Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Time to build another campfire rifle............

Well, it's time again guys. I've got an ugly old Mauser that's got PROJECT written all over it. It's an 8mm. (Wermacht markings) Unfortunately, someone chopped up the stock somewhere along the line, so it has little value as a military relic. What I'd like to do is an inexpensive sporterization to keep it available as a camp gun, or emergency rifle in case on of our guys has a malfunction with his rife. I'm looking for suggestions on the following: an inexpensive fiberglass stock, Weaver or Leupold style bases? The bolt will need bent, or chopped and flopped. I'm thinking about just doing the Mauser "scope safety", as a cheaper option. How about the lower end scopes? I'm thinking just a fixed 4 power to keep the cost down. Finances allowing, I'll get the military sights stripped off the barrel too. Keep in mind, this is strictly for a backup rifle. I don't plan on doing a trigger job unless it's absolutely necessary to get any degree of accuracy out of the gun. I'm not trying for a minute of angle package here. I'd be perfectly satisfied with it keeping shots in the green at 100 yards. How 'bout some suggestions guys?

Weaver K4 scope, either steel tube El Paso (my favorites), or one of the current ones, for a cheap, excellent scope. The steel tube would look good on an old Mauser action. Put it in Weaver bases, Warne rings.

Keep the irons, just in case, and maybe go with a peep rear instead of the scope; for a back-up, a peep is a dead guarantee that it won't move from POI and it'll be on when you want it on. In fact, go with the peep over the scope, just for that reason. That'll also keep you from having to tweak the bolt or the safety. Cut's cost mightily, so you can put it into the stock.

Drop in into a Micky stock (might be able to find one used here), or a B&C stock. Bend the bolt, tweak the safety

Buckaneer,

For sights I recommend staying with irons: have Jim Brockman put on his Gen III front and rear (post front and aperture rear), and use the savings from not going the scope route to defray the cost.

I would leave the Ol' Ugly stock alone until you find a suitable synthetic.

The two-stage military trigger will work as is.

Cheep and cheerful! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

jim

Midway has deals on Adams & Bennett barrels with some kind of cheap injection molded stocks. A friend has used this system on about 4 Mausers now and all shoot well---2MG

Hmmm....... peep sights, huh? I hadn't really even considered going that route, but that is a great idea. I like that for the reasons all ready stated. 1) Keeps the project cost down. 2) Don't have to worry about the scope changing point of impact. 3) Don't have to alter the bolt or safety, which would bring the project in at a much lower price. I think it's time to go talk to my gunsmith. I'll keep everyone posted. I'm still leaning towards a cheap, drop in stock. Any suggestions?

My eyes are getting too old for the irons, so if it were for me, I'd put a cheap scope on it. Bushnell makes a 1.5-4.5 variable for under $100 that I've had luck with for in-the-woods ranges. I'd keep it as 8MM, and look into keeping the barrel. It's a good deer caliber. Load it light with something like H4895, and it'll take deer without a whole lot of recoil. When something like an old 8MM or '06 is loaded for sub-150 yard ranges, it has a chance of becoming a remarkably tame and accurate beast. Look at the normal operating parameters for 300 Savage and use that as a guide for building your load.

I am assuming this thing isn't all pitted and nasty. If you clean the barrel up real well, you may get 2-4" groups without any further work. Multiple cleanings over several weeks with Ed's Red my be all it needs. There are a lot of better gunsmiths on here besides me, but I would not give up hope on the barrel until I had it at least re-crowned. Mind you, I'm talking cheap camp gun here-- taking a $50 POS and turning it into something less ugly and more useful than it was.

As to the stock, if the chop isn't too ugly, you may be really surprised at how it can clean up. I got a good floor cleaner/wax remover and took it to my M1 Garand stock. It went from a black opaque blob to awesome in less than an hour's rubbing with 0000 steel wool. If that doesn't work, try running the stock through the dishwasher a few times, sand it up and then throw it in a sealed container filled with linseed oil and run it around in the trunk of your car for a week. The thing may come out looking brand new and hand-rubbed. 20 years from now, the stock may get as bad as it is now, and all you have to do is repeat the procedure. This is a camp gun, afterall-- not something from the Custom Shop.

You didn't mention changing caliber, so I assume the 8x57 is accurate enough.

* recrown barrel

* hand polish the metal cold blue it yourself with Brownell's

* replace military front sight with inexpensive ramp, like pre-64 Winchester hooded ones from SARCO for $10.00

* Lyman aperture sight on the rear. Remove the military ladder sight and plug the holes with plug screws.

* Oberndorf style stock from Great American Gunstocks, in plain walnut, no checkering, satin finished with Brownell's synthetic polymer.

* Glass bed the action and float the rest. Play with shimming pressure and maybe go back and glass bed some off the barrel to tune it.

If you have a few bucks left and feel wild,

* Replace the bolt handle with a buttknife handle

* Warne bases and rings, Weaver steel tube K-4 or old Redfield, as mentioned above.

* Hinged floorplate

Load up some reduced cast lead rounds to break it in, polish the bore and have cheap fun with it.

Shaman-
The barrel's actually in excellent condition. I can see no pits and the bore is very clean. I plan on going to work on it with a good bore solvent to further clean it. I think I'm leaning towards a scope. While I like the idea of doing a peep sight, I'm in the same boat as Shaman- I just don't trust my eyes that much any more. Unfortunately, inspection of my junk box turned up no useable scopes. I'll have to pick one up. I'm going to look for an old Weaver K-4. (I just can't pass up an ugly old Weaver-especially for an ugly old gun!) If I don't run across a Weaver, I'll probably just pick up a low end fixed 4 power. There's a lot of them out there, and I don't necessarily know if any of them are any better than the others, but I've used Simmons, Tasco, and Bushnell, and for what I'm putting together here, any one of these would work just fine. As for the stock, I just want to try a drop in fiberglass job. I'm trying to keep this cheap and functional, so I'll go for a plain flat black finish probably. The bolt handle and safety will need to be worked on. The bolt comes straight out off the side of the stock. It would never clear a scope, so will need to be bent. I'll get the safety chaged out at the same time. Once we see where we're at money-wise at this point, I'll make a decision about the fate of the clunky military sights. I don't know which sub-model this Mauser is, but it's got the worst rear sight I've ever encountered on one of these guns. With the elevation ramp all the down, you can barely see down the barrel because the notch is so small and shallow. To me these sights are useless, so money permitting, I'll have them removed and shed the extra weight. There are no plans to switch barrels, as this is to be a low end project. 8mm's a fine deer round, and once again, this is strictly a back-up or loaner rifle. Thanks for your input guys.