Neanderpundit

Now that i know the Mau will not self destruct when I pull the trigger, I can move forward with other issues.

I have a Timney for it, that will get fitted and set aside till after bluing. The stock two stage trigger isn’t actually that bad, other than having, apparently, a 14″ length of pull.

Today I did scope bases; not a lot of options for a 93 because of the distance behind the receiver, so I bought the reccomended Weaver pair (and still had to do some machining to get them right)

Here’s the reveivber in the mill, being drilled. I began the threads in the mill by spinning the chuck out of gear, just so the threads would start straight, but I finished them by hand. The conventional wisdom is that the 93’s were soft, but this is an Oviedo Mauser, and I’m here to tell you this bastard was glass hard. I would move the tap maybe an eighth of a turn, then back off, lube with some tapmagic, and go back another eighth of a turn, lather, rinse, repeat.

I got them drilled and tapped, and the bases went on perfectly. I will most likely have to shave some off the rear base because as standard it’s about .020″ too high, but that’s a few minutes work.

The bloody taps are tiny and brittle. I am quite impressed wiht myself that I didn’t break one. Next is mount a scope, shoot it a bit, see how it does. Then the trigger, spend a little time on the stock, and blue.

This will be a plinker, and with the new laws in Indiana may end up being a meat gun. I wouldn’t feel undergunned at all with a box of Nosler Partitions in this. And it should shoot nicely out to 100 yards, which gives me a bit more than the levergun does. The receiver is rusty, and I am loathe to remove the rust, lest i take the casehardening with it, so I will do a coarse garnet blast which is the firearm equivalent of texture paint.

The stock is a standard 93 carbine, bubbaed but not too horribly, and it’s a very nice piece of walnut so I may very well leave it just as is.

Read a great article that said, if your trigger pull is close to the gun weight, and you arent holding the gun tight, you are pushing the gun out of position each time you pull the trigger. So i snugged up my grip and shot better. I NEED some professional help.

Finally, I manage to arrive at the weekend, and I’m busier on the weekend than I was in the week.

I have a 93 mauser I have had in the gun safe forever. I bought a barrel for it in 7.62 x 39, and I have done nothing with it since it arrived. I shot a friend’s version of the same deal, and decided I liked it enough, a small, handy,light rifle, that I would proceed with making my own. The conversion kit from Numrich was, at the time, $90 with free shipping. And the package languished in the gun cabinet until last fall.

I needed to get a finish reamer. I met the guys at Manson Reamers at the Shot Show, and purchased a reamer from them, which arrived Tuesday.

So friday evening, at $undisclosed location, I finish reamed the barrel and headspaced it properly (A tricky deal unless you have access to really high precision equipment, and i did) wrung the action on the receiver, and went to eat.

Saturday morning, we went to eat again, went to another undisclosed location to test fire the Mauser, put a couple rounds through it to confirm function, and staggered off to get a set of scope bases that fit, not an easy task for a 93. As it is I will have to modify them.

The mau is on it’s original stock, a fairly bubbaed original, but I like the shape and feel of it so I may decide to keep it. I do have a half decent trigger (timney) to put on it and more than a few places I can get a more modern stock if i like. I’ll need screws and probably a couple other pieces before I take it down garnet blast it and put it in the sauce to blue. I have a few other guns coming up I will need to do at the same time so it will be a bluing party.

We pulled service on all the equipment, a couple four wheelers, mower, golf cart, etc. and burned a few stubblefieldfs, stuck the truck nad had to unstick it, then went off to a fleamarket (Was supposed to be an auction) where I stumbled on a solid scythe, whcih I hope to be able to use in the backyard this summer, once most of the tree shit is out of the way.

A busy and fun weekend so far, and now I have to pay the piper and try to get some work done.