his" rifle, and I literally JUST finished it. The goal was to use it for deer this season, and I have about a month to dial it in. Here are the specs:

It started life as a Turkish Mauser in 7mm Mauser (i think that was the cal, as I never shot it in its original form). Paid $69. I promptly stripped everything, down to the action. I bought a Swedish Mauser 16" Carbine barrel from Samco for $75. They are unfire barrels and chambered in 6.5x55 Swede. Here is the trick with the turkish mausers, they are actually a large ring mauser, with the small ring barrel threads, which is why the swedish mauser barrel screws right in!! The barrel was mounted and head spaced and then the whole shebang sand blasted. We then Gun-Koted all the metal in OD Green (my son picked the colors). We mounted it in a Hogue Overmolded stock ($90) for a large ring mauser. We had to file off a lip that the turks have, and then the deminsions are the same as a large ring. I mounted a KS scout scope mount up front and then topped everything with a simmons 2x pistol scope (keeping the theme affordable). I think I have a fine little scout/hunting setup that is light, compact and very quick to bring on target. I'll let everyone know how it shoots....

I hope you enjoyed this installment of "whats in mel's closet".

MEL

 

[Jeff_850]

be interesting to see how it shoots
looks to be a nice hunting setup more so than the stock hunting rifles from most manufactuerers size/compactness and presumably weight wise

 

[SpEcTeR]

I think you did a great job and look forward to hearing how well it shoots. I'm sure the very best part of it all is sharing all of this with your son. Let us know how he likes it. :wink:

 

[mele]

Specter,

You got that right. It was fantastic to do it with my son, he loved working on it, and loves it now that its finished. He's dieing to go hunting with it.

Now, my oldest daughter wants to build a gun with daddy. She's 8, I guess the only questions are:

1) What project to build....
2) And does Gun-Kote come in pink :shock:

MEL

 

[badshot]

Mel you could always get with Glock on that pink coating. They came out with a PINK pistol to cover that San Fran market.

 

[APK]

Mel:

May I be the first to say, that you are awsome!!!! Training um young, that's what I like to see. LOL. I had fun growing up and I did a lot of stuff with my dad. But building a rifle wasn't one of them. I reallly think it is great what you are doing with your son. I have two brothers and a sister also. And I guarentee if she gets a gun when she gets older it WILL be in pink. And probably have Barbie engraved in the floor plate too!!!!!! Anyways keep up the good work!

 

[mele]

Thanks Guys! I do what I can, and while guns/sniping are a very integral part of my life, nothing is more important to me then my wife and 4 kids. They are a riot, and always entertaining! The wife seems to go along with my outlandish hobbies/dreams better when the kids are involved also

Anyone have ideas for another military rifle based project for the daughter?

I've also thought of doing a ruger 10/22 buildup for her....

I've found out that Gun-Kote does have "red". It might be close enough to pink!

MEL

 

[badshot]

Mel,

I would be interested in a 10-22 buildup. I am wanting to get me one for a cheap plinker.

 

[morpheus]

Yeah, the 10/22 would be good one to do. I would suggest at looking at the .17 HMR or .17 Mach2. I think those would be interesting and fun to shoot. But it would probably be more cost effective just to stay with the .22lr.

 

[Nekekami]

Mel:

I presume that the 16" barrel was new, right? Either that, or it came from an old civilian hunting rifle. I'm kinda confused, since I know of no Swedish Army mauser with a 16" barrel. The shortest one I know of is 17.9"

 

[mele]

Nek:

The barrel was bought from Sarco Inc. It is a unfired barrel, but old. Here is the exact discription:

SWED MSR Barrel Carbine M94

Its found on this page:
http://www.sarcoinc.com/mauser.html#9
Look for item #MSR254

morpheus:

I like your idea of the .17Mach2, are the pieces available to build a 10/22 in Mach2 ?? Anyone know?

MEL

 

[Nekekami]

Mel:

Hmmm, something's fishy. It must be an old civilian market barrel.
Here's info about the M/94 http://www.mtek.chalmers.se/~m95perm/vapen/eldhandv/g.html#k_m94

Barrel length: 449mm
449/25.4=17.677165345330708661417322834646 inches

 

[mele]

Nek,

Well, you got me curious, so I just went down and measured the barrel.

From the front of the receiver to the tip of the barrel is right at about 17". I would venture to guess that the barrel threads into the receiver about

.677165345330708661417322834646 inches



So, it is NOT 16", but a true 94 carbine barrel at 17.6"

thanks for keeping me honest!

MEL

 

[Nekekami]

It's more a case of keeping that company honest. I knew reading up on the history of the Swedish army mausers was a good idea...

 

[mele]

Well, I took this peach shooting over the weekend to site it in.

I hope Nek is listening in, because let me tell you, the swedes know how to make a barrel!! For this particular rifle, I would be happy with 2 MOA, and over joyed if I touched 1.5 MOA. I mean, its a 17" barrel, built on a turkish mauser action that has probably a million rounds fired through it, no glass bedding, and with the scope mount on the barrel, it certainly is NOT free floated barrel. This is a scout/primary hunting rifle for deep field work of 200 yards or less.

So how did it do? This blasted thing shoots sub 1 MOA !!! I couldn't believe it. The ammo I used was a delightful handload done up by a friend. It features a 160gr Hornady Soft point round nose. (which has the sectional density of a 220gr .30 cal). It was pleasant to shoot even in the semi-light, and small rifle. I can provide the load details if anyone is interested. The SINGLE BIGGEST THING limiting the performance of this rifle is the 2x optics. The crosshairs completely covered my 1" orange dot at 100 yards, so it was very difficult to do precision work. If I put a good 10-18x scope on this rifle, I guarantee you that it would shoot .75 MOA or better!! Like I said, not glass bedding, no free floated barrel and a heavy trigger of about 7 lbs !!!!

heh... I'm extremely happy !!!



MEL

 

[Jeff_850]

glad to hear it shoots well

let us know how it does in hunting season

 

[mele]

You bet!

My son is dieing to go....

MEL

 

[Scatch Maroo]

This blasted thing shoots sub 1 MOA !!!

Don't forget to claim some of the credit for your own mad skillz, Master Mele! Congrats on the rifle, though--sounds like a very delightful surprise.

Scatch Maroo

 

[mele]

You see, but thats the thing! I did nothing to it really. I did not square the action face, I didn't lap the lugs (though they probably self lapped after about a million rounds), I didn't glass bed, I didn't adjust the trigger, just put the barrel on and head spaced it, dropped it in the stock with some inletting and thats it! (well, besides disassembly and gun-koting, etc)

MEL

 

[Scatch Maroo]

You got to point it at the target, no? I'm sure that's worth a few points.

Scatch Maroo