fort_maceo
Member
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2008
- Messages
- 22
Greetings all. I don't post much on this - or any - forum as I typically don't feel I have much to contribute. However, I've recently completed a project building a Swedish Mauser on a custom laminated stock, and thought others might benefit by reading about some of the things I learned in the process.
Back in 2008, I purchased a Model 38 Swedish Mauser made in 1942 by Husqvarna Vapenfabriks. (And yes, I just got around to finishing this in the summer of 2010. Any of you guys with two jobs and a family understand how "fun" stuff can keep getting put off.) The previous owner decided he had too many projects going on. He advertised it on gunbroker, I saw it, the price was right; and the rest is history. It was exactly what I was looking for: an unfired Swedish Mauser Model 38 in excellent condition. The original stock was long gone, and he had already done the one step I couldn't do: a BEAUTIFUL hot rebluing job on all the blue parts. I wasn't looking for something collectible. I wanted something to work on and shoot. The 6.5x55 cartridge has decent range, mild recoil, and is forgiving for a beginning reloader like me.
I didn't want a synthetic stock, which worked out great, since there aren't many of those made for small-ring Mausers. I also had never finished a laminated wood stock, and wanted to try that for this project. My research told me that a Richards Microfit stock would suit my project great. It was then a matter of picking out a style and laminated wood pattern. I settled on the Dual Grip Thumbhole style, as I love the controllability provided by thumbhole stocks. For the pattern, I chose Rosewood. The dark, reddish-brown hues accent that dark blue job. They installed a Decelerator recoil pad and Uncle Mike's sling studs and swivels on it, and sent it my way.
Here is a picture of the barreled action and stock, just as they were when I received them.
As they advertised, the stock needed a lot of work. Don’t buy one of these thinking you’ll bolt your action into it and go shooting the same day. The outside had lots of tooling marks, and the inletting needed LOTS of Dremel work to get it to fit my action perfectly. Before long, though, I had managed to drop the action down into the stock with a snug fit, and free floated the barrel. I had to make my own recess for the safety, the notch for the bolt release, the thumb notch on the left side, and the bolt cut.
That’s really the good and bad of a custom wood stock. This stuff isn’t done, so you get to/have to make your own cuts. You can shape them however you want. Before doing anything to the outside of the stock, I pillar bedded the rear action screw using a $1 pipe fitting from the local hardware store (beats the $20 Brownell's kit!).
Notice the little cuts on the side to let the glass bedding stick to it better. I then did my (so far) first glass bedding job using a Brownell's GlasBed kit from Cabela's. It went well. I didn't do a perfect job around the sides of the action, but I managed to securely bed the front (recoil lug area) and back (tang area) of the stock; which are the most important places to have a good action-to-stock fit. I won’t go into great detail on the glass bedding process as you can do the same thing I did and let Google find you hundreds of people who know more about it than I do. However, the biggest thing I learned was to not be stingy with the modeling clay. Fiberglass will find any hole you leave unplugged, and it’s much easier to keep it out of places than to grind and file it out of them later. For the same reason, make sure you mask off the outside of the stock.
Richard’s laminated stocks come with a rosewood (hardwood, not laminate) cap and tip with a white spacer. I like this look. With my saws and Dremel tool, I shaped these to my liking. On the tip, I cut it at about a 65 degree angle and beveled the edges. On finishing the outside of the stock, I can’t emphasize enough how important adequate and proper sanding is. It is SO much easier to sand out imperfections than to fill them later. I started with 100 grit paper to knock out the tooling marks. I then steamed the stock with my wife’s clothes iron to make all the loose wood fibers stand up. Then I progressed through 120, 150, 200, 220, 320, 400, 440, 1000, 1500 paper; then 000 steel wool. My final step was to rub it down with hot mineral spirits to raise the grain, then more steel wool. WARNING: Boil some water, then drop a sealed container of mineral spirits into it to heat it up. If you want to find out why you don’t heat the mineral spirits directly, go to YouTube and search for it. This step really smoothed out the grain. Then I was ready for finishing.
