Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats ***Custom 6.5X55 off to the Metalsmith***

My custom project rifle hit the road to Jim Dubell at Delta Gun Shop for metal work and arrived last week.

The gun is being built to resemble a 1920/30s English stalking rifle. The action is a Montana 1999 short action [perfect size for 6.5X55 and 7X57 Mauser class cartridges], but I am having it modified to resemble the original sporter Mausers with a straight pear shaped bolt handle and square bridges that double as bases for the scope mounts. I personally had issues with using a Mauser action and went with the Montana, but that is just my preference.

The barrel is a Montana creation, but it mimics the profiles used by both Mauser and those shipped to H&H and Westley Richards. The barrel is 25 inches long with a 1:7.5� twist and will have an NECG barrel band front with a barrel banded front swivel base. The rear sight is on a barrel-banded island with an express sight insert one up and two down.

The stock will be fairly straight, but with a pancake oval cheek-piece and both a metal grip cap and buttplate on a 14 7/8 inch LOP. The rear sling swivel base will be a two-screw model. Forend will be made of burl African blackwood [a rosewood just like cocobolo and Brazilian rosewood]. The checkering will be similar to a classic English mullered boarder, but with a double outline instead of a triple, it will however be simple in overall design.

The wood for the stock came from New Zealand and is a nice piece of English walnut, but the figure and color are reserved just the way I like it.

The finish on the rifle will probably be Carbonia blueing.

The open sights on this rifle will be regulated for firing the 155-160 grain bullets and filed accordingly. The scope on the rifle will be sighted in for the most accurate 140 grain slug either leaded, or all copper. I plan on keeping the velocities to what the cartridge was designed for and probably consistent with Euro loadings today. I do not believe in pushing a cartridge to the maximum loads.







Below is the type of bolt handle that I want installed on my rifle.



Here is the African blackwwod that will go on the fore-end as soon as I choose which piece to use. One of them has curly/fiddleback grain [piece that also has sap wood] and the other has small pockets of burl and irregular grain pattern. The wood came out in the photo lighter in color than in person. It is basically jet black with barely noticeable grain.

Tell me what you think and which one you would use?


[img]http://img151.imagevenue.com/loc424/th_63402_P1010035_122_424lo.JPG[/img] [img]http://img148.imagevenue.com/loc557/th_63409_P1010036_122_557lo.JPG[/img]

When the gun is finished I will post more pictures. I am still firming up the stockmaker

I'm still wondering about how that bolt handle will work with today's scope heights and stock shape, but I'm sure you've considered it.

That's an interesting use of regulating open sights for one bullet style and planning the scope for use with another; I like it. You get the flatter trajectories where the scope's in use and the heavier bullet where the open sights are more useful. Neat concept.

I can't recall reading about who you're using for the stock.

This is a really nice concept. Keep sharing, please.

Edited to say: No opinion on black forend tips, as I prefer the unadorned look of the walnut forend.

Jaywalker

I have a piece of blackwood, although I could probably only get a buttplate spacer out of it

stunning wood. Black as the night

Andrew

It certainly should be a handsome rifle when done. Without seeing the blackwood samples, I can't choose. I actually like the bolt handle as pictured on top a bit better, but that's neither here nor there as it's your project. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the post.

333:

Thanks for the update on this project. I'm very interested in the outcome, so I hope you'll keep treating us to more photos and info as it comes together.

- TJM

Will do. I enjoy letting you all know about my toy!

Post deleted by 333_okh

Chic Worthing

Wow, sounds like a classic beauty!
14 7/8 lop...you've got some looonng arms ! Won't have to worry about me borrowing your rifle! Keep the pictures coming please.

Blacktail53,

I am 6'8" so the arms are long for sure.

how was your blacktail season this year???

It has been a while but I have the first pictures from Jim Dubell at Delta Guns Shop of the finished metalwork on the barreled action. I should have it in hand in a few weeks. I think this might be the finest looking MRC 1999 SA I have seen to date!







It has a modified bolt release, modified floorplate release, larger new pear shaped bolt handle, double square bridge scope mounts for Talleys, Rechnagel 3 leaf [one standing two folding] barrel banded rear sight, NECG barrel banded front sight with hood, stoned and polished action, trigger job,lugs and barrel lapped, recontouring the trigger guard bow, and cut the draft on the bottom metal.

I think I got it all down, but I may have missed something by not going back through my notes and Jim's e-mails.

I am not familiar with have of what you described, but the pictures are great! Definitely looking forward to the finished project!

If you have any questions about the plans or the rifle, feel free to ask.

Very well done indeed. I am currently building a 35 Whelen on a MRC, so I know what y'all are dealing with. One thing about the actions is that they give you plenty of metal to work with.The factory bolt handle has all the style of a truck axle. I really like the recontoured both release; that is way too blocky to start with. The reshaping of the trigger bow is headed the right direction but I would tell Jim to keep going. The cross section could be thinned and rounded more and and more of a tapered waist run down to the stock waterline. You might also ask him what problems are going to be caused by the flat cross section at the rear of the trigger guard. It lacks the slope around the screw hole that a Mauser has and limits the way in which the contour of the pistol grip flows into the bottom metal. And if I did not already have my stock inletted, I would have the tang reshaped ala pre-war Model 70s.

But there is way more about your project that I think is spot on than I think is not.

You are also braver than I in ordering your front sight post before the work is done. I wasn't confident enough in my trigonometry to make sure I was ordering the right height.

Maybe I take back my comments on the trigger bow needing more shaping. I figured out how to enlarge the photos, and the RH side photo makes it look just about right.

Thanks for the ideas Utah.

This whole project was a leap of faith, but Dubell made it seem easier than I was planning. In fact a few of the ideas where his and I cannot take credit for them, such as the bolt release rework. If you have the opportunity to work with him, you should.

I have taken a lot of flak for not just using an old war surplus Mauser of an FN for the action since I am changing the MRC to look like a pre-war commercial Mauser and not the M/70 side of its design, but I wanted a new action that was tight and crisp. Some say it is too heavy, but hell, it will have a 15" LOP with an express sighted 25 inch medium contour barrel....damned thing isnt a featherweight and was never indended to be. I am not a lightweight either, but I current carry a 9 pound rifle every year into the wilderness areas we have locally and it is just fine. I will worry about weight elsewhere.

As soon as it gets in I will be mailing it and the stockwood to Bill Gostomski in Maryland for a classic English stalking rifle pattern.

UPS better be nice to me! The barreled action, the walnut blank, and the African blackwood are all in a package together on the way to Bill Gostomski in Maryland for a stock...........

333:

I love what you're doing. Keep those photos coming.

- TJM

They will start cutting the pattern stock for an old english stalking rifle week after next.