Rebarrel small ring 95 mauser

[mickri]

Ordered the 257 Roberts barrel from Numrich. With my FFL03 discount the Numrich barrel cost $136 including tax and shipping. Should have it sometime next week. I will probably order the other barrels I need from Green Mountain.

 

[mickri]

The stocks arrived today. The stocks are fairly smooth and should only require a minor amount of sanding. The action inletting is very close and will only require a small amount of work to fit the action to the stock. I will be glass bedding the action in the stock anyway so no big deal. The grain of the wood is straight especially through the grip area. One stock has a fair amount of figure which I was not expecting on an economy grade stock.

The only problem is one of the stocks is missing the 1/2" butt pad that I paid extra for. Don't know how they will solve that problem.

Except for the missing butt pad I am pleased with what I received

 

[mickri]

Richards where I bought the stocks has told me to box up the stock with the missing butt pad and they will have UPS pick it up so they can add the butt pad and ship it back to me. That is pretty awesome customer service.

 

[mickri]

Richards fixed the problem with the missing butt pad. They had UPS to my house so fast that I barely got the stocked boxed up. Two weeks later I had the stock back. Excellent customer service.

Besides the rebarrels I am also replacing the sporterized stock on my 96 Swede. While I like the old school look of the sporterized stock my eye was way off from lining up on the scope when I shouldered the rifle. Time for a new stock. Fitting the action to the stock took a couple of hours and still have some work on the barrel channel at the tip of the forearm. One thing I don't like about the stock is there is a bulge on the left side of the stock where the bolt release is. I can't see any reason for the bulge. Any reason why I shouldn't sand the bulge off?



My other question concerns the trigger guard. The guard is angled where the back action screw is and protrudes below the stock. Looks ugly and insinuates that I screwed up shaping the grip. The grip is the way it came from Richards. Any reason why I can't grind this off so it doesn't protrude below the stock? The screw head won't be sticking out after I grind off the protrusion. It will be below the level of the trigger guard.

 

[mickri]

Finished inletting the stock. Needed a small gouge to help out with the barrel channel so I made one out of an old teaspoon this morning. Not pretty. Got the job done. Have started the long task of sanding the stock. First up was to sand off the bulge. 80 grit sandpaper on a 2' long board took care of the bulge. Used the long board on the forearm too. The long board keeps everything flat with no ripples. My collection of sanding boards range from 6" to 24" by 2" wide. One has a foam backing. I also use different OD round dowels to sand curved sections. Probably take at least 5 to 6 hours to sand the stock. Start with some 80 grit for the rougher spots followed by 100 grit. Finish up with 220. My friends who were pros at paint and varnish work on boats never sanded bare wood with anything finer than 220. In their opinion anything finer would just polish the wood making it too slippery for paint and varnish to stick long term. They never used anything finer than 320 between coats.

Already high 90's in the garage. Stuck in the house for the rest of the day.

 

[mickri]

Did a test to see how the stock fits and if my eye lines up with the scope. I was expecting to have make adjustments to the stock. To my surprise my eye lined up with the scope. Shouldered the rifle and I was looking straight through the scope. Looks like Richards' stock design fits me to a T.

 

[mickri]

Been working some more on the stock for my 96 Swede. Finished up the slot for the bolt handle this morning.

I am now at the point where I need to shape the tip of the forearm. I want a rounded tip like what Larry Potterfield did in his video on installing an ebony forearm tip. His method of filing flats around the tip and then blending them all together seems to be fraught with the potential to end up with nothing close to a round tip. Where you keep chasing it but never quite get there.

I am thinking of using my router with a 1/4" or 1/2" round off bit. Keep the base of the router on the forearm and take light cuts as I work my way around the forearm. Will this work?

Are there better ways to do this?