More progress
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.
My first Swedish Mauser had been expertly gunsmithed for the scope mounts. The stripper clip slot had been milled down to match the height and profile of the rear receiver bridge, so that the rear scope mount fit about 1/4″ further forward than yours.
In other words, it didn’t project back off of the rear receiver bridge.
And the old straight bolt handle had been very expertly cut, rewelded and machine finished. It looked just like it had come out of the factory that way, too.
The good thing, is all the work had been done by the late Bob Day, owner and gunsmith at The Powderhorn Gun Store, in San Antonio, TX
The pity was, it had been done to one of those rare, 18″ bbl. Skier Carbines. I got it cheap enough after the previous owner had it butchered, so I went ahead and put it into a Fajen stock.
Thing had the muzzle blast from hell, but it sure did kill a lot of deer.
And the “Sears”, (El Paso Weaver) 3x, fine-plex scope on it was neither bright nor powerful, but it was rugged and held zero through thick n’ thin.
Been hooked on 6.5×55, ever since.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Now you have my small mental wheels spinning about doing one of these in 6.5 Grendel. Should just need a different barrel.(your doing this one in 7.62×39, right?)
With a 20″ barrel it would be supersonic out to 1000yds, 1000ft lbs out to 200yds…like I really need another gun project….and I don’t have the metal/wood working skillz or tools you do….
Those Timneys are sweet. It changed my Mau into a different gun. I think it took about 4 Mins. to install.
Get at least a 95. The 93 might just not be enough action for a grendel.