Mannlicher-Schoenauer Refurbish

Mauser98

Mauser98

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Location
SW British Columbia
This m1903 M-S in 6.5x54 M-S was bought many years ago by a friends grandfather who hunted with it extensively. At some point it was handed to my friends father who also used it for many years. A couple of years ago, the father was busted by the RC MP for shooting crows in a non-shooting area. Apparently the crows were killing his chickens. It turned out that none of the father's rifles were registered nor did the father have a licence. However, the rifles were properly stored. The upshot to all this was the father got one year probation and the offending Cooey singe-shot .22 was destroyed. The other rifles were handed to my friend who has his licence.

A while back, he asked me to tale a look at the M-S to see if I could "clean it up a bit". He told me it was "pretty rough".

Here's a few pictures of "pretty rough".

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After looking it over I agreed to refinish the stock and slow rust blue the metal. It was the metal that really had me worried. With all the crap growing on it I figured it would be badly pitted. Such was not the case. After a good cleaning it didn't look so bad.

Any way, here's a few pictures of the finished product.

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I wasn't able to get some of the deeper gouges in the stock cleaned up but all in all it turned out pretty good.
 
You have done an awesome job on it.... looks great !
How is the bore ?

My late Father-in-law brought a half-stocked version back from Egypt in the mid-'50s.... he was with the UN over there and at that time civilian ownership of firearms was prohibited and punishable by death.
A Swiss doctor had the rifle well wrapped and buried in the sand, so when he heard about Pops coming home he begged him to take the rifle.
It has a couple burn marks on it but is in good shape otherwise, however not nearly as nice as your presently looks.
 
They are a gorgeous piece of work, and that is a gret jib!
One of the rifles i ever really regretted selling, an 8X56MS, REALLY fast handling little carbine!
Cat
 
Noel said:
I like that is has the blemishes in the stock still. It is character and IMO compliments the rifle.

How long does the rust blue treatment take?

Great work Mauser, as always.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Noel

The actual bluing will take two to three days - depending on the number of rust cycles. With my setup and with the chemical I'm using, each cycle(chemical application, rusting, boiling, carding) takes about 4 1/2 hrs. I did 4 cycles on this rifle.

Of course, there is medal prep time(cleaning, polishing, degreasing) that can be pretty time consuming depending on the rifle.
 
Nice to see you saved a colectable but very usefull little rifle, I hunt deer with mine, accuarate as H*ll! If you ever decide to let it go, I need those sights!! great job, Dale Z!
 
Fabulous restoration. I love that full stock. I've been debating getting a CZ 550 FS in .30/06 but really can't justify another hunting rifle. Congrats.
 
Beautiful job. Slow rust bluing is the way to go. Not that difficult and reasonably safe from a chemical perspective, but you're right; time consuming. But what a finish! Just can't get that look anywhere else.

Great stuff!
 
I read the title and thought, "oh no..."; saw the pictures of the abused rifle and thought, "baby Jesus would cry if he saw that..."; and then the finished product! Good job Mauser98!!
 
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