Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats light weight Mauser bottom metal

Does anyone have a light weight piece of bottom metal or know where I can get one? I don't mean the one that Brownell's sells. powdr

That is the only one I am aware of. There was rumor Kiff was going to but nothing yet.

Count me as someone also waiting for some decent, affordable lightweight bottom metal to drop weight. Current OEM is almost 11 ounces! I'm hoping to drop perhaps 7 ounces, realistically.

I have a PAWS bottom metal for my Mauser 98. Its aluminum, and pretty light. I dont know the exact weight, but it is a hinged floorplate model.

Who is PAWS and how do you find them?

I think that is the bottom metal Brownell's has. (antelope scene cast into floorplate) IIRC, they weigh just under 4 ounces.

For almost a year Midway had a 'coming soon' image and a description of PT&Gs alloy Mauser bottom metal. That item no longer appears on their web site.
I've called PT&G a couple of times regarding Mauser bottom metal. No one there seemed to have an answer.

I have put Paws on a 7mmRemMag and a 260Rem custom Mausers using the Bansner type stocks.

I have never had a problem.

I like them.

At Brownells, the PAWS Aluminum bottom metal for Mausers weighs 3.5
ounces, as opposed to 8.625 ounces for typical steel bottom metal.

It costs $60 and so the weight savings is ~ $12/ ounce.

$12/ ounce is some cheap weight loss gains.

Other gains will cost much more per ounce.

Just curious, what was the finished weight for the bansner stock, and what pad(s) did you use on them?

I guess that I have owned close to 100 different Mauser hunting rifles over the past 48+ years, my first was a Brno 21H, 7x57. among my favourite rifle makes/models.

I have HAD alloy BM on many of these and have had various issues with it, so, long ago, I started changing out to steel only and this CAN be lightened, should one wish to do so. It is MUCH more rugged, an important factor in remote mountain backpack and horsepack hunting and one can get within about 3 oz.of alloy items, to me, that is preferable.

Case in point, a while back, a friend gave me a stonemint F.I.E. FN Musketeer in .308Norma, among the "best"cartridges for BC use I have ever seen. It had alloy and cheap alloy sights. so, I pulled that crap off, installed some steel Recknagel sights I had lurking in one of my parts bins and found a pre-owned Blackburn steel BM here.

I sent this to Martini Gunmakers,who installed a Dakota 3-pce. safety and cleaned the Sako trigger these came with and then sent to a guy who has done about a dozen of my recent synthetic stock jobs. I found a used Bansner, he put it on, painted it and GunKoted the Blackburn and THERE is a NICE "mountain rifle" at just over 8 lbs. scoped with Leupy QRWs and a Leupy small variable.

I decided to use one of the older Leupy 3.5x10x50 scopes I had sitting in one of my safes, bought years ago, for hunting Blacktails on Vancouver Is. when most shots are at dawn and dusk and this now is so nicely balanced, seems just under 8.5 lbs and is about "perfect" for the round it chambers.

I like Pachy Decels. for Bansners, have three customs so stocked now, one is the 21H-7x57 I bought from you about five years ago, it is now modded by Martini's and the stock is much changed and this rifle, now a .280Rem. is absolutely WOW in handling, balance and overall suitability for our usual hunting here.

So, for me, I would use one of the old "pushbutton" FN steel BMs, have it modded to lose weight, put it in the Bansner, a fine stock, IMHO, NOT a Micky Edge, but, a helluva lot for the $$$$ and you should be happy.

powdr:
For a quick weight comparison reference for you and any others heading down the lightweight Mauser path.

Steel bottom metal from a Husqvarna


"Alloy" bottom metal from Parker Hale. It appears to me to be an aluminum alloyed with something else.


While I understand you've requested not to include the bottom metal from Brownell's, here it is for weight comparison purposes.


Anyway that's hopefully useful information to you or someone out there powdr.

Good luck on your parts search whichever way you decide and good luck on your remaining hunts this fall.

Regards,
Dwayne

These both have a large Limbsaver grind to fit recoil pad that is screwed to a Pine plug and not glued and not ground to fit, but left large.


This 260 Rem #3 Shilen barrel Parker Hale commercial Mauser with Parker Hale Aluminium bottom metal and Bansner is with IOR scope, sling, and cheek rest is 10 pounds.


This 7mmRemMag 1300 Lothar Walther barrel VZ24 with PAWS Aluminium bottome metal and Bansner is 11 pound with scope, bipod, sling, rear bag, cheek rest, and rear bag.

Any idea what the stock itself weighs?

20 ounces.

I have stopped cutting them off.
I want a longer pull for shooting them prone.

They are ~$200 and the McMillan are ~$400.

There is at least $200 worth of work to finish the High Tech Specialties stock [Bansner]. But it is time spent bonding with your rifle.

Spot on and I really like Mark's shape and prefer it over my McM KS while going a bit lighter.

Back in'07 I bought an aluminum Mauser 98 Hinged Trigger Guard for $78 from www.sporterexpress.com
Tim

No pics right now, but just to satisfy my curiousity I weighed my Interarms Mark X, 9.3x62mm (JES rebore). Cerakoted graphite black, it sits in a Bansner with a 1" Decelerator, Leupy Std Bases and 30mm Rings, Swaro 2.2-9x42, and NECG Masterpiece front and rear sights. 8lbs, 5oz with the factory bottom metal. It shoots well, and balances nicely. In retrospect, I'm not sure the 4-5oz weigh savings of lighter bottom metal would be worth the cost.

For those with the PAWS bottom metal, do you think it's possible to file-off the oak-leaves and antelope to smooth metal?

Enough metal there?

That Parker-Hale, BM above is crap, IMO, and the metal is "pot metal" which is an alloy including a large percentage of zinc.

With, some very careful work, doable by any serious rifle nut, you should be able to get most steel BMs to about 6-7 oz. and anything under 8 oz. is both doable and light enough for use in rugged country as one will with a "mountain rifle".

Brad, here, used to stick the Lexan cartridge followers available for some Mod. 70s into the light, customized Mod. 70 builds he would create and then sell and what I like to do, is to use a steel trigger guard and an alloy floorplate on my Mod. 70s, to cut useless weight where it is best removed, from the action area.

I would also do this with my P-64 .338s, IF, I could FIND more alloy floorplates from original Fwt. rifles at a cost less than Canada's national debt. Then, if I could also source Lexan followers, I would lose about 5-6 ozs. per rifle and I would REALLY like this to bring my beloved P-64 Alaskans in plastic handles down to about 8.25 lbs. scoped and empty, just where I prefer a rifle in that chambering for packing in the mountains.

If, anyone knows of sources for any of this, I would appreciate a link.

Brad;
Hopefully this finds you and yours acceptably well and you've had a good season so far.

With that PAWS molded bottom metal I don't believe there is enough metal to remove the heavy pronghorn and oak leaf design.

If someone else out there has actually done it successfully I'd love to hear otherwise Brad, but that's how it looked to me when I was considering doing just that.

For awhile Brownells did offer a plain floor plate that one could purchase separately but a quick search of their site didn't show one for me.

Hopefully that was some use to you or someone out there Brad.

All the best to you and your fine family and good luck on any remaining hunts this fall too.

Dwayne