Rumaging through the repair racks today and found a dusty old barreled action with a cheap scope etc.

Nice bolt handle, one of those outward curving fat butterknife handles.
Nice front ramp and a williams sight base on the barrel just forward of the receiver.
Steps turned down, but not very well, sort of uneven.

Look down the barrel - Sewer pipe.
Why anyone would put money into this gun with this barrel is beyond me.

So, I take the Weaver bases off and i find it is marked:

B -- S

Crown(looks Belgian or Austrian)

Erfurt
1916

There are a few other marks but I cant remember them, mostly arsenal marks.
Other interesting note: It is a small ring 98.

I saw one of these at auction a couple months back in full military config and nice shiny bore go for like $700.

So, does anyone have a history of it?

As a side note, I posted awhile back about another small ring 98 which turned out to be a 1954 Mexican.
I found a firing pin/ shroud assembly but no bolt.
I finally found a bolt for it in another junk box and disassembled it.
Besides being ground on by some Mexican Bubba the parts inside looked ok but just by dropping the firing pin on the ground it bent.
The parts inside are dead soft.
Makes me wonder what kind of quality the action is. I would have to guess 'crap'. I guess I'm done wasting my time on this one.

-Spencer

If my memeory serves me the Erfurts were small ring but with full size barrel shank which makes the reciever walls too thin for any high pressure rounds. When I was in gunsmithing school they were rarely used to build customs.

Seems to me if it can handle an 8mm Mauser, it can handle a 270 Win, which is what I plan to make it into.

-Spencer

Spencer,
i think zim is right, but, just want to lay this out

8x57 ,, low 50k psi
270 ,,, low 60k psi...

and the 8x57 is REAL loads, not some lawyered up modern stuff.

I just want to remind you.. you are taking an unknown action and putting it n a high intensity round...

you know, that would pretty neat as a7x57 or a 6.5

jeffe

Some of the small ring large thread 98's couldn't even handle the 8x57. The receiver ring stretched as they were fired. Many needed to be pulled out of service. This was due to the size of the relief cut in the receiver and possibly the gorilla's that were torquing down the barrels.

Of course, those folks that have one or already converted one are seldom convinced that there are better actions to build on.

The key is knowing which of these are prone to stretching and which are not.

This is good news.
Well, its really bad news, but good to know.
The barrel that was on it was really really shot out and I wouldn't be surprised if it saw action in both wars.

However, I don't want to be stupid and blow myself up so what calibers could we go with?

Already have a 7X57 but 6.5X55 is a possibility.
I will have to make sure I have a reamer for it.

If it makes a difference, it is going into a beautiful piece of claro.

-Spencer

Spencer do a 6.5x55. 129gr bullets will be prit near a 270 130s velocity. You can make the throat length to your likeing. Long for shooting 129s-160s . Or shorter for shooting 100,120 ,129s . Plus its a cool caliber and sweet to shoot!

The more I look at it, the more it tells me it wants to be a 6.5 Swede.

The stock I will use is a really gorgeous piece of Claro that I just finished repairing after an ace employee of old had broken it in half across the mag box. Not worried about the small ring gun in large ring stock because as there are chunks missing from the top of the stock arounf the action, I figure I will inlay two 'stripes' of a darker wood the length of the action to match the forend and grip caps and get rid of any blemishes.

Here is the problem however:
I have no .264" barrel and I have no 6.5X55 reamer.

Does anyone have either that they don't really use anymore, I might have some junk you need in trade.

I notice that Lothar Walther makes a long chambered, pre-threaded 6.5X55 barrel.
This might be an easy way to go.

-Spencer