Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles How do you bed a Mauser?t

I have 4 sporterised Mausers, 2 of which are Yugo 24/47s, one 98 and one Zastava Charles Daly commercial Mauser. I'm trying to bed the Charles Daly. I've bedded several Remington 700s and one Model 70. I've never had problems with any of the rest but this Mauser is a pain. Any suggestions? Or anybody have a procedure?

What's the "pain?" The front lug? The tang? The mag box? What?

Of course it's not like a 700 which is just a cylinder. Not that different from a Model 70 (or at least the 64s) but those have a third action screw (or is that the darn RUGERS?). Been so long since that Model 70 I've forgotten.

You might have to bed in "phases." I have pillar-bedded all my 98s and didn't do any of them all at once. I concentrated on making sure thngs were "de-stressed, basically letting things cure upside down while the whole thing was supported by the barrel. Another point is to get the bottom metal and action just clear, just so, of each other in the final fit. Sometimes the contact there can cause inconsistent voodoo things to happen.

Yes, where is the pain ?

I need to see or hear what you do. I am doing it in phases but I wanted to see how others do it. The model 70 has a recoil lug independent of the front action screw. This screw into the bottom of the recoil lug of a Mauser makes it difficult to bed without gluing the bolt in. However, if you pull it off the Mauser system makes it like a pillar bed. The front bolt goes into a pillar that's part of the bottom metal and is bolted to the recoil lug making for a very solid bedding. I like that about the action. I guess it's just different than what I'm used to.

What I guess I'm asking is if some of you could explain what you do. I now think I've figured it out but I would like to hear other people's procedure. Walk me through what you do. That's what I'm asking.

Candy is dandy, liquor is quicker.

I pillar bed the rear first, then put about 3 layers of electrical tape on the barrel from about 1 1/2" up from the front ring and fill in EVERYWHERE you don't want bedding with plumbers puddy. I then Pro-Bed the whole darn thing. Seems to work for me.

"Hey, how you doin'?"

Dinner, flowers and a massage, why?

People want to know how to bed this action, or that one,
think it through.

You have bolts coming up from the bottom, screwing into the action.
When you are done, the action will be supported where those bolts enter.
No or neutral contact anywhere else on the bottom.
You don't want any spot to provide a fulcrum to the screws energy,
thus torqueing the action.

That's how you bed an action, no big deal on which.
There are concerns, your Maurer has a tiny tang (be glad it's not Irish)
that will be obvious. Bed it, the rear needs support.

+1 Dillonbuck. Teeter-totter on the front action screw equals wild fliers. Mule Deer covered this well recently in Rifle #303.

You mightget some headless bolts to use alongwit surgical tubing to wrap around the assembly o squeeze it together. Brownells used to have both. Makes a Mauser a little friendlier to bed.

The rear tang will sometimes have a steel sleeve in place.
The front lug should seat into the recess in the front pillar of the trigger guard.
Unless the stock is not inleted properly there should be no need to pillar bed. The first 1.5" of the barrel, maybe. Free float the rest unless you're using a very thin taper barrel.
Then use a pressure point at the forend.

I made bedding blocks so Mauser barrelled actions could drop in and play musical chairs with bedded stocks.
The idea was 3 points of contact for rifling torque reaction; the two bottom sides of the recoil lug and the rear pillar
The idea for the rear recoil thrust was a steel face against the lower part of the recoil lug.

I knew this was hard to make compatible with 98 Mausers and 1891 Mausers because of length, so I did not. The surprise was that some Mausers are cast. The bottom of those recoil lugs can be rough as a cob. If there is enough metal, those recoil lugs can be milled flat.

Wow, Clark, that's wild!
I've done something "similar," a giant round pillar cut like a logging stump with a "chairback" to support the bottom/rear of the recoil lug and bottom of the action.. I suppose for a 35 375 and up build, that thing of yours works great. I love the big ring around the final pillar. Now, THAT's bearing surface!

But for me, that's total overkill, but pretty darn slick thinking. Are you going to strip the blue tape and then skim-bed?

