Beautiful bedding and a Timney

[Alaskan Ironworker]

I recently picked up a banged up sporterized Turkish mauser at a pawn shop. I wanted a fixer upper and this one needs alot. In fact I was kinda kicking myself on the way home for paying $175 bucks for it. Once I pulled the wood off at home I find a shiny timney trigger! Score. Theres not any real rust on the gun so it should clean up ok, but what jumped out at me was the bedding. It looks like actual hamster bedding mixed with elmers glue? Im gonna drop it in another stock anyway but I found this comical.

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

I also wanted to ask about the 8x57 cartridge. I want to chop the barrel down to around 20 or 22”, how does the 8mm do with mid length barrels? Comparable to 30-06?

 

[22250Rem]

Looks like you have yourself a project there. At least you won't be looking for a nice aftermarket trigger, as Timneys are great, at least IMHO. The K98 Mausers had a 23 or 24 inch barrel and that always seemed good for the 8x57. If I were doing the project I'd probably do 24 inches and with handloads you can be in the .30-06 ballistic ballpark. I have an 8x57 K98 rebuilt in Yugoslavia post WW2 and also handload it. The 8x57 makes a nice handloading proposition from my experiences with it. Have any ideas on a replacement stock yet ?

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

I have a nice walnut stock off my Fn commercial mauser im gonna throw on it. I put a hogue on the Fn, and thats where the timney will live. I put the timney on my Fn mauser cause it deserves it. It had a nice jaeger trigger on it already, but after judicious comparison, the timney is noticeably better. Part swapping on these two has been lucrative so far. I also picked up a donor bolt handle at a lgs today to weld on my new turk, as it has a drilled and tapped bolt installed now. Ive checked headspace by placing a .006 shim under a new factory round and it wont quite close, also checked firing pin protrusion with a straight edge and feeler gauges. Everything is working out so far.

 

[ms6852]

That is a great project and caliber you have. I believe the 8x57 was the first to use the .473” rim diameter, which has transferred over to our own .30-’06 Springfield and .308 Winchester, and other cartridges. Hope you give us a range and project report with lots of picture. Congratulations!

 

[Bfh_auto]

The 8x57 has less case capacity and a larger bore than the 30-06. This means it will do better in shorter barrels than the 30-06 will.
Bore to case capacity ratio is very close to 308 so 308 powders work well in it.
I like the Turkish Mauser, long barrel and all.

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

This one has an light 24” aftermarket barrel installed, no markings other than a sloppily punched “8mm”. Im thinking of chopping it to 20” just cuz I dont have any bolt guns that short and why not?

 

[Mr. Zorg]

A number of Zastava M70 20" barrel full stock Mauser action carbines have been popping up for sale on Gunbroker, most I've seen have been 8X57JS so it would appear a 20" is fine for that cartridge in carbine configuration.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/850236633

https://www.gunbroker.com/Item/850236633

Comparing ballistics with .308 Winchester, 8X57JS as already pointed out are similar if you get away from underpowered 8X57JS loads in the US market. Compare Norma from Sweden .308 Winchester 180 grain Oryx ammo with Norma 8X57JS 196 grain Oryx ammo for a fair comparison.

There have been other such carbines, some in unexpected calibers. I put a bid of $455 on a new old stock 20" barrel Zastava carbine last week in .300 Win Mag and let it go when I was outbid as I honestly couldn't picture myself using .300 Win Mag 20" barrel carbine in the field!

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/851015489

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

My first thought seeing the bedding was that Bubba was more familiar with concrete and didn't use a small enough aggregate. Further work can be done with a clean conscience since anything will be an improvement on that stock! Nice score on the Timney -- great triggers, but they've gotten pricey lately.

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

So, I’ve found out that my ejector blade is too short, and I noticed the bolt stop is off a 1895 chilean, at least it has the exact same triangle symbol as the one on my chilean. I tried fitting the whole bolt stop/ejector assembly off my Fn just to see if it would work, but it wont quite fit. I tried just swapping the blade from the Fn into the chilean bolt stop, but that wont fit either. Hopefully another large ring 98 bolt stop will fit this? Or do I need to get specifically a turkish one? The rifle is stamped 1942 if that helps.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

So, I’ve found out that my ejector blade is too short, and I noticed the bolt stop is off a 1895 chilean, at least it has the exact same triangle symbol as the one on my chilean. I tried fitting the whole bolt stop/ejector assembly off my Fn just to see if it would work, but it wont quite fit. I tried just swapping the blade from the Fn into the chilean bolt stop, but that wont fit either. Hopefully another large ring 98 bolt stop will fit this? Or do I need to get specifically a turkish one? The rifle is stamped 1942 if that helps.

How's the spring tension on the ejector? You might have enough length but not enough tension. Failing that, did you try just putting just the FN ejector on the Turk using the original bolt stop to see if that fits?

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

I found an ejector blade at a lgs today for 3$. My uncle suggested making one out of a skill saw blade, luckily I didnt have to though I dont think it would have been difficult. No the Fn blade wasnt shaped right for the cut-out in the bolt, it was long enough but wouldnt protrude to the right far enough to contact the case without modification. Any way, happy ending. All things functioning, commence the beautification process! Ill keep pics posted of this ugly duckling.

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

Got the new bolt welded on, still need to sand and polish it. 3/32 7018 works great, only on this project I went to my dads shop and used his dc machine instead of my antique ac machine. He acquired a nice miller tig setup a couple years ago, but noone knows how to use it. That will be my next endeavor.

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

Anyone have tips on using solid carbide drill bits? When I purchased this gun, it appeared to be drilled and tapped, and then had the holes filled in with epoxy. Naturally I thought, no big deal, I’ll drill and tap the epoxy out and be done. Now I see why they epoxied over the holes rather than installed plugs. They must have tried to drill and given up after they got maybe about 1/10th of an inch deep and hit rock hard steel. I burned up a couple standard #31 bits without any progress and have ordered some carbide bits. Whats the standard procedure when using these? Low speed or high? Feed pressure? Should I attempt spot annealing with a soldering iron? Might be tricky since the holes are already .1” deep. Thoughts and advice?

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

Ever see a barrel so eccentric? I guess I’ll see how it shoots, but I’ll probably replace this turd.

 

[troy fairweather]

Ever see a barrel so eccentric? I guess I’ll see how it shoots, but I’ll probably replace this turd.

Ya on a bunch of Remington model sevens my dads gun shop got it. They all went back

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

The ugly duckling is shining up nicely. I need to deal with the hamster wood chip bedding and bed this stock properly, the wood is too nice to throw away. Im considering leaving this rifle in the white because I like the way it looks, is that a bad Idea? Anyone else left a milsurp rifle unblued?