Mannlicher 1888 brought back from the brink...

These were *so* incredibly cheap when Corwin brought them in a few years ago. Could never get myself over the hill enough to buy a couple to add on the long project list. Glad to see someone doing the good work to bring it back properly!

Were the CH4D dies in stock? I'm curious what sort of lead time they quoted you if not, have been meaning to do an order from them for a while now.
 
I have a second one coming soon. Plan is to also clean it up and make one rifle from the best bits, and a wall hanger from what’s left.
 
Well I picked up another one of these off the EE. Was expecting it to be bad, but I think it's actually a better restoration candidate than the one I already restored. Sadly I only have the one bolt between the two guns, so will have to maybe hunt down a second bolt when I'm done.

I started taking photos part way through tear-down (sorry). New gun is the one on the top, gun I already fixed up earleir in this thread is on bottom.

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Nos cracks through the wrist of the stock, but there was a bad crack at the toe.

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I worked out a clamping jig and glued it with titebond - luckily the crack was pretty clean and sealed back down well - might have been cracked recently, likely after import.

After the glue set, I drilled pin holes and used a couple wood screws dipped in wood glue to re-enforce the repair where it won't be seen (under the buttplate):

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Some shots of the metal before any cleanup apart from brushing off the worst of the loose filth. Some of the pitting is pretty advanced, but not everywhere, and less bad than the first rifle:

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Everything was of course stuck and/or frozen up. I did get it apart, here are many of the small bits uncleaned:

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And here are the same bits after boiling, carding, and oiling - actually not that bad:

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I'll post some more photos as I get around to doing more on this rifle - good news is the bore was actually packed in cosmolene and cleaned up to essentially new - mirror shinny - I was really shocked!! It initially looked like a sewer pipe, but it was just petrified grease.
 
Some progress (well actually it's done).

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This one was really rusty, but less rusty than the first one I did. I did have a bear of a time getting all the screws to let go, but they eventually relented (with heat, penetrating oil, specially ground screwdriver bits, etc.).

I had to go over some rustcicles with a dull file to knock them down flush with what remains of the original finish. This one had much more original finish intact than the first gun (that had virtually none) and the bore is a solid 9.5/10 (!).

Some shots of the metal cleaned up:

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This second gun is the one I'll keep. I only have the one bolt and don't want to go through the expense of importing another one, so I'll likely put the first gun up on the EE and let someone else import a bolt for it. These are so rare in Canada in fireable condition, that hopefully someone will grab it to fill a hole.

One odd thing - the first gun was serialized (barrel and receiver), this second one is not...(?), see picture below. I have no idea what that means or if it's common. I do know neither gun has Austrian army acceptance stamps over the chamber, so both these guns were exported by Steyr on a foreign contract. Steyr sold these to a few nations, and I see no country-specific markings on either rifle, so no idea where they went. Possibly Chile, but most Chilean issued M1888's later went to Bulgaria and were converted to 88/90's. The ones that were not sent to Bulgaria mostly got chilean crests stamped into their stocks. Mine have neither feature - so who knows?

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B_noser said:
Very impressive
Steaming just might remove a lot of the dents in the wood. Sopping wet cotton rag and iron to swell the compressed wood.
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I have a lot of experience steaming. What is left in this stock is not a great candidate. Also, I have no interest in sanding the original finish. The stock imperfections are a nice match to the metal condition.

If I wanted it close to as-new, it do mock arsenal repairs in the larger gouges and boil the stock for an hour to lift everything else. It would dry smoother, but the stock would still have visible marks where the dents and scrapes were. I’d also have to sand or scrape the raised wood fibres and would lose the current wood finish and color.

If I went that far, I’d also prep and reblue the metal to get out all the pits above the wood line.

I’m happy with my choices here :)
 
Not muskets. They shoot 8x50r (or 8x52r), which was made in smokeless and semi-smokeless loads.

They are not black powder guns, though you can of course shoot black powder in them if desired. Many people do as it’s impossible to blow up these guns shooting a full case of 2F and a correctly sized bullet.

fat tony said:
Are these old muskets black powder only?
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Well crap - importer just advised my dies did not make the import window because they are backordered. Guess I have to play the waiting game :(
 
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If anyone is interested, I consigned the first gun to Gunco in Ottawa for actually a little less than what I have in it. I decided to keep the second gun, which now wears the bolt I had imported through prophet river.

The import was easy to do, I just don’t want to spend the money needed to import a second bolt. The next owner can do that if they want.
 
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