What you see above is a M93 Mauser in .300 Savage. I’m building this rifle on the cheap, sort of. I bought the donor rifle for $50 that some bubba did a real hack job on. I picked up the .30-06 small ring barrel from Vapodog for something like $45 shipped. The bottom metal and trigger guard came from a trade. . The Trashco scope was pretty much a freebie and we have it on because we needed something when this rifle was test fired, in a borrowed synthetic stock.

I have a buddy with an FFL who is a machinist as well and wants to become a gunsmith so he did the metal work for me for $200 which included cutting off the threads and rethreading, chambering, welding on new bolt handle, putting the low swing safety, contouring the trigger guard, filling some extra holes in the receiver, and the Dura-coat for $200. I rented the reamer from 4D, along with the headspace gages

I’m now putting it into this stock. I’ve pretty much got it inlet the way I want it. Do I bed it now or do I shape the stock? Plus I want to trim it up since it is a Richard’s stock it has plenty of extra wood. How far back should I cut the forearm? Is there a good rule of thumb, my barrel after we cut it back comes out to 23” from the bolt face. If you look in the first picture you might be able to make out my pencil mark for where I’m considering cutting the stock back to.

It feeds pretty well as long as I work the bolt hard, if I try to go slow the cartridge rim hangs up on the firing pin since it still COC making it a pita to chamber. I did order a bold trigger for this rifle, should I get the Traister cocking piece as well? The reason I ordered the trigger is because the current one is just a constant creep until it fires. It doesn’t have the two stage feel anymore.

Was the original trigger modified to a single stage? Just curious.

Bolt handle looks very nice, your friend has a talent.

You're on your way to a nice rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by taylorce1:
How far back should I cut the forearm?

half way or less. less is usually reserved for vintage styled guns (guild, cig, european, etc). halfway is usually pretty safe for a modern style stock.

quote:

Originally posted by 724wd:

quote:

Originally posted by taylorce1:
How far back should I cut the forearm?

half way or less. less is usually reserved for vintage styled guns (guild, cig, european, etc). halfway is usually pretty safe for a modern style stock.

Half way? Is that half the length of the barrel? I'm guessing it is because cutting half the forearm off would be way short.

I had planned this rifle something similar to a Ruger compact. My buddy didn't want to mess with thinning the barrel profile yet or cutting it back to 18" and recrowning. I can work with what he did though and hopefully it will come out looking pretty good.

Thanks!

cool project...
here's what *I* would consider doing
megastick/jbweld the tangs to spot bed and see how it shoots

i like forearms between 8 and 10 inches from the front of the ring ... and a 1# coffee can for a radius ... sure, its no super duper voodoo approach, but it works

minwax sanding sealer for first 2 coats

satin urthane to finish

Yes it looks pretty good. I prefer the forearm at half the barrel length, but that's just me. I would work on the left side and just behind the cheek piece to get a better pattern out of the laminate to improve the looks.

If the firing pin is hanging out of the bolt face with the bolt handle raised you have a dangerous condition. There is a small cam on the bolt body that matches the cocking piece and is supposed to pull the firing pin back when the bolt handle is raised. Either your cocking piece or bolt body has been damaged. One or the other or maybe both needs repair or replacement.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
If the firing pin is hanging out of the bolt face with the bolt handle raised you have a dangerous condition. There is a small cam on the bolt body that matches the cocking piece and is supposed to pull the firing pin back when the bolt handle is raised. Either your cocking piece or bolt body has been damaged. One or the other or maybe both needs repair or replacement.

Swaped out the cocking piece with another I had and it cured the problem. Thanks for the heads up.

Ok, still haven’t bedded it yet but I did get to spend about 4 hours on it with a rasp and file. Still have to bring the wood down in a couple of areas on the trigger guard, and in the tang. I did thin the wrist out, a lot of recommendations came to use a 1lb coffee can to set the radius in my grip, didn’t have a coffee can but used a roll of 2” masking tape. I’ve put this stock on a weight watchers diet plan but I think there is some more weight loss to come.






As you can see I’ve toned down that extremely blonde left side of the stock. Plus I’ve thinned the forearm by removing a ton of wood. Anyway I could still use some suggestions on this stock. I’ve decided to not bed it until I’m finished rough shaping the stock. I’ll bed it before I start doing the final sanding and the oil finish.

Thanks for looking.

at this point -- bed it, then finish it .. make certain that the bottom metal mag does NOT touch the receiver .. then finish it out .. trust me, if you don't, you'll be cussing yourself later

quote:

Originally posted by taylorce1:

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
If the firing pin is hanging out of the bolt face with the bolt handle raised you have a dangerous condition. There is a small cam on the bolt body that matches the cocking piece and is supposed to pull the firing pin back when the bolt handle is raised. Either your cocking piece or bolt body has been damaged. One or the other or maybe both needs repair or replacement.

