Bubba Redneck sling solution

buffdog

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This is a m/96 Mauser rifle sporterized in Sweden. Apparently the front sling attachment pulled out and this was the "fix." It was advertised for sale - would you have bought the rifle?



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Wow. That's worse than the Mosin I was once offered. Had a hose clamp holding the rear sight on. Funny looking thing, with its double set triggers and 6.5 MS ammo. Reminded me of a Cooey Carcano but he insisted it was a Mosin that he paid $250 for. No deal cometh of such grave tomfoolery.
 
Hahaha, man there needs to be a Previous Owner thread for stupid fixes lol. There's one on the motorcycle tech forum I'm on, endless entertainment. I'd probably walk away from anything that was ghetto rig fixed, unless a friend was selling it and I knew the history of said item and ghetto repair.
 
Maybe Bubba wanted to guarantee 5lbs of upward barrel bedding pressure to the forend for top accuracy!

After seeing some of the Bubba special fixes and mods coming out of Sweden I now know for sure were Bubba comes from!
 
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Well, one of the big reasons I bought the rifle was to get this. The cost of both the rifle and the scope mount was less than I could buy a similar precicely made scope mount itself.

This is a European type of side mount that has a base mounted on the rifle and the mount/rings slide into a dovetail on the base. The two long levers lock the mount into position. The mount itself has provisions for elevation and windage with locking screws on it. It is carefully machined so that the scope and mount can be easily removed and reattached.



My original idea was to take the mount and base off this rifle, and put it on one of the military rifles I have. Over the years, I seem to have accumulated a few m/96 rifles that have been drilled and tapped for Weaver type bases, or had the bolt handle bent, or have some small alteration that take them out of the "desireable collectable" category and relegate them to the "Good Shooter" status. Many of the people here know that I can not resist a Swede for a good price or one that has something interesting about them. Also, on the range, a Swedish Sniper "Clone" with a side mount looks more authentic. (I am not fond of the word "clone" as it indicates an EXACT replica and we see too many of these so called "clone" Sniper rifles in the Forum with more modern mounts.)

However, a few minutes of inspection after the rifle's arrival, showed some more interesting possibilities. I could see the reason for the hose clamp, and even the reasoning as an "emergency or temporary" fix, but it looks like the previous Swedish owner left it on for some time. The stock is the original M/96 stock, but has been thinned down to smaller Sporting Rifle proportions. This thinned the forestock considerably. On the Military stock, some slots are cut into the barrel channel, then a hole drilled through the stock from the front for the cleaning rod. When the screw type sling swivel was mounted about 2 1/2 inches back from the tip, the hole drilled for it ended up going into one of these slots, rather than solid wood. That meant, although the screw was about an inch long, only about 1/4 inch (or 6 mm ) of the threads actually were in contact with the wood, so it was much easier to pull out of the stock. The pistol grip was nicely dovetailed into the stock.



Taking a good hard look at the rifle, I realized that I had a very well made CLASSIC HUNTING RIFLE on my hands. It had been rebarreled to 30-06 Springfield calibre with a new and bit heavier barrel. (Yes, I know, these "weak" Swedish m/96 actions are not suitable for such a powerful round, and there has been much discussion about it. The quality of the steel in these actions is much better than most of the similar types and is well known. The fact that Carl Gustafs chambered the CG-63 in 7.62/.308 Winchester, a round that gives more pressure than the 30-06, is an indication of what they thought of the action's strength so please let us not have another dreary debate on this subject. )

Between two of the slots in the forestock, there is a web of solid wood about 2 inches long. By simply drilling another hole for the front swivel, about 2 1/2 inches nearer the receiver, into this web of solid wood, and screwing the swivel into this hole, a good mounting could be used. It took about 15 minutes to disassemble the rifle, set up the drill press and drill a new hole, screw the swivel into the new hole, and reassemble the rifle. The original hole will be drilled for a plug later.



A few minutes of going through the odds and ends box and I came up with a 3/4 inch wide European type of leather sling, and a 4 power Bauch and Lomb 32 mm scope with a post and cross-hair reticle in it. The smaller 32 mm scope had to be used so that the present bolt handle cleared it when operated, Even then, I had to remove about 1/16 of an inch of metal from the top of the bolt handle.

So, I now have another sporting rifle. I will take it to the range sometime later this week if the sun ever comes out in Manitoba and see what it will do. I have a 30-06 Thompson Center Venture rifle that I bought a week ago at a really good price (about 40% off) from a local Hardware store. It will be interesting to compare the two.

Some pictures - before and two after.






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I've two rifles with similar mounts.
The 9.3 x 57 is a K98 from Tradex; but it has the smaller objective lens, but I actually like the look of it. Kind of period in it's own way.
And I built a Bubba'd and scrubbed K98 with a '50's Kahles.
The European mounting system is pretty cool IMO
Nice score Buffdog
 


...nice rifle...interesting gizmo for supporting it...

Yes. I actually picked it up at the local dump. It has a tripod base, and mounted two broken halogen lights. I wanted something to hold firearms so that I could photograph them and the bar on the tripod seemed like a good idea. A 2x4 was cut to 2x2, and a lag bolt went through the base to secure them. A couple of old "Y" fittings were screwed into the top of the blocks.

Quote: any reason why you did not just replace the swivel on the barrel? are you going to remove the remains on the barrel?

I am not really a fan of barrel mounted sling swivels on rifles. The present fitting still needs a bit of work with the file as the remains protrude slightly. I will probably leave the base on the barrel after I file the fitting flush and blue it. As it is a sporterized military rifle, my intention was to have a functional classic looking hunting rifle, but not necessarily restoring it to original sporterized condition.
 
Bought this bubba'd Swede once:

2006-08-09_152929_Swede04a.jpg


And with a little work, turned it into this:

2006-02-11_141527_Swede06.jpg


2006-02-11_141552_Swede07.jpg


Shown with a stock M38 for comparison:

2006-02-11_141430_Swede11.jpg


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NAA.
 
At least it's an easy fix, not like the wannabe bubbas that electropencil their DL, S.I.N. and any other I.D. number, they can fit on a reciever and/or barrel!f:P:2:
 
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