I know nothing about them, but there is a Crandall left hand mauser action for sale in the upcomeing Amoskeag auction. Item # 4041 in the silent auction. I am not the consigner, nor do I know the consigner. Just noticed it while perusing the catalog.

John

Thanks for the info, that's tempting me.

CRANDALL TOOL & MACHINE KP-33 MAUSER BOLT ACTION serial #0017, Action only.

Made by the Crandall Tool & Machine Company in Cadillac, MI this Mauser style left hand bolt, short action receiver remains in the white and is in excellent condition. The receiver features square bridge mounts and has a Canjar adjustable trigger. The possibilities are endless as to the design and implementation that could be achieved. (48085-36) {MODERN}


I can't find any information on Crandall Mauser from a Google search. It says "short action receiver" does that mean a 308 length action or a 7 Mauser (intermediate) length?

I can give you a little info about this action as I was the "P" part of the KP. I cannot remember the exact dates now, but somewhere around the mid-80's I think, this action was produced by the small machine shop in Cadillac, Crandall Machine and Tool. The owner of the shop was Al Koch. This was prior to the Dakota 76 and it was the era in which the demands for the pre-64s was rapidly rising, along with spending big bucks (for that period of time) on reworking Mausers. We were thinking that based on that demand, a hybrid combining the best aspects of the pre-64 and 98s could well sell to the carriage trade so to speak. As the picture shows, it has the M70 safety and most of the receiver is pure M70 with the exception of the internal Mauser receiver ring collar which of course is not visible as well as the tang. The receivers were investment cast by a company in southern Michigan as I recall using 4140 steel. There were very very few actions that were completed. Some were made as the one shown (short action), some true magnum length and others standard length. I believe one of them was stocked by Chuck Grace before he moved to Colorado. If I recall, some of them had the original M70 trigger design. I still have one of the proto-types in short action that was never barrelled. I do not believe there was ever any formal testing done by any facilities specializing in pressure testing. To the best of my recollection, the actions were heat-treated to around Rc 36-38 C. The only other thing I recall was that we (both Al and I) took samples of the action to the NRA convention in Philadelphia as we were invited by Don Allen to be in his booth. Many of the most well known builders of that time stopped in to handle the actions including Jerry Fisher, Bob Emmons, Joe Balicki and others I don't remember. Jim Carmichel as well. In retrospect, design was sound and the timing was rather good. However, this was before CNC machining and even to a talented machinist like Al Koch, I can tell you that producing an action that has all the features demanded by that market level was a challenge. I recall that there was one rather short mention of the action in one of the Gun Digests of that era. Should anyone have any other questions about the actions, I'd be more than happy to try answer them. I've done my best to recall the primary aspects.

Dan Peterson

Dan thank you for the information. I have seen a few photos of the action in Mr. Tom Turpin's, Custom Gunmaking Book. I have a few questions.

Is the bolt head similar to a Dakota 76 or Win. M70.
Just to confirm, no guide rib on the top of the bolt and no extra lug near the bolt handle.

How much labor to get the action ready and do you recommend reheat treatment.

S.A. for .308 Win. and smaller.

What is a fair price range.

Thank you
Charles

Yes Dan, Thank you.

The number of knowledgeable and experienced people I meet on these forums constantly amazes me.

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
Yes Dan, Thank you.

The number of knowledgeable and experienced people I meet on these forums constantly amazes me.

Me too. It's pretty amazing if you sit back and think of the combined knowledge and experience around this place.

Charles: Glad to try answer your questions. I've not closely examined the Dakota actions, but I would say that "hybrid" best describes the actions. There was NO guide rib, and NO extra lug. The breeching was basically Mauser. The ejector location on the bolt face was M70 so no split lug. The bolt had 3 (2 were long and oblong shaped) gas vent holes located so that when the bolt was closed they vented into the magazine. There was a mauser style flange on the bolt sleeve.

It was the refinement of the action, as in smooth feeding, etc. that was a struggle for Al to complete. So I would say, that would take some time for a good action man. As to re-heat treating, I see no reason for that to be done. As I recall, I believe Al purchased the extractors, but I cannot be sure on that.

And finally, as to price that this one might bring I don't have any idea. My best guess would be very low in that few people have ever even heard of these actions. The financing of the project was Al's and I played more the role of the designer, although I'd never call myself such. So I have no idea as to what Al was charging for the ones he did produce.

Feel free to ask any other questions as I'm sure I left some things out.

Dan

Dan I thank you and feel others feel the same.
Welcome to the forum.

From what I've observed, these "hybrid" actions are mostly short lived

Thank you for the inside scoop Mr Peterson. If I were a lefty, I would be seriously tempted.

John

Thanks Lindy,

In the mid 80's I was looking for lefty rifles but I would never had been able to afford that.

Dan, it's good to see you on here. The knowledge that can be gained here is great but you often have to sort through a lot of BS to find the real kernels of knowledge.

Same here, Dan. Thanks for adding to the collective wisdom!

Mike in Kodiak

lindy: I have no knowledge of where the tooling might have ended up. Those contacts were Al's doings totally. Al passed away a number of years ago, and the building he was in changed hands many years ago.

Mr. Wiebe's comment about the hybrid actions is interesting and probably correct. Actually, there were quite a few design similarities between our action and the Dakota. However, I've not seen many customs that have been built using the Dakota actions and have always wondered why. I talked with Chuck Grace about that a couple years ago. He opinion was that there were just a couple of small things that he personally didn't like about them that caused him to still prefer M70s or Mausers, so apparently little things make quite a difference. Personally, combining the best aspects of both actions into one made a lot of sense to me, but apparently that's not what most folks think.

dan

It sold for $700 plus buyers fees 15%.

quote:

Originally posted by mlfguns:
It sold for $700 plus buyers fees 15%.

I made a low bid because it was a short action and I have too many lefties in those calibers already. If it was a long/magnum length action I would have outbid that.