So I picked up this mannlicher from some guy on GP that was shortly thereafter banned (not because of this transaction). What arrived was, at first glance, a tomato stake. Mercifully it was cheap. Very cheap.
It was missing a bolt and safety. The safety screw was snapped off and rusted into the receiver. The stock was cracked at the wrist and barely hanging on. Bore was full of orange rust, and every surface looked like those nepalese guns IMA USA brought in 15+ years ago - covered in 100 years of grime and rust.
I like a challenge, so I have not given up on the gun.
I should have taken more and better photos of the rifle before I started work, but another thread here prompted me to take a few to share. By the time I took a photo of the thing, I already had the gun disassembled and quite a few parts soaking in evaporust (there was zero original finish left on this thing anyhow).
After a couple weeks soaking in Kroil, I could not get the front action screw out to separate the stock from receiver so I could address each separately. In the end, I had to mill the head off the screw in the mill and beat the rust-seized screw shaft out of the stock with hammer and punch to separate the barreled receiver from the stock. And my god was that rear sight assembly a bear to free up and get disassembled.
Here are a couple photos to give you an idea how rusty and dirty this thing was (the receiver bridge and front top receiver ring were already wire wheeled to see if there were any markings before I took this photo - it was even worse before:
I'm not sure I've ever worked on a gun that started this rough before (and that includes Nepalese black powder muzzle stuffers!)
Here's the receiver cleaned up. Actually not that bad... maybe about what you would externally expect of something from RTI.
Interestingly, the bore and chamber cleaned up WAY better than I expected. No significant pitting in the chamber, and the bore has strong (but dark) rifling. There are a few patches of rust crust I can't get out with brushes and naval jelly in the grooves, but I'll eventually put a few jacketed low pressure rounds through the gun when it's otherwise finished and that should shoot the last of it loose. I actually have hopes this thing might group somewhat OK eventually.
I imported a replacement bolt from a US e-bay seller last month (thanks Prophet River), and got the missing safety and a firing pin (the one in the replacement bolt had a broken off tip) from a CGN seller in the EE. A very lucky find.
Safety screws and action screws for these guns are made of unobtainium, so I made replacements based on photos of originals and pulling dimensions off the rifle. The safety screw was center drilled with a tiny carbine dental drill, then hollowed out in 5 thou increments with numbered drills. It's a 10-32NF thread if anyone else ever has to do this. I chased the receiver hole with a bottoming tap to clear the last of the old screw out. I didn't take pics of making this screw - sorry fellas. But I did remember to take some snaps of making the front action screw - essentially the same process. The front action screw is an off size with an unusual 26tpi thread. I had to cut it in the lathe.
Some pics for those that like machining photos.
fresh off lathe:
slot cut in mill (slitting saw) and then oil blackened like the originals were:
and exposed part of the head aged to look more like the (lack of) finish on the rest of the rifle.
If anyone's interested in seeing more, I can post other photos as we get closer to reassembly.
It was missing a bolt and safety. The safety screw was snapped off and rusted into the receiver. The stock was cracked at the wrist and barely hanging on. Bore was full of orange rust, and every surface looked like those nepalese guns IMA USA brought in 15+ years ago - covered in 100 years of grime and rust.
I like a challenge, so I have not given up on the gun.
I should have taken more and better photos of the rifle before I started work, but another thread here prompted me to take a few to share. By the time I took a photo of the thing, I already had the gun disassembled and quite a few parts soaking in evaporust (there was zero original finish left on this thing anyhow).
After a couple weeks soaking in Kroil, I could not get the front action screw out to separate the stock from receiver so I could address each separately. In the end, I had to mill the head off the screw in the mill and beat the rust-seized screw shaft out of the stock with hammer and punch to separate the barreled receiver from the stock. And my god was that rear sight assembly a bear to free up and get disassembled.
Here are a couple photos to give you an idea how rusty and dirty this thing was (the receiver bridge and front top receiver ring were already wire wheeled to see if there were any markings before I took this photo - it was even worse before:
I'm not sure I've ever worked on a gun that started this rough before (and that includes Nepalese black powder muzzle stuffers!)
Here's the receiver cleaned up. Actually not that bad... maybe about what you would externally expect of something from RTI.
Interestingly, the bore and chamber cleaned up WAY better than I expected. No significant pitting in the chamber, and the bore has strong (but dark) rifling. There are a few patches of rust crust I can't get out with brushes and naval jelly in the grooves, but I'll eventually put a few jacketed low pressure rounds through the gun when it's otherwise finished and that should shoot the last of it loose. I actually have hopes this thing might group somewhat OK eventually.
I imported a replacement bolt from a US e-bay seller last month (thanks Prophet River), and got the missing safety and a firing pin (the one in the replacement bolt had a broken off tip) from a CGN seller in the EE. A very lucky find.
Safety screws and action screws for these guns are made of unobtainium, so I made replacements based on photos of originals and pulling dimensions off the rifle. The safety screw was center drilled with a tiny carbine dental drill, then hollowed out in 5 thou increments with numbered drills. It's a 10-32NF thread if anyone else ever has to do this. I chased the receiver hole with a bottoming tap to clear the last of the old screw out. I didn't take pics of making this screw - sorry fellas. But I did remember to take some snaps of making the front action screw - essentially the same process. The front action screw is an off size with an unusual 26tpi thread. I had to cut it in the lathe.
Some pics for those that like machining photos.
fresh off lathe:
slot cut in mill (slitting saw) and then oil blackened like the originals were:
and exposed part of the head aged to look more like the (lack of) finish on the rest of the rifle.
If anyone's interested in seeing more, I can post other photos as we get closer to reassembly.
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