Turkish Mauser with bad stock

[mrussel]

I have this Turkish Mauser I paid about 65 bucks for from a pawn shop. The action is decent and the bore is ok. It looks like someone tried to take off the front ring with a hammer,without understanding how it comes apart,because there are bent pins up there and the stock has a crack up there,and another further down (and on top of that the cleaning rod has been bent ,at least several times and straitened. The stock by the way had no finish on it save for the cosmolene and its now stripped and decreased and ready for sanding and refinishing (which is how I found the second crack,it wasnt visible under the grime) I'm now debating on whether to pry the cracks apart a bit,spray in some water and then inject in some polyurethane glue and clamp it together in the hopes that I can repair the cracks, or just chop off that front section like on sporting rifles.

 Edit: This stock may be a lost cause. I found a third crack down by where the lug/bolt is that the cleaning rod screws into. Still,not sure what I should do if Im going to try and save it. Maybe I should try to fix the cracks and drill a relief hole at the end of the crack to relief the stress. If that doesnt work I can still try chopping it and keep an eye on it for new cracks that would indicate its time to scrounge up a new stock.

[Mikey]

You can probably repair those cracks with some bedding compound.  I once had a old WWII VZ-24 bringback that some idjit had bubbatized beyond belief - the stock had been chopped, and was cracked in a couple of places, and whoever leaned on the belt sander to try and sand out the military steps in the barrel either had a few beers too many or forgot he was leanin' so hard as the barrel was sanded down so much on one side that it makes the barrel look like it is bent. 

I used bedding on (in) the cracks in the stock and also to bed the action to the stock.  I free-floated the barrel beyond the chamber area and installed a new front sight blade that I had to work down to get the rifle to hit to poa at 100m, and for a open sighted old war relic she sure shot good... 

[mrussel]

You can probably repair those cracks with some bedding compound.  I once had a old WWII VZ-24 bringback that some idjit had bubbatized beyond belief - the stock had been chopped, and was cracked in a couple of places, and whoever leaned on the belt sander to try and sand out the military steps in the barrel either had a few beers too many or forgot he was leanin' so hard as the barrel was sanded down so much on one side that it makes the barrel look like it is bent. 

I used bedding on (in) the cracks in the stock and also to bed the action to the stock.  I free-floated the barrel beyond the chamber area and installed a new front sight blade that I had to work down to get the rifle to hit to poa at 100m, and for a open sighted old war relic she sure shot good... 

 Im leaning toward cutting it down to remove the worst part at the end,injecting some polyurethane glue into the remaining cracks,then using some polyurethane glue to glue a dowel all the way down the hole that is there for the cleaning rod to reinforce it. I don't really like that idea though as I tend to prefer them to stay in their military configuration.

[myarmor]

I understand ya. But good thing with most Turks, is they are hardly ever pretty, rode hard, and have very little resale value. So I say go for it
For $65 I am sure it won't break the bank too much.




-Aaron

[mrussel]

I understand ya. But good thing with most Turks, is they are hardly ever pretty, rode hard, and have very little resale value. So I say go for it
For $65 I am sure it won't break the bank too much.




-Aaron

 But if I do that Ill have to drill the receiver for a scope with a hand held power drill and chop the barrel off crooked (at 16.01 inches of course,so the next poor fool has no chance of fixing it.) with a hacksaw,then paint the whole thing in a bad camo job with a couple cans of spray paint. (making sure to leave plenty of oil underneath that get the proper flaking)

[mrussel]

Well,I glued it back together with some polyurethane glue and it seemed to work rather well. I then got all the grease and cosmoline and as much of the crud as I could with some stripper. It didn't really have any finish on it at all,just dirt and cosmoline. I then filled the worst of the gouges with a 2 part wood filler product made by JB weld. Its sort of "epoxy does wood filler". Once I had it all sanded,I decided that the little dings that were left were just part of what it was. The wood was badly discolored and stained in many places. It was a very pale wood and the stains were dark and black which looked very bad,so I put a good stain on it and it took it very well. It looks really great. I currently have two coats of Birchwood Casey True-Oil on it and Im going to put a few more on,then Ill upload a picture. (I tried many products on an old marlin 60 I got for 60 bucks. It had a cracked stock in an obvious place and a big chip of wood missing,so I ended up having to fill it with the JB wood filler (after mixing some black stain into the filler) then sanding it smooth and staining the whole thing very dark,nearly black. I tried many different finishes after the stain (which brought out the grain nicely BTW) and  ended up sanding it down and trying something else until I tried the True-Oil. The True-Oil left a perfect shiny smooth finish,without looking painted or plasticy. Its on my list of "products that work" now.)

[mrussel]

 Here it is finally finished. I had to play whack a mole for a few days with the remaining cracks that I didnt notice in the end,but now they are all glued with a good polyurethane glue that's stronger than the wood itself and it holds up under some whacking and hammering,so I think its good.