I got a mauser action that I purchased from a AR member. M48. I have no gun building exerience. I don't have a bunch of money, probuly end up buying parts when I can afford em. Heres what I want, new shroud and 3 position safety not sure what brand. A scope is a must. The chambering will be off of the 57 case, thinking of the 257, 6mm or 7mm or maybe the swede since I got alot of brass. The stock will be wood of some sort. Gonna be hunting gun and the weight doesn't matter to much to me, I feel comfortable packing a 10 pound rifle. Where I need help is what would you have done first, and so on. The bolt handle does need to be worked on to clear for a scope. Looking for suggestions. I don't have alot of money, all I want is a shooter that is fairly accurate and can bring home meat. Remember its gonna be hunting/truck gun. But I don't want to stay to cheap, I want a gun that will last awhile. Thanks guys.

Since you don't seem to be especially particular and are on a budget, you might consider selling your action and purchasing a sporterized Mauser off one of the auction sites. You'll save alot of money and probably get close to what you want.

fla3006, I thought about just buying a new gun but I wanted to do this cause I never had a gun built for me. I don't need the rifle right away eithor, I could purchase a bit here and there but not all at once.

what kind of an action did you get? I know Mauser 98, but which model?

So it sounds like you have time, and a budget to fit the time.

I would start keeping an eye out for parts. So look for a barrel and bolt stuff, and possibly a stock.

When you have all the parts you want, then find someone to put it all together.

If you look, you can get bargains here and there. Get a few of those and you can get a nice gun within your budget.

If you want to open up a catalog and pick out stuff, I'd second doing what fla3006 suggests.

Be aware that the first time you get a "good" bit to go on you future rifle, all budgetary ideas will go out the window. ( Ask me how I know) fla3006 is right, someones else's sporterised ex mil is a very good place to start as the preliminary work has been done, and may require very little financial input to personalise for your own needs and tastes.
Having said that the barrel is the first consideration as that will influence most of what follows, then chambering and headspacing to desired cartridge.Decide on sighting arrangements as this will effect bolt shape,then trigger,safety, with any bottom metal considerations would be next. With all metalwork decided on stocking comes late in the game, and finances will often dictate whether you go for a nice blank or go the semi finished route. Whichever way you go, there is noithing quite like the time spent envisioning the rifle then bringing it to reality. Have fun with your project.

Von Gruff.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
what kind of an action did you get? I know Mauser 98, but which model?

Says, M48. Yugo, intermediate.

If you wanna build a truck gun and, since you are on a budget, you could sell that action and buy a 24/47 in good condition with a new barrel. The 24/47's were re-furbs and many have near new if not new barrels. The 8x57 is a very useful cartridge. Then spend your money on a new bolt handle, drill & tap for scope bases, and a stock. Oh, and your three position safety or better yet, have the original worked over into a two position sideswing style. All the budget three position safeties are junk.

a good fast solution, that is cheap, can be bought over time, and you can live with

257 roberts AB Barrel (might be rough, but it WILL shoot .. aint a pretty profile)
$100
fajen plastic fantastic stock (again, not great, but will fit.. spray paint is cheap)
$80
bold trigger
$40
dakota or gentry safety
$150
warne bases and rings
$70
bushnell 3200 2x7M scope
$200
send the mess to Mark Skagg and have him fit it
what, $200
up and even maybe blue it.
$100??
You are going to hit a grand pretty quick, for not a super rifle... it will shoot, it will feed, and it will be a good truck gun .. but, again, not $1000 of rifle.

quote:

jeffeosso: You are going to hit a grand pretty quick, for not a super rifle... it will shoot, it will feed, and it will be a good truck gun .. but, again, not $1000 of rifle.

My point exactly. Buy somebody else's Mauser custom for much less. Or better yet, buy an FN Deluxe factory sporter or one of the house brand rifles that used FN commercial actions (Higgins, Monkey Wards, etc.) for alot less and never look back. Or even a Mark X.

FNDeluxeSporter

quote:

Originally posted by z1r:

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
what kind of an action did you get? I know Mauser 98, but which model?

Says, M48. Yugo, intermediate.

I thought that was the guys name.

If it were me, I'd sell off the action and cruise the gun shows looking for a J.C. Higgins Model 50. They come in two flavors, .270 Win. and 30-06. Nice basic rifles to work with although the stocks could stand som trimming as they are a bit on the clubby side. Actions are nice commercial FN's made in Belgium so most of the clean up work to make a sporter is already done. barrels are by High Standard and are chrome lined. The triggers are simple but I would replace it with a Timney. The other alternative if it has a nice crisp pull is replace the pin in the floorplate with one that has been hardened If the original wears through, it renders the gun unsafe. Hey! Nothing's perfect. Either cartidge is a good one and later, when it would be more affordable, you can replace the barrel for one in a cartridge you'd rather go with. I did that with one of mine a few years back and made it intp a 7x57 Mauser. I had maybe $250 into the rifle and IIRC it was another $400 to put the new barrel on, blue it and inlet the gun into another stock. I put an old Leupold 3X scope on the gun and I've used it that way every since.
It's nothing fancy but it works for me. The nice thing is you can use it as is until you get up the money to do it up right.

Pul B.

