BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
I decided to call it a "Ten Foot" rifle because it's a good looking rig, but not without it's flaws. It looks as good as any from ten feet away!
It started life as a Husqvuarna M98 in 9.3x62. It also came with a side-mounted scope which I promptly removed. I wanted an iron-sight moose rifle.
I set to gathering the parts to make the rifle into what I wanted. I bought the stock and trigger from Brownells to replace the original Birch stock and two-stage trigger the rifle came with. The stock is the "unfinished" M98 stock from Wood Plus and the trigger is the Bold PR-98 trigger from Boyd's.
We inletted the stock for the action and new trigger and placed a 1/4" nickel steel pin through the wrist of the stock and as a forward cross bolt. We then filled the cross-bolt holes with some African Blackwood. The grip cap was also made of the same African Blackwood as the plugs for the cross-bolt holes. It was then finished with the "Lemon Meringue Stock" finish recipe from the 1991 Gun Digest. This is the second rifle that we have finished this way and it looks pretty good. Not a bad piece of wood for the $60 they charge for it! We added a Pachmeyr recoil pad as well. I liked the look of the orange pads so went with one for this rifle. It's quite soft and handles the recoil well. I also put a 1/2" spacer between the pad and the stock to give me a little more LOP as I'm a hair taller than average.
The action was epoxy bedded into the stock, which took much more work than we had initially thought. The trigger guard was contoured and sculpted to take away the boxy look of the factory metal. The floorplate was also breathed on a bit and smoothed out. All the metal was polished on the buffer (and I didn't ruin any of the edges or markings, which goes to show that you shouldn't be afraid of using the power buffer to strip and polish a rifle). I had wanted to rust blue the rifle but I chickened out and used cold blue. The results were good, giving it a used appearance, but there's nothing that touches a good rust-blue job.
The front sight was missing from the rifle so I ordered a NECG Masterpiece banded front sight. At this point my vacation was over so the installation of the front sight was left to my father. The rear sight that came with the rifle was too low for the front sight so we decided that my dad would make a sight. He is retired and now hobbies as a custom knifemaker so he had the know-how to make what I needed. After a couple of attempts he came up with a design that I think will work well. It's still in the white as once I get a load that I like I will finish filing it down and cold blue it.
So without further fanfare here are a few photos. It's turned in a few groups in the 1.5 inch range at 100 yards and if it keeps it up I'll be thrilled to bits with it. It's no John Rigby Best Mauser, but it was a fun project for me and my 70 year-old father and shows you what you can do when you pick up an old rifle and decide that you're going to make it into what you want.
It started life as a Husqvuarna M98 in 9.3x62. It also came with a side-mounted scope which I promptly removed. I wanted an iron-sight moose rifle.
I set to gathering the parts to make the rifle into what I wanted. I bought the stock and trigger from Brownells to replace the original Birch stock and two-stage trigger the rifle came with. The stock is the "unfinished" M98 stock from Wood Plus and the trigger is the Bold PR-98 trigger from Boyd's.
We inletted the stock for the action and new trigger and placed a 1/4" nickel steel pin through the wrist of the stock and as a forward cross bolt. We then filled the cross-bolt holes with some African Blackwood. The grip cap was also made of the same African Blackwood as the plugs for the cross-bolt holes. It was then finished with the "Lemon Meringue Stock" finish recipe from the 1991 Gun Digest. This is the second rifle that we have finished this way and it looks pretty good. Not a bad piece of wood for the $60 they charge for it! We added a Pachmeyr recoil pad as well. I liked the look of the orange pads so went with one for this rifle. It's quite soft and handles the recoil well. I also put a 1/2" spacer between the pad and the stock to give me a little more LOP as I'm a hair taller than average.
The action was epoxy bedded into the stock, which took much more work than we had initially thought. The trigger guard was contoured and sculpted to take away the boxy look of the factory metal. The floorplate was also breathed on a bit and smoothed out. All the metal was polished on the buffer (and I didn't ruin any of the edges or markings, which goes to show that you shouldn't be afraid of using the power buffer to strip and polish a rifle). I had wanted to rust blue the rifle but I chickened out and used cold blue. The results were good, giving it a used appearance, but there's nothing that touches a good rust-blue job.
The front sight was missing from the rifle so I ordered a NECG Masterpiece banded front sight. At this point my vacation was over so the installation of the front sight was left to my father. The rear sight that came with the rifle was too low for the front sight so we decided that my dad would make a sight. He is retired and now hobbies as a custom knifemaker so he had the know-how to make what I needed. After a couple of attempts he came up with a design that I think will work well. It's still in the white as once I get a load that I like I will finish filing it down and cold blue it.
So without further fanfare here are a few photos. It's turned in a few groups in the 1.5 inch range at 100 yards and if it keeps it up I'll be thrilled to bits with it. It's no John Rigby Best Mauser, but it was a fun project for me and my 70 year-old father and shows you what you can do when you pick up an old rifle and decide that you're going to make it into what you want.
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