Forum | She's almost done!

Well Doug, I'd do that but then I'd have to buy a co2 extinquisher, Dollar General window cleaner and muriatic acid.  I've already got the copper solvent, the Windex and 20 rounds of ammunition.

I guess I was just complaining about shoot, clean, repeat ten times. 

I just want the rifle to dump all the bullets into the same hole, right from the get go.  I don't want to have to work at this!!! 

I do like a Mauser action.  I just wish I could get one in an actual left hand mechanism.  But, seeing's how they didn't make one, I'll just continue to make due with what's available.

As to how well this one shoots, I'll just have to wait until I get the barrel broken in, and then try it out on game.  I think it's going to work great, but until this fall and an actual deer standing in front of me, it'll all be academic…

Oh, that bad boy has got to see the light of day, as well as the early of morning and dark of night…

You see, I only build guns and rods for one purpose, to USE!!!  It doesn't matter how pretty it is, it still has to be functional if it's going to be any use for me at all.

I still have to replace that trigger, and I think I want to glass bed the action to insure that there's no movement in the stock.

I might have the barrel and action coated in a matt finish charcoal color as well.  But, I do want to break in the barrel correctly and shoot this bad boy pretty darned soon.  I'm thinking with the profile of the barrel, it should shoot pretty well.

But it IS a fairly unusual rifle.  It's the only Mauser based rifle I've seen that is a right hand action, but in a left-hand thumbhold stock.  My son is ticked at me though.  He's right handed and two of the rifles I currently own are built for southpaws…

It's taken almost two years, but I've just about finished a project rifle that I've been working on.

Originally, it was a WWI vintage Mauser, chambered in 8mm.  A friend gave it to me as it had been lying in his closet and when I told him I wanted to build a project rifle, he simply came to the house one day and said, "here, you might was well have it if you're going to do something with it."

Looking over the rifle, it had been "sporterized" with a hacksaw and a file, simply sawing off the military length barrel into something around 24 inches.  The finishing touches to the crown of the barrel were done evidently with a file.  Not exactly what I would call precision for accuracy…

The "stock" was also reworked as well.  I'm guessing the work was done by a demented beaver with a severe mental disorder.  To say the gun was a mess would be an understatement!

But, underneath all the gunk, grunge, grim and bad workmanship, lay a beautiful Mauser action, built by Fabrique Nationale!  The action of the rifle was slick as deer guts on a doorknob and worked great!  I had the basis for a tackdriving rifle.

So, I contacted Badger Barrels, a rifle barrel manufacturer in Wisconsin and sweet-talked them into building me a brand new barrel, based on a .25-06 caliber. 

Then, because I don't have access to a lathe and all the specialized machinery to cut threads, I talked with one of the best rifle builders in the state of Wisconsin and arranged for him to cut the threads on the barrel blank and true up the action.  Custom Shooters did all the machine work on the rifle and installed the barrel.

I found a very unique rifle stock to replace the demented beaver work with Richard's Microfit in California and ordered a left-hand version of one of their laminated stocks and finished the inletting and sanding the final contours into the wood.

A friend of mine, Jimmy Dale here in Paris, Tennessee cut and bent the bolt handle so that the formerly straight bolt handle would clear a scope.

I'm supposed to be getting a replacement trigger from Huber Concepts.  That'll replace the two-stage trigger of the original FN action and offer me infinite adjustment to the trigger pull.

And now that I finished putting the urathane coating on the stock, it's all done.  And here's the result.

So what do you think?  I'm guessing it's going to be the perfect little deer and coyote getter!