Which Mauser?

[knight0334]

Which Mauser is the best to start building off of?   I'm thinking about making a custom rifle after having seen my uncle do it.  He used a German model made around 1902 or so.  It turned out pretty nice for a bolt gun.

Also, where to get a "builder" at an extremely reasonable price?

[savageT]

knight0334,
Sorry to burst your hopes but gone are the days when you could pick up a milsurp for 35 bucks and start "bubba-ing" away with the hacksaw.  There are better methods these days.  Try one of the new Stevens, Mossberg bolt-action packages.  They come with plastic stocks and limited calibers but they aren't that bad looking and accuracy is a given.  For a little more, look into anything Savage makes w/ accutriggers.  
If none of that works, there are plenty of used milsurps available (Mosin Nagants, Swiss K31's and mixed Mousers) under $200 that you can pickup. Plastic stocks are available and after market sights and scope mounts.
Jim

[1911crazy]

Go to Samco Global Arms they have barreled receivers.  Century arms has yugo/bosnian 8mm mausers which are yugo 48's for as little as $79 for getting a large ring receiver thats not too bad.  You could call them because they may have some of them with the barrels shot out much cheaper too.

[Racepres]

Good suggestions all... Keep in mind that a working,  shootable piece, is always the least expensive way to go, but... not necessarily the most satisfying!! Right  now on auction arms there is a guy w/ receivers [bare] for like $20.00 frt and all. Already turned down, Bolts are on "that large auction site" regularly. [BTW my personal fav. is riflebuf, followed by r&r guns , or somethin' like that]. Also on that same site, someone called debjohns, offers about all the other associated parts required for the action... all that's left is the barrel of your choice and a stock.... In my experience the most costly part of my projects, since I don't at all want no plastic or fiberglass on my rifle. And you can NOT  just screw the barrel on and hope!  You do the math ... but if yer patient... [took all year for my last one , and it aint done yet], you can have what you want, and what virtually no one else has... MV

[knight0334]

It'd be nice to start off with a shooter, but not necessary.   I fully plan on rebarreling, refinishing and carving up a nice piece of walnut.

A good receiver, trigger group and bolt are probably the most needed items.

I prefer single shots to anything, this project would be for something to pass time with.   A new gun would defeat the purpose.

[Racepres]

Heck!! Dive in.   I have wasted more $$$ on wine, women, and.... wine. Than on my "custom" mausers.   My least expensive, but "longest to the line" was built as I related previously. The quickest was an already sported action, a known good barrel, and [my downfall] a cranky splinter of unknown pulp!!! Good luck and if ya need sources LMK....   MV

[1911crazy]

My very first project mauser was $20 it was a german 98k with a sewer pipe bore.  I picked up a used barrel in excellent condition($37 numrich) and it went in perfectly and head spaced on the go exactly and won't close on the no-go so it dead nuts ok.  Since the used barrel was head spaced already it was perfect. The dept of the receiver bore was 5/8" I think and the barrel was 5/8" also so its a perfect "0" fit when its locked up and the head space guage proved it right. If you pick up a new barrel in a different caliber the chamber is roughed in and you need to final ream it after assembly to the proper dept with the go headspace guage. There is a place on the net to rent chamber reamers too. I've done machine building and its a critical dimention on the headspace and you must becareful to hold it to the go guage so the bolt doesn't close on the no go guage.  Its not that easy but you can do it if you take your time and have the tools to work with. Before i went into machine building i was in the drill department for many years too. I had to hold not only the size of the reamed hole but the location to .002" too thats just one hair on your head.  I bored center guide holes in chucks too for fixture alignment too. All i'm saying i did a lot of critical dimention work already so trying to change barrels isn't that hard to understand. I bend my own bolts too. Being a welder/fabricator also you need to mark were the bend can start missing the stock too then put the heat paste on the base of the bolt lever so the whole bolt won't get all of the heat when your slightly heat it to bend it to the desired bend just go slow and check it as you go so you don't over bend it.

I think there is a margine of error possible between all the tolarences on the machining too.  In Europe they seem to have their fits all done correctly in metric here in the US we haven't got a handle really on it yet like we should have at least with the engineers i've worked with. When you add up all the tolarences the dam thing won't go together when we design it.  Lets face it we haven't used the metric system that long yet.

When i was just 6 years old i started out helping my old man fix cars by washing parts for him.  Did you know we had 3 metric threads on our cars when they were all made with american threads and do you know what they were?

1. Generator/Alternator threads on the pulley
2. Front axle spindle threads
3. Steering wheel threads

Do you know why this was done?  So you had to use the correct nut for this critical application and so no other nut would fit. "Food for thought"

[knight0334]

Between my uncles and myself, we have a small assortment of reamers.   I'm still debating on what to chamber it to.   I have full access to a machine shop, so tooling and machining are not a problem. :grin:

I'm thinking a 26-28" barreled .224 or .257" bore.  My uncle's ended up a 24" .260 Remington.

Even a $100-$250 rifle is something to build off of.

I've long suspected the reasoning for the metric nut on those items having worked on cars too.

