Rebarreling a rifle at home?

[Gdbyrd]

Moved recently and came across my copy of "Gunsmithing Made Easy." There's an article in there about rebarreling a mauser action. I'd love to do something like this from home, just to say I've built my own gun.

The author purchased his actions from Charles Daly, who has since gone out of business. Are there any other vendors out there for mauser actions? Or are there other suitable actions that can be rebarreled in a home environment successfully(Like Savage, Ruger, Remington, etc.)?

I'd really like to build one of two rifles: Either a 260 Rem for paper punching, or something along the lines of my other topic, an attempt at a quiet centerfire caliber. Probably like to do the second as I don't really have a dedicated range for long distance shooting here.

I'm not doing this to try to save money, would like the experience of it.

Thanks guys.

 

[R.W.Dale]

Far and away the easiest rebarrels for the DIY home gunsmith are savages and variants.

Unlike with a mauser. With these barrels can be ordered 100% finished chambered and ready to screw on and shoot literally in a matter of minutes.

If you want to do this for the experience do yourself a favor and start with a savage/Stevens

posted via tapatalk using android.

 

[Gdbyrd]

I was kinda looking forward to reaming the chamber though. Just unscrewing and rescrewing seems too easy to me.

Where's the best place to buy an action? I'd imagine gun shows or pawn shops would be a good starting point for a donor rifle right? Are there any new cheap starter rifles that make good donors?

 

[JG727]

A lot of the guys in my gunsmithing class have been looking for Mauser actions as well. Yugo M48's can be had for under $200 if you keep an eye on shotgun news and are prepared to by JUST a barreled action or onwe with poor furniture. My Yugo is in surprisingly great condition and will be spared the rebarreling process in favor for the rundown K98.
Keep in mind that these M48's are "Short" Mauser actions, so .30-06 and longer cartridges won't fit the action/magazine.
Czech Vz. 24 actions can be had for under $200 and will accept a .30-06 length round.

 

[greyling22]

I believe remington and savage action can be purchased, and just because you CAN purchase a fully done barrel doesn't mean you have to. Cheapest way to find a mauser action is probably to fine a used one (interarms mkx?) and throw away the barrel and stock.

 

[NCsmitty]

Waxing philosophically, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Are you aware of the equipment and expertise required to do a job like you mentioned? If you are prepared to go the distance, then I encourage you to try. You do need some machining skills such as measuring with verniers and micrometers, and an understanding of the procedures. I'm not familiar with the article that you mentioned, so I don't know what they recommend.
I was once like you with the same desire to make my own rifles, and I took the plunge several years ago by purchasing a lathe and some equipment, and I have several Mauser's that I built myself. From threading barrels to altering bolts for scope use and final metal finishing, it's sometimes the little things that count.

If you're not concerned about costs, that's good, because it will not be cheap.



NCsmitty

 

[Gdbyrd]

Basically the short of the article from memory:
1. You purchase an action.
2. You order a short chamber barrel.
3. You rent a reamer.
4. You use a barrel vise and an action wrench to mate the two.
5. Ream the chamber, checking tolerances with go/nogo gauges.

I believe that was about the short of it, there is more detail to it but that's the jist.... I really need to reread it. He did all of it without a lathe, the whole book was focused around your typical home shop. Which isn't likely to have a lathe.

The parts he doesn't seem to go into detail on: How do you know what barrel to order(thread count, etc). Specifically what actions are good/bad to attempt this with. And if there are any other steps involved in this process.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

From Gdbyrd,Basically the short of the article from memory:
1. You purchase an action.
2. You order a short chamber barrel.
3. You rent a reamer.
4. You use a barrel vise and an action wrench to mate the two.
5. Ream the chamber, checking tolerances with go/nogo gauges.

This is all you need,especially if this is a one time thing just to say you've done it. No lathe,mics etc,needed. Although a barrel vise and action wrench aren't absolutely necessary,they sure make the job easier!

 

[NCsmitty]

German pattern Mausers generally are either large Ring 98 or small ring pre'98. Understand that there are exceptions such as some Turkish Mausers are large ring with small ring threading. I have converted a few Turk Mausers with the K.Kale stamp on the receiver, and they are large ring with small ring threads.

Large rings barrel threads are 1.100" and 12 TPI, Small ring barrel threads are .980" and also 12 TPI.

There are many variations of Mausers and you will need to study a bit to educate yourself so you can order a barrel with confidence, but you'll need to select a decent action to rebarrel first.
Some people may disagree, but I would stay away from Spanish Mausers.


NCsmitty

 

[Gdbyrd]

When you order a short throat barrel, how do you know the threads are going to be the right depth? Or how does that work? There was little explanation in the book.