I started off with a 1908 Brazilian mauser with a bad barrel. Having decided on a 6.5x55 barrel, I acquired a 22" barrel and had it put in on a temporary basis. Knowing that feeding the wider casehead of the 6.5x55 would cause some difficulty - and reading up on how to do it - I very carefully modified the feed rails and magazine box until it reliably held and fed the 6.5x55 cases.

Then the bolt went for reshaping of the handle and on its return, the action was filed away until the bolt handle could close down and be fully seated. Then I sent it off to the gunsmith to have the barrel removed and the action drilled and tapped for weaver mounts, and the action and bolt blued and the barrel put back on. The stock ?. The original stock was a nice piece of walnut and when cut to a shorter length, the stock disc and swivel holes were filled in with matching pieces of the original stock and then sanded down to clean wood. I did spend 20 years in the Army so my idea of a stock is in line with what HM The Queen issues - besides, after a few hunts in the NZ bush, any stock suffers.

Total cost ?. Quite low. I did take the risk of the feed rail modifications on myself and purists would not like the modified military stock.I am very happy with it and its later brother built on a VZ33 action in the same manner.

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:

quote:

jeffeosso: You are going to hit a grand pretty quick, for not a super rifle... it will shoot, it will feed, and it will be a good truck gun .. but, again, not $1000 of rifle.

My point exactly. Buy somebody else's Mauser custom for much less. Or better yet, buy an FN Deluxe factory sporter or one of the house brand rifles that used FN commercial actions (Higgins, Monkey Wards, etc.) for alot less and never look back. Or even a Mark X.

FNDeluxeSporter

Tiggertate's got a 8mm "cigerette mauser" for sale in the classifieds that would cost you $1500 OR MORE to make today .. I think I've shot it when it was browningguys and Tigger's .. nice low recoiling rifle.

I've got one that can't be made for under that .. and it's a $500 rifle today ... if it had rings, for the bases, it would be a 700 rifle.. with 650 in rings on it!

I think its a Yugo but will find out from the guy I bought it from. You guys sure have me thinking now about just gettin a new rifle. I sure do like Rugers also, a new Ruger and Leupold scope should be about 1000 bucks. But in the mean time I'll still keep my eyes open for deals on the parts I need. Thanks guys.

I used Ruger well save you even more money. Gun smithing doesn't come cheap any more.

I am not saying to not do it .. just saying to look before you leap .. I forgot changing the bolt handle, as well.

for $1K, a factory gun vs a "budget" build, the factory gun is going to work ...

I built a couple of "truck guns" witgh yugos. I drilled and tapped for scope, bent the bolt handle and put a wooden riser on the stock cheek. No other changes. These had good 8mm bores and would shoot 2" groups at 100 yds with surplus ammo. In both cases somebody saw it and had to have it for a deer rifle. In other words they turned out to be a handy and useful rifle.

i think if you were to keep an eye out for good deals on parts at the auction sites & classified sections on forums you could build the rifle for under $500 but it would take several years for the right parts at the right price to show up. i've built a few rifles that way & probably have the parts on hand to put together 5 or 6 more.
if i see parts that i may be able to use or sell off in the future for a decent profit i buy them & sit on them until its time to put them to use or sell them.

Actually, almost every time someone buys a custom rifle it's not the sensible thing to do. You can always find a commercial or used rifle to do the same thing for a lot less money. So what is it that makes us buy a custom? Is it our vanity? Do we just want something different? Do we just have an appreciation for someone's higher craftmanship that makes us want to buy it? All the above? I'd say that if kennedy wants to use the mauser to make a "custom" of his own liking then that's what he ought to do, reason be damned!
Blair

I don't think there is a thing you can do to make it cheaper than a used Savage or, for that matter, a new Stevens 200 or Howa 1500.

BUT, if you want to do it just because you want to "tinker" with it, or have someone else do it, just realize you will NEVER get your money back out of it. I have done what you are talking about doing two or three times. I still have all three of the guns and I really like them all. You will find that if you do it over time, it will cost more because you will just find "new" things you want to do with it. They will be things like when I got mine back from Mark Skaggs, I thought how nice it would look with a Ceracoat finish. BANG, $200.

Jim Kobe just finished re-modifying my very first project. It was another re-barrel, since my first was too short, a new 2-position safety because after a few years, the Beuhler just had to go. He "gently" let me know that the bolt turn-down job I had done was, shall we say, less than attractive. He also fixed the feed rails. Will I show it to anyone here....NO because I made it look as badly as it does and I wouldn't want anyone to think Jim put out work like that. He fixed a lot of things for me.

The bottom line...that project gun that I was doing on the cheap as a truck gun has now over $1600 invested in it for all of the modifications and re-modifications. But it was, and still is, just a fun gun. I'm even putting a new nice english walnut stock on it.

take a look at the "truck gun" Srtrax made for himself in this post, and ask him via pm what he had to put into it.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...9411043/m/5131016911

Hello again guys. I've been thinking about what I asked, I think I'll just keep an eye out for the parts I need. Sometime I'll have all the parts for my rifle. In the mean time what could I do to the action myself, I seen some pictures on AR of some polished actions would I be able to do this myself? If so what to do and what all tools and stuff o I need?

Here are some good examples.
Hand Polishing