Swaped out the cocking piece with another I had and it cured the problem. Thanks for the heads up.

When this place works, it really does: a quick, happy ending/problem solved/knowledge gained.

quote:

Originally posted by tin can:

quote:

Originally posted by taylorce1:

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
If the firing pin is hanging out of the bolt face with the bolt handle raised you have a dangerous condition. There is a small cam on the bolt body that matches the cocking piece and is supposed to pull the firing pin back when the bolt handle is raised. Either your cocking piece or bolt body has been damaged. One or the other or maybe both needs repair or replacement.

Swaped out the cocking piece with another I had and it cured the problem. Thanks for the heads up.

When this place works, it really does: a quick, happy ending/problem solved/knowledge gained.

I'm not an expert by any means that is why I come here. To learn something new every chance I can get.

Starting to look better, here it is after a little more time spent shaping. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Next I think I’ll spot bed it and see how she shoots before I go too much further on the stock.

Hey Jeffe,

How do you apply the urethane finish?

Chris

quote:

Originally posted by riverman1:
Hey Jeffe,

How do you apply the urethane finish?

Chris

Last time I did two stocks I sanded the stock with strips of 220 grit and then 400 grit soaked in Minwax Antique Oil Finish to fill any pores. However on a laminate stock the pores are pretty much filled already by the glue. I let the stock set at least 48 hours between coats.

I then applied the Minwax urethane sealer with a brush and let it set up and sanded with 600 grit. I did this for three of four coats until everthing looked nice and even. Then the last coat I just used 0000 steel wool on it, to give it a satin finish.

Just another update, I hope to get some more pictures taken this afternoon of the rifle back in the stock. It looks much better than I had planned on when I started this. I think I'm done with the rough shaping now, there will be some more fine tuning of it as I do the final sanding and finish it.

I did have to open up the stock for the new trigger which came in and I installed. I picked up a Bold 94/96 trigger, sure is nice to not have the constant creep in the trigger now. If I remember Boyd's sets them at 2.7 lbs of pull and I could go down to 2 lbs easily, but the trigger feels great when I dry fire now. The only problem now is the safety doesn't work with the new trigger, so more than likely I'll have to take it back to my buddy or other gunsmith to get it adjusted properly. Plus since I'll have to take it in for an adjustment I went ahead and orderd the Traister speed lock kit to change it over to COO.

Going to spot bed it in the next day or so, and then I'll put it away so I can have my bench to reload some cartridges. I picked up some 130 grain Hornady bullets to try. I was going to shoot the 125 grain Nosler BT in it but with Horandy I get an extra 50 bullets for around $5 more a box. The intermediate length of the magazine box sure gives me a ton of room to use longer bullets if I want, but I have the .30-06 and .300 H&H if I want to go heavier than 165 grains.

how I apply it?

nitrile gloves ( i use these for everything) and a red shop rag to get the sanding sealer on.

first coat -- slop it on ... try to not have any runs, but keep wet and soaking in .. and it will soak in on lam .. hang it for 30-60 mins in my garage (its 100 today).. sand it to find any rough spots, raised whiskers, unfinish sanded spots .. and sand it with 300 or 400 grit, just to give it a surface finish that is even ...

then give it a second coat, no rag.. just the oil on the gloves... let that sit over night

as for hanging, i run a wire hanger (straightened) through the front screw/mag and let hang up the barrel channel .. it does help if you tape off the recoil pad

next day, if needed, a buff it down and with my gloved hands, apply the finish finish

let it sit 1/2 a day ... decide if it needs another coat

pretty simple stuff .. and the sanding sealer really fills the pores

on nicer guns, i use velvet oil, most

have been known to use the spray on satin finish

Well here is how my rifle looks now. I've torn it back down and will bed the action tomorrow!

Well the rifle is spot bedded now and it is resting in the safe while it cures so no new pictures.

Next set of pictures will hopefully be a range report. I've got two loads worked up I want to try. 150 gr Speer bullets being pushed by Ramshot TAC and CCI 200 primers top velocity should be around 2800 fps with the max load. 130 gr Hornady bullets, H4198, and CCI 200 primers as well, these should do over 2900 fps at max load as well. Don't know if I'll get all 50+ cartridges fired in one trip to the range, but I'll try a week from today.

Love this project!
the 300 Savage is one of my favorite rounds, and one on a small ring mauser is high on my "To-do" list.
I'm currently working on reworking a 300 Sav Sporter on an Arisaka action, only drawback is it still has the original 7.7 barrel (slugs .313). So, I guess it's really my "7.7 Savage"

Sorry for the hijack... but had to chime in. Keep up the good work, the rifle is looking great, and thanks for helping to keep one of my favorite rounds alive!