For my old age I am going to need a true gentleman's DGR. Is the Czech Model 1898/22 Mauser O.K. for this?

What would be the best bottom metal and trigger for such a conversion. I would like to have the bolt handle simply bent, not replaced, retain the original Mauser flag safety, make the barrel 24" with a gold patridge front sight, possibly a "moon bead" to boot, a fold down single leaf express on a quarter rib, with scout scope mount option, and a receiver sight. Walnut classic express and matte blued or rust blued. Three in the box, plus one in the chamber.

Anybody ever turned a military Mauser into a 404 Jeffery?

You should do a search and look for Atkinson's posts on this exact subject. from what I have read he considers the 404 on a standard mauser one of the best choices. he can probably recommend the smith to do it. I know from what I have read that they need to be sure to remove the metal from the rear of the receiver.

you should probably try to contact J. Wisner as well, as I seem to remember him posting some things to make sure are done right as well. I think he might even make bottom metal, I know that the Blackburn bottom metal is pretty popular.

Good luck with the project, keep us all up to date on the progress.

Red

The action slection it's OK , but the shape of the bolt handle it's not the same as the sporting mausers ( only the 1909 ARG have the pear shape ball )and bending it , ( instead of replacing ) you end with a very short bolt handle , IMHO

Daniel

Agree with Daniel re: the bolt handle; it will be too short. Just cut it off and weld on a Talley, which will only cost about $20 more than forging -- at least with my smith.

My 9.3x62 is built on 98/22, and I have one more action all ready to become an 8x57. I like the text 'BRNO' logo on the front ring. That would look really nice on a rifle with no scope.

Good luck,
Todd

The 98/22 action is a good choice for this conversion.

I do not have any guards on hand right now for the 404. Need to make some soon. But first need to finish my shop remodeling so I can get the two CNC mills in here the next few weeks.
Then I have to finish the programs for the guards, and make steel chips.

I do have a copy of the Obendorf bolt handle, lathe turned from 1018 steel.

Also longer extractors to bridge the ejection port.

Jim Wisner

DaggaRon,
I am glad Jim Wisner chimed in as I was going to recomend his products. The bolt still needs to be replaced. Will "needs" is a bit strong as you can forge it down but it will be short and a new one is more authentic if you are after that look. Steve Nelson did the metalwork on the following rifle and I did the stock. He had some trouble with delivery of the origninal supplier for the bottom metal and Jim Wisner came to the rescue although Steve had built one from scratch in the meantime. He may have one or two available. This rifle had a secondary recoil lug mid forearm under the island rear sight also. It was very pleasant to shoot.

May I ask why you want a quarter rib and rear sight AND a receiver sight?



[ 10-07-2003, 18:27: Message edited by: Customstox ]

I believe Dennis Olson was recommended by Ray Atkinson for this very job, but the e-mail is on my computer at home.

The 98/22 rifles being sold now on the primary surplus market are a good value, but vary greatly in condition.
I bought mine at BIG5 and looked at several before choosing one.
The action is smooth and the rifle is appealing to me.
I would loose the rear sight.

[ 10-07-2003, 19:30: Message edited by: Clark ]

Gentlemen,
Thanks for the replies. I have done the searches and found plenty. I shall be getting some more of Mr. Wisner's parts. If you look at the original 1905 Model Jeffery rifle there is a cocking piece peep sight and all manner of folding leaves on an island, and even a standing leaf that makes no sense with the peep installed, so I guess the peep was easily removable or could be flipped out of the way. This noted from the original catalog by Jeffery, a reprint of the 1912-1913 catalog. The rear island and front ramp may have been integral or soldered, I don't know.

Anyway, my goal is not to replicate the original. I thought that something like the Ruger No.1 quarter rib with a single fold-down leaf and bases for a QD scout scope would be nice.

The primary sights will be a rear receiver mounted peep, and the front gold post plus big ivory bead if possible.

When I get to where I can't see the irons anymore, the scout scope will have to do. Just thinking ahead.

I do want to leave that front receiver ring untouched. I do like that BRNO lettering there.

The graduations on the tangent/ladder rear sight are in a foreign language, must be either Turkish or Farsi.

I hear that the rebels of Kurdistan continued to use these old rifles up until quite recently, and swore by them for reliability.

In the days before scopes, an aperature rear sight was often used to see the front and rear barrel sights more clearly. The early Mannlicher-Schoenauers had a pop-up tang sight that reclined as the bolt was pulled back, and rose again as the bolt was pushed forward. The aperature had two height adjustments, depending on which barrel sight leaf you were using at the time. Looking at barrel sights through a peep aperature is very precise and fast, assuming all three are lined up properly.

DaggaRon,
The "Rigby" cocking piece sight was dovetailed on and it had a mechanism so it popped up. I do like your taste.

DaggaRon,

I have a Jeffery 404 that was built by jeffery. I am few miles south of Nashville. Please feel free to come down and take a look at mine. My gun needs to be restocked to enlish style...it was restocked in south Africa in the 1990's...not the best wood.

Please send me an email if you wish to get together.

Urdubob

urdubob,
We'll get together some time, but with current "busyness," including the upcoming deer seasons, let's do it later. I would love to see your 404 Jeffery sometime. I'll bring my calipers, tape measure, a baby scale, a camera, and take notes.

KurtC and Chic,
Thanks for the details. I understand the pinhole effect for sharpening up the sights with a small aperature, but even with a large aperature or ghost ring, the peep plus shallow V will surely slow things down by covering up the possibly charging target more than 50% and cluttering up the alignment.

Chic,

I seem to remember a cocking piece peep you put up before, and found some pics of one, but can't remember if they are of the one you posted before or not. If you remeber that one, is this one any different, the one that Jeffrey used?

Here is one of the pics I have

I wouldn't be surprised if it helped line things up, logically it might seem like it would take more time, but it is funny how the brain works. It would be interesting to try it out sometime on a rifle setup that way.

Red

[ 10-08-2003, 10:09: Message edited by: Dago Red ]