Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing So I have this Spanish Mauser action...

...and I've been wanting to turn it into something more useful than a paperweight. I'm getting started on the project and I have some questions.

1. Is there any difference in magazine springs between 93's, 96's and 98's? This one needs to be replaced and Numrich is out of stock of mag springs for Spanish mauser's.

2. The floorplate has been bent a bit about half an inch away from the hinge, like somebody tried to close it on something once (you can kind of see it in this picture).

What is the best way to straighten that? As rusty as the bottom metal is, I'm not sure I want to try to remove the hinge pin.

3. My watchword for this project is "inexpensive". In light of that, I plan to forgo a scope and install a front sight ramp and receiver mounted peep. The barrel I'm using has a muzzle diameter of 0.550 inch. I can't find any place that lists the width of the base of a Williams front sight ramp, and from the pictures I am a little concerned that the ramp may be too wide for my barrel. Can anyone tell me how wide one of those ramps is at it's base?

4. Is there any reason why I might want to avoid a Williams receiver mounted peep in favor of some other company's product?

Thanks in advance. I've been sitting on this thing for a long time, and I'm looking forward to getting it up and running.

Greg

Suppose a 95 or 96 magazine spring may work, but may need some alteration.

As to your floorplate, I'd rig something using my benchvise to try to straighten it with out removing it.

As to the Williams peep sight. Had one on a 91 Argentine I bought back in the late 60s. Think todays Williams is still the same one. Its OK. Only negative thing about it to me was it had no knobs to turn to adjust elevation/windage.....used a small screwdriver to make adjustments.

Thanks huffmanite.

I actually see the no knobs on the Williams sight as a plus. No knobs means no knobs to get accidentally spun around, throwing your point of aim off.

It looks like Numrich does have springs for 96 mausers. I will probably have to go with that, because as far as I can find, my only other option is a $29 spring for a 98 from Brownells.

Now, can anybody tell me anything about a Williams front sight ramp?

Again, thanks.
Greg

Looks like a paperweight to me. Nothing like throwing good money after bad. On the other hand, everyone should experience the ecstasy (and the agony) of building a Mauser sporter at least once in his life, so go for it if you wish.

As for sights, don't eschew old school Lyman/Redfield receiver sights simply because they have knobs on them. Go with whatever you find that fits your budget. Having owned and used more receiver sights in my life than Carter's got little liver pills, I never once had the issue of a "knobbed sight" letting me down in that regard.

I have been sporterized Mausers since 1965.
Some of them are almost finished.
It is never cost effective.

My brother in 2014 shot a mule buck with an off the shelf Rem700 he got for $75 from the neighbor.
His shop for sporterizing Mausers is bigger than his house.

I have as much heavy machinery as he does for sporterizing Mausers, and I shot a mule buck and an antelope buck in 2014 with an off the shelf Browning 1885 I got for $1600 off the internet.

Sporterizing Mausers, you have to WANT to do it.

Well, I want to do this. This will most likely be the only Mauser I ever sporterize, though it may not be the only rifle I ever build/rebuild. I bought the complete rifle off a friend of mine a long time ago for $75. It was in bad shape, but the receiver was sound and the bottom metal was usable so I decided to go ahead and sporterize it. I then discovered that as a broke college student, I had neither the money nor the knowhow to finish the job and I forgot about it for a while.

I've done some minor gunsmithing projects since then with good results, and a few months ago I was reminded about this action and decided to tackle this project finally. You know, take a step up in learning these skills.

And for what it's worth, I've managed to jump on some deals and I think I can finish this whole thing for around $400 including dies a couple boxes of bullets and a pound or two of powder. Now, will it be worth $400 minus reloading stuff to someone else once I'm done? Most likely not, but that's OK. I'll do my best to get $400 of use out of it and call it a wash. Then I'll also have the experience and some new skills to my name, and I figure that will put me ahead.

All the same, thanks for the advice. I'm sure I will have other questions about this as I get started, so you'll probably see me back here.

Greg

Greg: your mauser might be a good project gun for a1 or two week NRA gunsmithing class at participating gunsmithing schools - uisually in the summer. I went to Lassen college in northern cal. goggle Nra gunsmithing schools for more info. I worked on my arisaka type 99 at lassen college and eventually made up a Arisaka National Match rifle in '06.

Thanks for that. Murray State would be the one that I would most likely attend. The timing won't work for me this year though. It looks like they do have some classes I would be interested in taking in the future though.

Right now, I'm relying on the book "Gunsmithing Made Easy" by Bryce Towsley along with copious reading on the internet, and my own mechanical i̶n̶e̶p̶t̶i̶t̶u̶d̶e̶ aptitude to get me through this project. That's why I decided to ask questions here, to get answers to questions I haven't been able to find on my own.

