Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles What did I get and did I do ok?

Not necessarily. Generally when floating a barrel, you float the whole thing. Even under the barrel channel. It is obvious that whoever did it, did not really know what they were doing. However, if the action was slightly loose in the stock, that may have been just enough to stabilize it in the stock. Even though it looks crude, it may have made the rifle shoot better, so they left it like that. A lot of guys don't really care what the bedding looks like, since their thought is no one is going to see it anyway. I'm a lot more anal about stuff because I always think about what someone is going to think if I had to sell the rifle. I want it to look presentable and professional. In the back of my mind I'm always thinking eventually you are going to have to sell your rifles. The op's rifle is a cool one. I hope to hear more about it. I don't generally talk about mausers, but I recently bought one for cheap. I have worked on them a time or 2, but much more familiar with model 70's and Ruger 77's and old m1917's. The mauser is the great grand daddy to all of these rifles though, so there is some familiarity there. If it were me, I'd glass bed the recoil lug and freefloat the barel. The whole barrel, even under the chamber area. Just did that on the new Mauser I just bought. I did not want to mess with freefloating it, but it had to be done. The rifle was inletted very well. Nice and tight through the whole barrel channel and receiver. However, it did not shoot to its full potential. Here's how the barrel channel looks after I freefloated the barrel and sealed the wood:

I am a "bubba" of sorts, as I do most of my work with a dremel and steady hand. Take out material in short order, then do final sanding with a socket wrapped with coarse sand paper. it's quick, but you have to be careful. This new to me Mauser, ended up with a nice freefloat shown here:


Take a look at the receiver to wood fit in this pic:

That receiver fits snug, like it was poured into the stock Great work by H&R. ^^^^ Also, generous freefloat now, the way I like it, so I can use a bipod or shoot over a pack and be sure the stock is not going to touch the barrel. With the recoil lug properly bedded and the barrel freefloated, the rifle shoots like this now:




That is with ammo not even worked up in this rifle, but ammo that usually works well in every 30-06 I have. That is a big difference between how it shot when I got the rifle. I'm hoping with a little work, the OP's rifle will shoot well too. I'd do safety checks on it first though. Pull out the go/no go gauges, just to be sure headspace falls within spec.

Now, after looking at the pics of the op's rifle, you can see that the receiver is not inletted as well as the rifle I show pics of. Because of that, I'd glass bed the whole forward section of the receiver to wood at the recoil lug area. Leave the pad of crap bedding that is there. After you do your bedding, remove that glop of bedding under the chamber area. I'd also remove the burrs on top of the receiver at the scope mount screw holes. That is a big no no to have burrs like that on your scope mount surfaces. Imperfections like that always lead to trouble down the road. I always deburr the scope mounts themselves and then blue loc tite the mount screws, not the ring screws. I know this is a lot of info, but it's how I'd approach the OP's rifle.