Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Mauser build for my son

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Looking very nice.

That will be a fine rifle for your son ....

The only small critique I would have to offer is that the forend looks a bit long for that bbl.

You are absolutely right, it is. But that is just the way it came from Richards, I haven't addressed it yet. The next step will be to cut it back and add a forend tip. I still have some of the African Blackwood that I used on the previous stock.

much enjoying this thread. thank you ...

Looking great!

Yep. Coming right along. Looks very promising!

Thumbs up!

Looking very nice! Gonna be beautiful. If you are up for a little critique, you could file the tang down a little to give the grip a more graceful curve.....

Yes !... like this...
File the wood and the metal down at the same time... 15 minutes and you go from clunky to graceful...

You guys have a good eye! The tang of the receiver has already been taken down, the wood has not been taken down to the metal yet. I hope to get that done maybe Friday.

UPDATE**
Like everyone else I'm sure, I've been busy with things that have kept me from getting much done. But I've made some progress:

It was time to cut the forearm and add the tip, but what length should the forend be? I am aware of 3 'rules' to use to determine the length of the forend; First is the "Golden Mean". The Golden Mean works like this, take the length of the barrel visible in front of the receiver (don't count the shank that is screwed in) and divide by 1.618. That will give you the length of the barrel past the end of the forearm. The second rule I am aware of is to divide the visible barrel length in half and add one inch. That is the length past the forend. In this case the difference between these two 'rules' was about 2". the forend would have been about 2 inches longer using the Golden Mean than the Half+1 rule.
In the photos I'm using the first stock that was already cut it's not the stock that will be on this rifle.





In the end I used the third rule that I am aware of. To me this rule is easier. The third rule is to look at the barrel length along with the stock and cut it to what looks good without measuring. In this case, and I feel I must emphasize that I had marked this rule before using the others, this rule was actually just a bit shorter than the Half+1 rule.

So I measure and marked the stock to cut. My mark is off, the measure was on the bottom of the stock. It's right and at the right angle, just ignore the pencil mark.



I cut the end of the forearm off with my miter saw. And a note, use a very sharp blade. Mine is getting dull and I got just a little tear out which I had to fix. I had a 'kit' that had 1/4" dowels and a drill along with a spot punch. This time since I had used most of the African Blackwood I had on the last stock, I reverted back to using the ebony I had. My tip starts at 2". I like it that length although most say to use 1 1/2". I like it longer because when I round it off it makes it look not too short to me. My project, my preference. Your milage may vary. I drilled a hole in the stock, made sure the dowel would go at least half way into it, then added the punch to the hole, held the ebony up to it and gave it a whack with a wooden mallet. This drilled the hole in the right spot.


I gave the epony a good wipe down with acetone, then mixed the West Systems epoxy with some dark sanding dust and coated the end of the stock, dowel and the hole. Pushed the dowel in and clamped it all together. Just for grins because I knew I was going to sand it all away anyway, I spread some epoxy on the forend just to get an idea how the finished product might look.



After the epoxy had cured, I took it over to the belt sander and rounded the tip and started working on the shape of the fore arm.



I marked the barrel and carefully with chisels and scrapers cut the barrel channel.



You can see in the photo above where the dull blade caused some tear out on the stock. That's gonna have to be filled and fixed later.

Then I started shaping the rest of the stock, rounding the forend etc. I used a compass to mark around the magazine box. The mark was my 'do not pass' line for shaping the stock.



As I said before, the inletting on the stock was great. The outside shaping of the stock was a bit rough, but it is what I expected. Previous photos showed how much could be taken off around the grip area for instance. The outside of the stock was rough, I would say it looked like it had been 'sanded' with about 60 grit. Lots of marks from shaping. Most of that was not an issue at all. The only place that really took some time and effort was the cheek piece. This stock is supposed to have a "shadow line' cheek piece. It was rough.



The shadow line wasn't even. That's not a criticism of Richards, its just a point of fact. I had to use chisels and file with a dead side, or one side of the file was smooth and had no teeth. I have that area competed as best I can. Everything was shaped and sanded.


I inlet some swivel bases. I don't have a picture yet, guess I have to show them as finished. The bases I am using are Talley and about 20 years old. They are not made anymore. They are a hidden base or a smooth base. I get some pics tomorrow.

My inletting around the swivel bases was not great, not even that good to be honest. I had to fill some areas. I also had areas around the bottom metal that needed filling. I will tell you what I have found. I experimented with using clear epoxy and adding sanding dust to make a filler. Using sanding dust from the piece of wood I cut off the forend and mixing with epoxy resulted in a very dark area that really stood out. I tried the same dust with very thin superglue and it also stood out. Both of those experiments I coverd with epoxy like I plan to use on the stock and they were very apparent. I then set about mixing various shades of dust to try to get a match. I found that the filler needs to be about half as dark as the stock before adding superglue. It wasn't perfect but it was 'OK'. After many many mixes, I happened to look over at my wood lathe and see the fine shavings under it from walnut and beech. On a whim I pinched some up and tried it and it was a better match than the sanding dust. I think the sanding dust is so fine it stands out because there is no texture to it. The shavings under the lathe, while also very fine, were not dust and had some texture. In fact I had to work to get some of the shavings into the gaps. It is my opinion that the texture makes more improvement that just the color. I used paste wax on the swivel base, just like I would with accuraglass type bedding epoxy. I wasn't sure it would work but it did. I pushed the savings in the gaps and then a drop of 2 of thin glue, then a shot of activator. I got mine from Rockler Woodworking:


If you get this or similar product make sure you get the thin. The thin is very thin, think rubbing alcohol thin. It runs in deep and fills well. It is soooooo much thinner than superglue from the store. The activator makes it take an instant set. The CA goes in soaking and filling, you have a few seconds like maybe 45ish to get it the way you want it or add dust on top or more shavings. Then one spray of activator and instant hardness.