On actual finishing, I’m not sure if you’re still a member here, lycanthrope, but many thanks to you. I followed your post on obtaining a glossy finish with Tru-Oil on one of these stocks to the letter. Instead of repeating it, I’ll incorporate it here by reference. http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=166960
I ended up with about 8 finish coats of Tru-Oil, and the result is amazing. The pictures don’t do justice to how deep it is and the sheer vibrancy of the colors the stock reflects in the sun. I’ll emphasize your method of using coffee filters to smooth in the final coats. I did depart from your method somewhat. To combat my ever-sweaty hands in the hot conditions where I plan to shoot it a lot, I added about 6 coats of Birchwood Casey stock wax. This further deepened the shine, and seems to have protected the finish and the wood.
I mounted a Sightron SII Big Sky 3x12x42 scope on it in the lowest rings that would allow the objective to clear the rear sight.
Uh oh.
Yep, you guessed it. The bolt wouldn’t open and close because of interference from the too-low scope eyepiece. So my options were:
I chose the latter. I still have a bit of final polishing to do to make this look stock, but I was happy with how it came out. Most importantly, this maintained the low-as-possible scope mounting.
Our family takes an annual trip to northwestern Oklahoma where my wife grew up. It’s a dream location for testing out a new/old rifle. I set up some impromptu targets at various ranges, sighted it in, and got to shooting. I was very satisfied with the results. It handled wonderfully, and shot as good as my ability allows. I need to do some formal bench work with it and see what it will really do. However, I can tell already that it will be more than adequate for the deer at 200 yards or less that I plan to hunt with it.
The coolest thing, though, as any of you all who have done a similar project can attest, is that I have been over every inch of this thing many times. I know it inside and out. I don’t have much money in it, but it is worth more to me than a rifle costing ten times more that some stranger built.
Hope you all found at least part of my lengthy (sorry for rambling) story useful. Feel free to ask questions, and I’ll answer if I can. And above all else, if you’re considering undertaking this type of project, DO IT. If I, a man of average ability with average tools (no special tools) can do it, you can, too.
Back in 2008, I purchased a Model 38 Swedish Mauser made in 1942 by Husqvarna Vapenfabriks. (And yes, I just got around to finishing this in the summer of 2010. Any of you guys with two jobs and a family understand how "fun" stuff can keep getting put off.) The previous owner decided he had too many projects going on. He advertised it on gunbroker, I saw it, the price was right; and the rest is history. It was exactly what I was looking for: an unfired Swedish Mauser Model 38 in excellent condition. The original stock was long gone, and he had already done the one step I couldn't do: a BEAUTIFUL hot rebluing job on all the blue parts. I wasn't looking for something collectible. I wanted something to work on and shoot. The 6.5x55 cartridge has decent range, mild recoil, and is forgiving for a beginning reloader like me.
I didn't want a synthetic stock, which worked out great, since there aren't many of those made for small-ring Mausers. I also had never finished a laminated wood stock, and wanted to try that for this project. My research told me that a Richards Microfit stock would suit my project great. It was then a matter of picking out a style and laminated wood pattern. I settled on the Dual Grip Thumbhole style, as I love the controllability provided by thumbhole stocks. For the pattern, I chose Rosewood. The dark, reddish-brown hues accent that dark blue job. They installed a Decelerator recoil pad and Uncle Mike's sling studs and swivels on it, and sent it my way.
Here is a picture of the barreled action and stock, just as they were when I received them.
As they advertised, the stock needed a lot of work. Don’t buy one of these thinking you’ll bolt your action into it and go shooting the same day. The outside had lots of tooling marks, and the inletting needed LOTS of Dremel work to get it to fit my action perfectly. Before long, though, I had managed to drop the action down into the stock with a snug fit, and free floated the barrel. I had to make my own recess for the safety, the notch for the bolt release, the thumb notch on the left side, and the bolt cut.
That’s really the good and bad of a custom wood stock. This stuff isn’t done, so you get to/have to make your own cuts. You can shape them however you want. Before doing anything to the outside of the stock, I pillar bedded the rear action screw using a $1 pipe fitting from the local hardware store (beats the $20 Brownell's kit!).
