I have a good friend that is coming up for a visit and is going to go with us to participate in the Shoot. I told him I would loan him one of my .375's so he would not have the hassle of flying with a gun. I was finishing up a rebarrel job in the shop and ran across a box full of take off barrels, and lo and behold, there was a mint stripped Whitworth Mauser 375 barrel complete with English proofmarks, an idea was born! I started rustling around the shop and got the idea for project "SCRAPS". I had an N.O.S. Battenfield technologies camo synthetic stock, a very old Mark X action that I had done much of the work to open up for H&H length years ago and forgot about. I dug around and found several Mark X take-off triggers and took one apart and lightly stoned the engagement surfaces to get it slicked up a bit. Digging around some more, I found military bottom metal that I had reshaped the guard on, so I grabbed it, thinned the inside rear of the mag, cut out the front and formed and welded in an extention to accomodate the 375 cartridge. Hours of time with the mill and a Dremel to tweak the feeding and polish the ways and she feeds and ejects rounds faster than s*it through a goose! I dug around and found some correct Weaver bases and in the process of mounting them, found one of the holes in the receiver was well and truly stripped, so they are all drilled and retapped to 8/40. More digging and up came an NECG screw-on front ramp, with an oversized white bead so I drilled and tapped the barrel for it. The barrel needed 2.5 thousandth taken off the shoulder/breach to time up properly and just a whisper with the chamber reamer to get the headspace perfect. All parts used in this project were pieces from drawers and boxes accumulated through 40+ years of gun tinkering, hence the name. The only part that I had to buy was a Talley barrel band to solder on the barrel and I am waiting on that from Midway. Digging around some more yielded up a nice Burris (USA) 3x9 Fullfield 2 and a set of Warne lever release rings. A few days ago I took it to the range, unbedded, to test fire and she put 3 rounds touching at 50 yards, so I think with a proper bedding job, she will be a keeper!
This young man, age 35, is kind of like the son I never had and he has done a fine job of raising four great kids, with a great wife, and I remember at that age you can rarely get all the guns you want, so that is how I came up with this project. It will be a surprise for him when he gets here. Anyone who comes to the Shoot, can come over and fondle her. She a'int no beauty, but she is solid, and he can always have her Cerracoated!