After I do this Mauser,  I'm thinking on trying one of those Russian Mosin Nagants as suggested by savageT.

[1911crazy]

Sounds like you have a good handle on it so far.  I'm not sure what aftermarket barrels are made for the mosin receiver you may have to buy a blank and thread it to fit.

I just ordered a bosnian m48 8mm mauser from century arms for $79. If its a shooter when i get it i'll let it be but if its a junker(bore) i may salvage the receiver to do my next 280rem build.

[jbweld]

Go to Samco Global Arms they have barreled receivers.  Century arms has yugo/bosnian 8mm mausers which are yugo 48's for as little as $79 for getting a large ring receiver thats not too bad.  You could call them because they may have some of them with the barrels shot out much cheaper too.

[MGMorden]

It turned out pretty nice for a bolt gun.

For a bolt gun?  What do you consider better :wink:?

Anyways, I'd get something as plain-jain and close to the 98Kas you can.  The standard German 98k is compatible with the most aftermarket parts and have the most options available.

Turkish Mausers have a handguard retainer at the front of the action, and take barrels threaded for small-ring actions (even though the Turks are large-ring).

The Yugo Mausers is ever so slightly shorter than the Germans.  This will limit compatibility with anything that will change w/ the action length (bolt, firing pin, triggerguard/floorplate, etc).  Anything not length sensitive (trigger, bolt sleeve, safety, etc) will still work on these.  Unfortuneatly you'll need to find a stock specifically for these "intermediate length" Mausers as well.

Spanish large rings - I've had trouble getting a standard Mauser 98 cocking piece to fit one.  The "key" seemed to match up to the firing pin differently.  A replacement firing pin and cocking piece from a "real" 98 may need to be both purchased if you need to replace one.  Otherwise, seems standard.

As always, try to find a gun that's already messed up for a project.  There are enough of those out there that it's not necessary to tear up a good example.  As a matter of fact if you find a good one and really want to sporterize it, I'm sure you could find somebody with a bubba'd job who will trade you their rifle + some cash in exchange for the unaltered one.  This is ESPECIALLY true if you happen to have an unaltered German 98K .

Regardless of what you get, you can still work around it.  I've had rifles done on both the Spanish La Corunas and the Turks, and they turned out well.

[Slamfire]

To me the best Mausers were the models sold to South America between the wars. Argentinan, Brazilian, Chilian, I don't care. Ain't exactly easy to find but worth the effort.

[knight0334]

It turned out pretty nice for a bolt gun.

For a bolt gun?  What do you consider better :wink:?

sorry for the delay on following up with this thread..

I'm a single shot rifle guy..   Ballards, Sharps, NEF/H&R, etc..  My second choice is leverguns..  

I've decided on a caliber, but not the cartridge yet.   .257"   It'll be a wildcat or some oddball cartridge for sure in a 28-30" heavy barrel.

I found a really marbly piece of walnut.  ...losts of character to it.  

[dscp]

HOWDY ! IF YOU ARE STILL LOOKING , I HAVE A BRAZILIAN MAUSER 7MM 98 VARIETY . COULD BE USED AS IS (SOME SPORTERIZING DONE) OR .........THE MOON IS THE LIMIT. INTERESTED.  WHATPRICE RANGE ARE YOU LOOKING AT ?
R.S.V.P.
 dscp

[dscp]

HOWDY ! IF YOU ARE STILL LOOKING , I HAVE A BRAZILIAN MAUSER 7MM 98 VARIETY . COULD BE USED AS IS (SOME SPORTERIZING DONE) OR .........THE MOON IS THE LIMIT. INTERESTED.  WHATPRICE RANGE ARE YOU LOOKING AT ?
R.S.V.P.
 dscp

[Swampman]

"To me the best Mausers were the models sold to South America between the wars. Argentinan, Brazilian, Chilian, I don't care. Ain't exactly easy to find but worth the effort."

Yes, and they don't require any mods to be great hunting guns.  I wish I had a Chilean carbine to hunt with.

[beemanbeme]

will a .280 work in a M48 yugo?? 

[Mikey]

beemanbeme:  The 280 is the same length as the 06, bullet included.  That's a bit longer than the 8x57 (06 is 62 or 63mm compared to the 57mm length of the 8mm) and in addition, the M48/48A actions are a bit shorter than the standard 98 actions (bolts don't interchange and a few other parts don't match up) so trying to stuff a 280 into a M48/48A action might be a bit too tight.  JMHO.  Mikey.

[WmRoy]

Personally, I've been watching for a bubba'ed large ring for the last few months.  I picked up a large ring 7mm mauser barrel a while back and now need an receiver to marry her up too...........

Problem is I can't stand to mess up a perfectly good military rifle, so............. I'm looking for a cheap bubba job that I can rebuild.  I actually would rather pay a few bucks more for a rifle that I didn't have to alter from it's original configuration.....

Call me crazy..................

If I were you I'd be looking for a vz24 or a k98 (but I want one that's been monkeyed with already, so I don't have to ruin it)....... personally  I would avoid a turk...... but that's just me.