Notice the little cuts on the side to let the glass bedding stick to it better. I then did my (so far) first glass bedding job using a Brownell's GlasBed kit from Cabela's. It went well. I didn't do a perfect job around the sides of the action, but I managed to securely bed the front (recoil lug area) and back (tang area) of the stock; which are the most important places to have a good action-to-stock fit. I won’t go into great detail on the glass bedding process as you can do the same thing I did and let Google find you hundreds of people who know more about it than I do. However, the biggest thing I learned was to not be stingy with the modeling clay. Fiberglass will find any hole you leave unplugged, and it’s much easier to keep it out of places than to grind and file it out of them later. For the same reason, make sure you mask off the outside of the stock.
Richard’s laminated stocks come with a rosewood (hardwood, not laminate) cap and tip with a white spacer. I like this look. With my saws and Dremel tool, I shaped these to my liking. On the tip, I cut it at about a 65 degree angle and beveled the edges. On finishing the outside of the stock, I can’t emphasize enough how important adequate and proper sanding is. It is SO much easier to sand out imperfections than to fill them later. I started with 100 grit paper to knock out the tooling marks. I then steamed the stock with my wife’s clothes iron to make all the loose wood fibers stand up. Then I progressed through 120, 150, 200, 220, 320, 400, 440, 1000, 1500 paper; then 000 steel wool. My final step was to rub it down with hot mineral spirits to raise the grain, then more steel wool. WARNING: Boil some water, then drop a sealed container of mineral spirits into it to heat it up. If you want to find out why you don’t heat the mineral spirits directly, go to YouTube and search for it. This step really smoothed out the grain. Then I was ready for finishing.
On actual finishing, I’m not sure if you’re still a member here, lycanthrope, but many thanks to you. I followed your post on obtaining a glossy finish with Tru-Oil on one of these stocks to the letter. Instead of repeating it, I’ll incorporate it here by reference. http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=166960
I ended up with about 8 finish coats of Tru-Oil, and the result is amazing. The pictures don’t do justice to how deep it is and the sheer vibrancy of the colors the stock reflects in the sun. I’ll emphasize your method of using coffee filters to smooth in the final coats. I did depart from your method somewhat. To combat my ever-sweaty hands in the hot conditions where I plan to shoot it a lot, I added about 6 coats of Birchwood Casey stock wax. This further deepened the shine, and seems to have protected the finish and the wood.
I mounted a Sightron SII Big Sky 3x12x42 scope on it in the lowest rings that would allow the objective to clear the rear sight.
Uh oh.
Yep, you guessed it. The bolt wouldn’t open and close because of interference from the too-low scope eyepiece. So my options were:
- Get higher rings. I didn’t want to do that, as it would degrade accuracy.
- Remove the rear sight. A lot of work, and there goes that fancy blue job.
- Since the collector value was already destroyed, get the Dremel tool back out and make a custom-contour bolt handle, with relief cut out for the scope.
I chose the latter. I still have a bit of final polishing to do to make this look stock, but I was happy with how it came out. Most importantly, this maintained the low-as-possible scope mounting.
Our family takes an annual trip to northwestern Oklahoma where my wife grew up. It’s a dream location for testing out a new/old rifle. I set up some impromptu targets at various ranges, sighted it in, and got to shooting. I was very satisfied with the results. It handled wonderfully, and shot as good as my ability allows. I need to do some formal bench work with it and see what it will really do. However, I can tell already that it will be more than adequate for the deer at 200 yards or less that I plan to hunt with it.
The coolest thing, though, as any of you all who have done a similar project can attest, is that I have been over every inch of this thing many times. I know it inside and out. I don’t have much money in it, but it is worth more to me than a rifle costing ten times more that some stranger built.
Hope you all found at least part of my lengthy (sorry for rambling) story useful. Feel free to ask questions, and I’ll answer if I can. And above all else, if you’re considering undertaking this type of project, DO IT. If I, a man of average ability with average tools (no special tools) can do it, you can, too.
