Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats I'm just going to leave this here......

So I ordered in three of these actions--one for me, one for my father, and one for someday.

Quite a bit of variation in the three. One is pretty nice. The bolt is polished, rather than blued, and by the feel of it, the action has had some hand work. The second is just medium, functions, but nothing fancy. The third will not function. Just like TC1's, the bolt will not lift out of the notch if the firing pin is down.

The finish below the waterline is rough, and above it is none too great. Some time with 400 grit paper will improve that.

For the price I think these are a great deal. I have spent as much as these actions cost to get a Gentry 3-position safety fitted. I have spent more than the cost of these actions on just bottom metal. I think these are better than the Zastava actions imported in recent years. They will take some handwork and fitting--an investment in labor that simply can not be justified in actions selling at this price point.

I think that when the finished rifles start appearing, there will be people who wished they had bought one when they had the chance.

You bet Utah, got the stick today, will send pics to Terry.

Posted for Gunner500

Many Thanks TC1, sorry for the late reply, been clearing the farm, outbuildings, equipment sheds and barns with the Hi-Po's and county Sheriff, there's an escaped convict in the neighborhood, bad dude, hope he don't pick me.

Now, back on track, that little action will fit that stock with just a wee bit of fitting, barrel should have been here today, got it from Kriegers stock pile of in-stock blanks.

Gunner500 - Can we get some details on the stock? Like how you were about to produce/find a fine stick like that in such a short time? Soon to be empty wallets and short attention spans need to know!

Seems like the consensus on these actions is that they are a very good value, with some varying degrees of fit and finish between examples received.

For those that have these in-hand, is there anything that would discourage you from opening the bolt-face and chambering to a larger cartridge? Say something along the lines of a 9.3x64 Brenneke.

Has anyone, by chance, seen one of the finished rifles sold by Dumoulin?

I wonder if the desired end result of building a rifle on one of these actions might be more easily accomplished by having a Gentry shroud and safety fitted to a CZ.
That, of course, wouldn't include the fancy bottom metal, but the CZ is good enough, if not perfect.

By the way, currently the CZ site doesn't show the 550 American. The push-feed 557 seems to be taking the place of the 550. There should still be plenty in the pipe for now.

I do not know of any reason a 9.3x64 would not fit, with a little bolt face and feed rails work. If you know of a particular dimension that could be problematic, I could measure the ones I have for you.

No, the price of the CZ550 3-position safety almost exceeds the price of the complete M-98 action and that's before installation. After it's complete you still don't have a Mauser action, you have a CZ. Not bad but if you want a Mauser you need to buy a Mauser. To me that's like wanting a Winchester M70 but buying a Remington 700 and paying three times the price for it. Don't forget you'll still need a barrel and another stock for the CZ also, We are talking custom rifles here.

If this action wasn't the answer for me, my next choice would be to buy an FN and gut it for the action.

LOL, we all have them, you know the guys that wanna buy every damn rifle you have, they whine, beg, bribe, plead and conspire.

I have passed many a fine weapon across a truck hood or poker table when the cabbage pile was correct, so goes the story with this stock.

One of the pleader Buds of mine had that stock and was gonna build something on it forever, I called and said look, your never gonna build chit with that stock, you're to busy scheming my stuff, hand it over, I said, I need it for a 400 Whelen build.

Was out of the loop a bit yesterday, he text'd me and said he put it in my tractor seat when I was gone and that I was welcome and we're even.

I guess having friends like that pays off at times...............well, it did this time anyway. lol

Oh yeah, barrel got here today too, UPS hand said the Coppers directed them away from here yesterday afternoon, guess it was on the count of the escaped convict in the area.

BTW, Stock Bud is a Copper, so he got in.

I guess I need to get myself some new friends! Most are cheap bastards that still run Pappy's old Savage in '06. Good folks but they can't fathom how I can spend $600 just on a Mcm stock when they can buy a complete rifle with scope for that much.

For me it started out of necessity. At 6'6" I need a 14.5"+ lop so it started with the stock and my one looney friend got me into the 280AI about 10 years ago... It's been an expensive downhill obsession ever since. I am hooked and y'all don't help!

Congrats on the stock. That 400 is going to be a stelar build. I can't wait to see the finished product.

I was thinking more in terms of a nice hunting rifle than a full-blown custom. I've never seen a CZ in the flesh, but was under the impression that aside from the side safety, shroud and possibly the magazine box, it was essentially a 98. The Gentry safety for the CZ is, for some reason, priced about $90 above the 98 version. Who'd a thunk it?

Domoulin Herstal is a well known name in the custom rifle industry and they use this action for their rifles. They have a few kinks that need to be worked out but a good gunsmith can do that without any trouble.

High end custom Mausers are made with a wide variety of actions from $4000 Granite Mountain actions to $75 Mil-Surp's. With a custom Mauser it's not what you start with it's what you end up with that determines it's value. I've seen quite a few customs built on Zastavia actions from some of the the finest builders around (Shane Thompson, James Anderson, Duane Weibe, Ralf Martini.) From the Zastavia Mini Mauser to the left handed M98 action they make. Once cleaned up they make a fine rifle.

The CZ has some Mauser features but so does a Winchester M70. It's not a Mauser. The fact still remains, a CZ 550 3 position safety cost almost as much as this entire action alone and I would take one of these over a CZ 550 for a high end or budget build. Not that there is anything wrong with a CZ 550 but it's not my choice. If it's yours that's cool but maybe it belongs on a different thread.

i got both of my actions tuesday. they both seem to function fine.
although the feed lips on one seems to be really sharp and needs some clean up. one had a polished bolt and one blued

Actually, my taste runs to M70s and FNs. The features of these Dumoulins are impressive and certainly they are solid enough. I have to wonder if fixing the various finish and function issues cited make it in general a better idea to go ahead and use an FN rather than paying $70 or so an hour for a gunsmith to sort them out.

Then again, after pricing the Blackburn and Sunny Hill bottom metal, as well as the Gentry safeties, the fog's starting to lift!

As I've mentioned on another recent thread, my late brother had a wonderful 7mm RM built on a Zastava by Brown Precision back in the '80s, possibly the best hunting rifle I've ever personally used.

LOL on the rifle kits at wally world, I like a 14" lop at 6'2", balances better for me, especially using 25/26" barrels.

I am very fortunate on this build, getting that stock was a major hurdle cleared.

If Andy up at Sunny Hill would get off his ass and send me my rings I'd gather up all these pieces and haul em up to the Smith for completion of this fun little project.