Here it is after filling and sanding:




I wish I had done better. All I can say is it was my best at the time. I think after a stock finish and using dark metal it will be fine......we'll see.

This is going to be a beautiful stock.

(Edited and split the above post, not all photos were showing up)


I sanded everything down to 320 grit, then 'whiskered' with warm water and a heat gun. I sanded again to 320 and whiskered again. Then final sanding to 320. That's where it sits now. I did weigh the stock again after all the woodwork was done and before a finish. This time it weighs 2 pounds, 11.7 ounces. So it lost almost exactly 3 ounces.


After the sanding I'm ready for finish. I took a break so I can take a good fresh look at it tomorrow. If it still looks ready, I'll start the finish. My plan is to use epoxy to seal the wood, then an oil finish on top. I have some West Systems 105 resin and 209 extra slow hardener. Looks like that should have a 45 min pot life, 3-4 hour working time, and a 24 hour cure time. My plan is to heat the stock and then flood it with epoxy using a paint brush. I'll keep adding epoxy as long as it seems to soak it in. I'll let it cure overnight. Realistically it will be next weekend before I can work on it again, so it should be fully cured and then some. Because I'm using the epoxy is one of the reasons I wanted to weigh the stock, I want to see how much weight the epoxy adds.

So this is where it stands. I'll update again after the stock finish. After the stock I still need to make a latch and hinge the bottom metal, chamber and set the headspace, and then finish the metal. My plan on the finish is Norell's Moly-Resin in flat black. Between the metal finish and the epoxy/oil stock, this rifle should be ready for the outdoors.

Sir,

I'm likely too late but I have a MacFarland two panel checkered bolt handle that I would be happy to send you for this special build. I'll be away hunting for a week but PM me if interested.

Ed

You must be a genius on the drum sander sir! I could never properly round off a forend tip without using the series of concentric facets method! That takes me forever.

Nice work.

LOL. No, and I used a random orbital sander and palm sander. The 6x48 belt sander did most of it, keep it moving and use a higher grit. I think I used 120 or so.

I wanted to update since I won't get anything else done until next weekend at the earliest. I went back to the shop and looked the stock over again, fresh after a break from yesterday. I found a couple small places that I decided to do a lil touch up sanding on. I de-whiskered again and finish sanded again to 320.

I'm lucky to have a regular kitchen oven in my shop, it was one we took out when I added on to the house. With the racks removed the stock fit inside from corner to corner. With the stock out of the oven, I turned the oven on to the "warm" setting which is about 175*F. I let it warm up for a bit and then put the stock inside. I left the stock in the oven with the oven on to warm for about 10 minutes and then turned the oven off. I let the stock stay inside to 'soak' in the heat for a while. Overall I think the stock was in the oven about 20 minutes or so, possibly 30. I used a laser thermometer to check the temp of the wood, when I pulled it out the butt of the stock was about 150*, and the forend was 165*.

As I said I had some West System 105 resin and 209 extra slow hardener. I mixed a total of about 1 1/2 cups of epoxy, I didn't need nearly that much. I think about a half cup would have been enough. I used a paint brush to 'slosh' it on the stock, all over inside and out including the end of the butt and the end of the grip. I basically kept adding epoxy and kept it completely covered thick in the liquid. After about 30 minutes I couldn't see any more soaking in so I started wiping it off. We'll see how it cures, but here is a couple pics of it hanging, it really has some nice figure. Not sure what to call it, fiddle back? Tiger stripes?



As I understand it, I will need to do just a little light sanding to the epoxy. Something like a finish sanding and maybe do one more coat of epoxy without the heat along with another finish sanding. Then I'll do an oil finish on top. To my understanding the oil finish is just for looks since the epoxy seals the stock, so any of the oil finishes should work. I am asking for suggestions on which one to use. I have on hand
*Watco Danish Oil
*Minwax Antique Finish
*pure Tung Oil

I'm not against getting another finish to use, just telling you what I have right now. I'm not a fan of True Oil finish, to me it's too shiny.
What I want is a nice finish that will not hide the wood but not be glossy, I'm looking for satin at the most. Before I add the oil finish I will add some bedding compound around the recoil lug and under the barrel. Oil finish will be last. And of course I will need to do something about checkering.....

At this point I'm back to doing some metal work. I still have to modify the striker for the 3 position safety. I also have to hinge the floor plate and make a latch. I think pretty much after that it's just chamber and metal finish.

Thanks to all for the encouragement and compliments. I'm always looking for feedback and better ideas.