OK, I have a mauser 98 action with a new adams and bennet barrel chambered for the 257 roberts. I need the bolt bent for scope clearance, I need the safety adjusted for scope clearance or a new remington style safety installed. I will need at least the barrel blued or treated some how as it is still "in the white". I need someone who can do the wood work and put the action in the stock (I can/will supply the stock)-all at reasonable prices-this gun is going to be a hunting rig for my girls when they get old enough (unless someone want to buy this project from me

any suggestions?

Dave

1. Bolt bent: Contact Davis May on Ebay. You mail your bolt to him with 30-35 bucks and he will forge it, no problem.
2. Safety: Go to Midwayusa.com and get a Bold or Timney trigger with side safety, and a Sunny Hill smooth bolt shroud. 40 or so bucks apiece. You can leave the military shroud/safety on if you like, but the smooth shroud looks better.
3. Bluing: Save a few bucks now and cold blue the barrel with Brownells Oxpho blue or something similiar. It will not be museum quality, but you can always get a professional reblue for about a hundred bucks later.
4. Stock: I assume you are going to use a wood stock since it will probably have to be shortened for your girls. Fully inletted stocks are available that take little or no woodwork to mount to the action. My first stock job, I actually used a cheap ($10 ebay) ex-military stock and hacked on it with planes and rasps until I got it into a decent sporter shape. Also it is fairly easy to shorten the LOP-and if you mess it up, its only a $10 piece of wood. If you still don't want to do this, check around with the local gunsmiths, surely one will not gouge you too bad to put an action in an already inletted stock.

Here are several forums that specialize in sporterizing mausers. These guys know their stuff and can make excellent recommendations.
http://p223.ezboard.com/fcurioandrelicfirearmsforumfrm22
http://www.sporterizing.com/index.php?

hope this helps.

I blued an A&B barrel with Oxpho blue and it came out amazingly nice. It looks at least as good as the average remington factory barrel. I'd talk to Mark Skaggs about the other work.

http://www.skaggsgunsmithing.com/

Good Luck,
Weagle

I've sused Norm at Heritage Custom Arms http://www.heritagecustomarms.com/ for a couple of jobs, he's very reasonably priced, pretty quick, and good quality. He's in Georgia but has always been easy to deal with long distance.

Davis is "riflebuff" on ebay. here is his contact info (Home) 620-598-2394 (Cell) 620-544-9241, or email yamyor38@pld.com. This is from an ebay listing, so I am not divulging private info......

quote:

Originally posted by just say moe:
Here are several forums that specialize in sporterizing mausers. These guys know their stuff and can make excellent recommendations.
http://p223.ezboard.com/fcurioandrelicfirearmsforumfrm22
http://www.sporterizing.com/index.php?
hope this helps.

Yeah, whatever you do there moe, don't recommend this forum as a source for advise.

quote:

all at reasonable prices-this gun is going to be a hunting rig for my girls

And what do you consider reasonable prices?

As a plug for Davis, I've bought an action, bottom metal, and had several bolts forged from him. He's a good guy and has never under delivered on anything he's committed to do.

That said, since you have an A&B barrel, go over to Midway USA and pick out a stock that will fit a Mauser with your A&B's contour. They should be priced reasonably enough. Use whatever preference you have for a safety. I've used both the wing type that fit on the bolt shroud and lever type that you have to inlet into the stock. With that thought in mind, all the rest of the Mausers I put together will have a Winchester style safety. Lastly, I would recommend either utilizing an epoxy type finish or employing someone to professionally blue your rifle. There's no real replacement for a decent finishing job and cold blue just doesn't cut it in my opinion.

Just my $.02.

I agree 100% with Tex21. So now you have $.04.

I don't disagree with the .04 cents worth from the previous two posters as they give good advice.

However, you need to take into consideration how nice of a rifle you want to build here seeing as how it is going to be built for your daughers to use when they get a bit older. In my opinion that should command a lot more careful consideration that just throwing a few things together and calling it good.

1. First of all, which 98 action do you have? That is an important consideration, even if you are building a .257 Bob.

2. You say you have a barrel chambered in .257. That means short chambered I beleive, which means it will definitely need a trip to a good metalsmith to have it fitted.

3. In my opinon a forged bolt is a piece of poop on a nice rifle. that is because when you forge a bolt you shorten it. they just dont look correct. What they look is forged instead of like they grew there. Have a new one welded on.

4. Midway stocks are poop as well. They are clubby and it will take just as much work to make it a decent stock for a young woman as to start with a nice semi inlet from a good maker such as say Roger Biesen or somebody else who turns stocks. Moreover, you may want to put a nicer piece of wood on than what midway offers.

5. trigger. Your kids are not going to want to use that Mauser Double trigger. So you will need a timney or bold or NEG or Blackburn.

5. Safety. You could use a Timney trigger that has a side safety on it, but I would suggest a three position as it would be the safest safety for kids in my opinion.

6. If you are going to have a scope you will need to have it drilled and tapped.

7. for it to look decent in a stock you need to rasp the rear down, and the slot should be opened a bit for better bolt clearance.

8. What bottom metal do you have on there. for kids a hinged floorplate is easier to operate than that Mauser pin design.

9. they are your kids and what I have to say here is just an opinion, but it it were me, I would sell the mauser, and I would buy a new Winchester 70 Short Action Lightweight in 7-08 and never look back. A bit more powerful than a .257 bob but if you handload you could load it down a bit for the girls. You would have a nice lightweight easy to carry and easy to shoot rifle that they could grow up with, and when they were not using it you would like it as well. And it is also controlled feed if that is important to you.

quote:

they are your kids and what I have to say here is just an opinion, but it it were me, I would sell the mauser, and I would buy a new Winchester 70 Short Action Lightweight in 7-08 and never look back. A bit more powerful than a .257 bob but if you handload you could load it down a bit for the girls. You would have a nice lightweight easy to carry and easy to shoot rifle that they could grow up with, and when they were not using it you would like it as well. And it is also controlled feed if that is important to you.

What's the idea in putting logic into this discussion???? Even already having the barrel and action the other parts and work will add up quickly. If you want to build or have built the rifle that is one thing and the suggestions above should help. If you are simply wanting a nice light rifle for your girls to start with then from a $$ standpoint one of the light weight factory rifles would be hard to beat.

Listen to what 22WRF has to say until you get to the part about going to a 7mm-08. Stay with the .257 Bob this is an excellent choice for kids and shooters of all sizes and no one will get intimidated by the recoil. In a little light gun built for little girls a 7mm-08 will not be nearly as "fun" for them to shoot.
22WRF did make many excellent points about the safety, trigger and new bolt being welded on instead of forged.
Spend the money on useable features of the gun making it safer and easy to handle and shoot, then blue the whole thing yourself as stated earlier, no fancy wood what if your kids fall down with it or knock it over? Kids are kids.
Good luck and have fun with the gun and your daughters!
Oh and by the way tha last two posters did suggest buying an already made factory set up which is a great idea that I won't dis-agree with there were some .257 Roberts made in Win Featherweight, Ruger makes an outstanding Ultra light in .257 as well, buy one of those and sell me your project. ( I HIGHLY recommend the Ruger Ultra Light in .257 ours shoots half and three quarter inch 100 yard groups with max load 100 grain sierra's and is a dream to handle).

http://www.auctionarms.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemn....257%20Roberts%20NIB
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=47902219

As examples