Just trying to imagine this in my head. The barrel's shipped prethreaded. You screw it on as tight as you can get it, the book recommends 75 ft-lbs(but I've read this can vary a lot). How do you know it's not going to go in too shallow or not be able to be threaded in all the way? There needs to be proper spacing from the bolt to the barrel right?

 

[dirtyjim]

most pre threaded barrel are cut on the loose side & the shank is cut on the long side of tolerance.
when i thread a barrel for a mauser i cut the shank around .003 longer than length from the face of the receiver to the inner torque shoulder. on a mauser the barrel should seat on the torque shoulder not the face of the receiver. i also cut the chamber in the lathe using a depth mic & the go gauge. as far a torquing the barrel goes i thread it in till it bottoms then mark it on the bottom of the receiver and the barrel 1/8" apart, then turn it another 1/8" till the marks line up.

you can make your own action wrench from a 2' section angle iron and a couple muffler clamps. to pull the original barrel use a big pipe wrench on the barrel if your not trying to save it. then to install the new barrel cut two blocks of wood to fit the barrel & place them in a large bench vise. if you plan on doing more than one invest it a barrel vise & action wrench. i did 7 or 8 barrels with my homebuilt stuff before i bought an action wrench & barrel vise.

mauser threads vary quite a bit. if the barrel you buy will not thread all the way in your receiver you can lap it in with valve grinding compound.

 

[BCRider]

I've not reamed a rifle barrel but over the years I've done a lot of metal machining that would gualify me as having the skills that a home or basic pro gunsmith needs. I've been working on the "gun" parts of the metal working part over the last few years since getting into shooting. So trust me when I say that it sure sounds like there's a lot left out of that article.

For example if you've never worked with reamers before you'll want to know that they cut a bit differently than just running a drill through the bore. If not handled right you can ruin a chambering reamer with one moment of fuzzy thinking. And as you've likely noticed they aren't cheap.

I'd have to say that a lot of these old style "How To" books took it for granted that the person reading them had a good grounding in shop techniques and skills already. Such things used to be a lot more common when we all did a lot of DIY things as kids and continued that into adulthood. It's hard to say if this is a good project for you or not. It depends on how much sort of work you've done with metal fitted to close tolerances in the past. But the nature of your questions makes it sound like your skills in the metal working area are limited. Also that you'd want to do a bit more research into what is involved in a barrel exchange of this sort before you jump in on the deep end of the pool.

As for threading and length of thread you've gotten a few hints from the above posts that suggest you'll want to have some dialog with the barrel supplier and that you'll likely want to buy and measure the action carefully before buying the barrel to ensure you get the right length of stub. For the threads you'll want to do some homework on finding out what threads come with what actions and if they are interference threads or if they are normal clearance threads and other such facts.

If all this is new data to you I'd suggest that you may not be in the best position to jump in on the high dollar end of things. The risk of a blunder and ending up ruining stuff is quite high when you're learning. Things are seldom as easy it this little book seems to make them sound. On the other hand if you are up for the challenge I'd suggest that you look at this whole thing as a long term new hobby. Do some homework to find out what sort of actions are out there and their particulars for threading sizes and depths and what's involved in the different bolts. Start haunting the local and regional gun swaps and go through all the junk boxes looking for barrels and actions. Learn your stuff on these low dollar parts and progress from there.

 

[Gdbyrd]

Thanks for the advice guys. The book seems to have a lot left out of it. Do you have any suggestions on reading material I could start with?

For now I'm going to keep my eyes out for an action, I think that may take awhile. I want to go ahead with this project. My first one won't be a high dollar project, I'll do it as cheaply as I can and go with a short distance caliber and look at it as a learning experience. If I don't enjoy it I can still keep the experience of it and hopefully not be in too deep.

Specifically what actions should I be looking into?

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Get the AGI "Building the Custom Mauser Rifle" video(s). I got the VHS version,4 tapes,8 hours of instruction. Covers barrel swapping and chamber reaming very well(short chambered barrel).

 

[Gdbyrd]

I went to a gunshow today. I say several molested mausers there, ranging from 22-250 to 7mm-08. I only found 3 in the whole show that were original, and they were in rough shape. Starting was 200, most expensive was 350. I have no idea what type they were, all three looked a little different. The guys at these gun shows have gotten to have a real chip on their shoulder when it comes to helping people..so I wasn't able to get any information on any of them.

I think best bet is going to be getting a shotgun news like someone already suggested.

 

[MachIVshooter]

Some people may disagree, but I would stay away from Spanish Mausers.

I disagree from the standpoint that a nice sporter can be built on '93 without changing the barrel. Nothing wrong with 7x57, the '93 has a smooth action and, in my experience, is an MOA gun. Mine was FN manufacture, 1919 IIRC (too lazy to check).

Just drill & tap, remove sights, reblue, bend the bolt and build a nice stock. Done.

However, if one intends to rechamber, I would use a large ring.