Hi. I’m starting on an old 98 Mauser action to build an old beater hunting rifle with. It is an action bought from Sarco that looks to have been dug up from a garden in France. It has some pretty bad pitting at the stock line. Most of it will be covered by the sporterized Mauser stock, but not all. The entire gun will be finished with LCW’s Duracoat. I need a (cheap) material that will fill in the pit’s that will accept paint. I know LCW has Durafil but this is a build on the cheap, and the pit’s are deep enough that it would take untold number of passes with a HVLP gun spraying Durafil, not to mention all the time sanding between coats. Do you think something such as JB weld, Davcon or the like will hold up and not try to release under the force of recoil and the related vibrations? Any and all constructive comments welcome. Thanks!

If its that badly pitted, do you really want to take the time to bother with it?
you can pick up a decent Yugo barreled action for 89 bucks or there abouts.

JB Weld should work fine.

I talked with the KG Gunkote people about this same issue and they suggested Permatex Cold Weld:



Though I imagine that JB Weld would work the same too.

Thanks guys.

Duracoat works best when applied to a parkerized surface, or at least a bead blasted one. after bead blast and park all but the biggest pits will be hidden. Also a lower cost alternative to Dura Coat, in black at least, is Wheeler engineering's ceramacoat.

On the extreme low end, I refinished an M1 carbine that had been buried for a while, pitted badly in spots. I filed it some to got rid of some of the small areas on the edges of the operating rod, etc., filled the big ones with bondo, and used Brownells baking laquer to finish. The laquer filled the small ones on the barrel nicely.

Worked very well.

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=3CZNHDZuydV

I built/finished a deer hunting rifle for my brother from the old pitted action. I wanted to see how cheap I could build a gun, and how much of a PITA it would be from dirt cheap parts. JB Weld was used to fill the pitted areas. Dura coat filled in the small spots good enough.
Built from parts from all over. Action/bottom metal from Sarco. Trigger from Midway. Stock & Scope from EBAY. Rings from Miles Tactical (I think). Recoil pad from junk box at Dave's Gunsmithing in Landis. Front sling swivel and screws for recoil pad from my junk drawer. Rear silng swivel and sling from old SKS wood stock. Barrel from Gunbroker. Floorplate release button from Brownells. Camo paint from LCW.
Not a tac driver. Average of 2"-3" five shot groups at 100yd with handloads. Winchester case, CCI 200 LR primer, 53gr H4831sc, 150 GR SP Hornady Interlock. Only $225 total in the gun, counting s&h, paint, everything. Like I said, not a tac driver, but pretty good for just over $200, and most parts thats prob. over 70 years old. It did take 50 some hours to build, not counting time spent on the internet finding parts.