You could probably do it simpler and better than I did, but I was trying to make my many Mausers actions drop in lock in tight.

I do have one Mauser "test stock," a total butcher job out of a battered South American railroad tie. It's pillared on both ends with a giant barrel channel, it's a great way to see if the latest milsurp or commercial pawnshop gem has any potential. If I ever do that again, I'll probably make it "adjustable" up front with a set-screw arrangement pushing on a "plate" cradling the forward part of the ring. So far it's been a good test mule, I know right away whether I've got a keeper or a tomato stake.

Under the tang and the flat behind the recoil lug the idea being to provide a large contact area for the receiver when the action screws get torqued. Big contact patch, lotsa friction, things don't move. Back of the recoil lug, back ONLY, after relieving plenty of wood. The idea being recoil forces get spread evenly across the width of the recoil lug. No hotspots or stress risers to split the wood. About an inch and a half of the barrel or so for no other reason than it feels right. Action/barrel is free floated everywhere else. Be sure to leave a little space at the back of the tang. You see lots of cracks there particularly as the inletting shrinks over time. This is easy to do in one step.

You could pillar bed, I do sometimes, but I'm not convinced it helps much for a sporting rifle.

Overall the idea is to bed only where needed. And that's where the force of recoil couples to the stock. Contact anywhere else just adds another variable you don't need.

You may want contact between the barrel and the stock in the form of a pad near the end of the forearm. Can tame barrels that weren't completely stress relieved or don't like your load. But that's for later.

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I run plenty of grease into that front action bolt hole with a Q-Tip and more grease on the bolt threads and never had a problem. Have had to use a bottoming tap to clean out epoxy when I got sloppy but that's no big deal. I use stockmaker's screws to loosely hold the action where I want it to be in the stock, barely finger tight. Action screws work too. You want the action to rest squarely and gently on the epoxy pads you are making.

"You could pillar bed, I do sometimes, but I'm not convinced it helps much for a sporting rifle."

I agree with this statement. I remember when Pillar Bedding first started getting popular. It was supposed to be for hard recoiling rifles to keep from splitting the stock by spreading the recoil over a wider area. I really see no benefit for a sporting rifle of moderate recoil. Then they came out with bedding blocks which there again spread the recoil over a wider area but at the same time made it easier to do. But for accuracy improvement on a sporting rifle, I see no gain in pillar bedding.

However, I have done a variation in pillar bedding that I believe DOES help with accuracy becase it really mates the stock to the metal and distributes vibration very well. I did this about 30 years back with my post 63 Model 70. I cast pillars with epoxy into the stock and then drilled them out on a drill press. This was an old trick I learned from reading Warren Page. You drill out the front bolt hole with a 3/4 " bit, fill the hole with epoxy, clamp the barreled action into the stock and let it cure. Then drill out. Then do the back bolt with a 1/2" bit and fill with epoxy and bolt the action in with the front bolt and clamp the rear. Again, when it's cured drill it out. Then bed over the everything tying it all together. My model 70 has been that way for over 30 years. It shoots great and temperature and/or humidity don't seem to faze it. I did it on a Model 700 with similar results. However these are different from a pure Mauser.

I always thought of pillar bedding as useful to maintain a constant pre-stress on the action screws as the stock changed size ever so slightly with the weather. But the exact pre-stress, or action screw torque for that matter, isn't critical in a properly bedded rifle. Enough to maintain enough friction that the action doesn't move. A little more doesn't hurt. May gain some advantage in a target rifle though. The way I do it is the side of the action screws don't touch anything. One less variable to wonder about.

BTW, did a couple 700s for a friend using the same approach, bed where the action screws pull the action against the stock and float everywhere else. Came out surprisingly good. Adjusted triggers to minimum and we worked up loads. Astoundingly accurate though the barrels did like a little upward pressure.

I test trigger safety by bouncing a rubber mallet around the action simulating a fall or drop. If you ever want to feel exceedingly stupid do this with a 700 and look at the action trying to figure out what's wrong with this picture. Then glance at the floor and see the bolt handle. And wonder how am I gonna explain this one. (Bad braze job of course.)