I started my rifle building on Mausers. But you could get a clean 98 for $50 and a small ring for $19. So if you screwed up something you hadn't lost a lot. So go for it. My only advice is on the small ring Spainsh keep it in an appropriate caliber for the action. And in today's world no you can't com out building one. To many very good entry level rifles on the market.

I hear you on the appropriate caliber for the action. It is going to remain a 7 x 57 and I will not be chasing velocity.

OK, so I have my next question. Is it strictly necessary to use the attaching screw that comes with a sweat on front sight ramp? This won't be a heavy recoiling rifle, and I will be using silver solder to attach the ramp.

Also, if it is necessary, how much material should I leave below the hole in the barrel?

Have you considered 6.5x55?

g5m

I very briefly considered 6.5x55. For whatever reason, 7x57 just appeals to me more. I know I'd get better BC's from 6.5 bullets which would help given the lower pressures I'm limited to, but I never said this project was intended to be the most rational rifle I could build on this action.

Regardless, the reamer has been ordered and I will be starting on the project next weekend, so it's too late for me to be making changes now.

Greg,

I would have a gunsmith examine the action for set back in the locking area. In the past I have found several cock on closing Mauser actions to be soft and can have set back to where the action should be in the scrap pile. There are several 98 actions for a little more money and will be much safer to use. When Paul Mauser designed actions he started with about 6 model changes before he had the best action the 98 model. Check bolt face for firing pin hole may be too large

Les Brooks, retired gunsmith

Well, I am in the middle of a week of staycation, so the barrel has been installed, and the chamber reamed to it's final depth. I test fired it last night. This was our redneck test firing fixture. It worked.


The floorplate popped open with each shot, but I haven't tried straightening it yet. Doing that will increase its engagement with the latch, and if that doesn't work I'll just have to get creative.

More worryingly, out of the 10 shots we fired, 5 of them pierced primers.

It's the five on the left here. We noticed that the firing pin dents were quite a bit deeper than what is normal. When I got home I measured the firing pin protrusion, which was just more than .060. My understanding is that it should be closer to .040. Is that right? And is there any reason why I can't just stone about .020 off the end of the firing pin?

LGB
I'm no gunsmith, but I am an engineer (which some people will argue makes me completely unqualified for everything), and I examined the bolt lugs under magnification and saw no sign of setback at all on them. I also examined the lug abutments as best I could. There was certainly a "burnished" area under the lug on each abutment, but it didn't appear to be set back much if at all. I know these actions can be soft, and in light of that, I have purchased a field gauge and plan to use it routinely. if I am ever able to close the bolt on the field gauge my plan is to stuff a case full of the fastest powder I have on hand, tie a loooong string to the trigger, set up some cameras, and try to become youtube famous for a day.

Again, thanks for the replies and advice,
Greg

Firing pin protrusion should be .052-.056. Don't take it down to .040...maybe .050 even. powdr

I've sportorized so many Mausers in the last 50 years, looking back I would buy a cheap Savage with a smile on my face!

Thanks powdr,

I can't get a picture of it because it's so small, but the tip of the firing pin has a small divot in it. Under magnification it appears to be almost perfectly round and perfectly centered, almost like it's supposed to be there. I'm guessing my five weren't the first primers it's ever pierced. I'll just try to smooth out the divot and see what happens after that.

It appears that you don't listen to some of the more experienced. I see from your posts that you have a bomb in your hands and don't understand the results of your work.

First the firing pin appears to be oversized much more than the standard of .002 larger than the firing pin point. The point of strike on the primer shows that it is too far off center. The chamber may be oversize or the action allows the bolt to set too low. The dia. of the point should be in the .055 to .057 length. Check the dia. of the bolt firing pin hole with some small drills and then check the dia. of the firing pin and see how much of extra space clearance.

I have seen almost all actions blown up over the last 50 yrs. I remember one guy that didn't listen to what I said about a rifle. The next time he came into the shop with his hand wrapped up I asked what happened. He said I only lost part of my middle finger when it blew up. Just for your information I was a full time gunsmith for over 50yrs. I didn't want to see your get hurt by not understanding what is going on with that action. You don't have protection from the gas release from the firing pin hole on the Spanish action. The 98 models have a protection shield on the bolt sleeve shroud.

I would never allow a chamber to except a field gage for the modern shells of today. Too much pressure and no protection when it blows up. Remember the 92 to 95 models are designed for 40,000 lbs and the shells in the 7X57 modern cartridges can be into the 50,000 lbs range.