So with time on my hands, no hunting seasons and continuing snowfall, I thought I would get moving on a couple of projects. A few years ago I bought a sporterized M38 Swedish Mauser from Tradex. I have an affinity for the 6.5x55 caliber and the older I get, the heavier my hunting gear seems! I wanted to end up with a lightweight "stalking" rifle to take on hikes while deer hunting.
As purchased, this one had the bent bolt, drilled and tapped with weaver mounts and a shortened barrel (I am a carbine guy as well) but with no bluing left on the metal and a stock that needed refinishing. I first tackled the stock, got rid of the metal butt plate and refinished it with a light application of stain (it had nice colour to start with) and several applications of tung oil. I needed to add length to the stock because it was too short and couldnt find anything that fit the stock as cut, so I repurposed and ground a Remington 870 Express recoil pad - wasnt 100% but close. Then the project languished for a couple of years.
Decided I needed to get moving on it a week or so ago and sandblasted it using a cheapo sandblaster from CTC (was in a damaged box with 2 bottles of aluminum oxide grit - was brand new in a damaged box for $10!). Did a remarkable job of stripping the old finish off of the metal, not that there was much left anyways. I wanted to spray finish the metal with KG Stock Kote in a matt black. I watched a You Tube video and they used an airbrush to refinish a Remington 870.
The only thing I had at hand was an airbrush for models and it worked surprisingly well - am shopping now for a better one or small spray gun. It had an attachment to hook to an air compressor which I set at 30 PSI. I degreased and washed all of the metal parts and waded in. All in all, I was pleased with the results, a few minor mistakes but you have to look hard to see them. I put everything together but am going to leave it alone for a few weeks to harden up even though everything seems to have set up pretty well already.
Not totally happy with the scope setup. I have a Bold trigger with a safety but didnt install it as the bent bolt isnt radiused to clear a lower mounted scope (same height when retracted as the safety) - so I left the military safety and trigger on for now. Need to do more research before I attempt to radius the bolt handle... Also, most of todays scopes have such large power adjustment rings, its going to take a fair amount of metal removal to clear them. I ended up using some high Vortex rings and an older Burris 1.75 - 5x scope on it which is close to the 2 -7x I wanted to mount on it. Going to keep playing with different rings to get it brought closer to the receiver
Its nice and light and I look forward to putting some shots through it! Just need the snow to melt so I can get out to the 100 yard range without snowshoes!
As purchased, this one had the bent bolt, drilled and tapped with weaver mounts and a shortened barrel (I am a carbine guy as well) but with no bluing left on the metal and a stock that needed refinishing. I first tackled the stock, got rid of the metal butt plate and refinished it with a light application of stain (it had nice colour to start with) and several applications of tung oil. I needed to add length to the stock because it was too short and couldnt find anything that fit the stock as cut, so I repurposed and ground a Remington 870 Express recoil pad - wasnt 100% but close. Then the project languished for a couple of years.
Decided I needed to get moving on it a week or so ago and sandblasted it using a cheapo sandblaster from CTC (was in a damaged box with 2 bottles of aluminum oxide grit - was brand new in a damaged box for $10!). Did a remarkable job of stripping the old finish off of the metal, not that there was much left anyways. I wanted to spray finish the metal with KG Stock Kote in a matt black. I watched a You Tube video and they used an airbrush to refinish a Remington 870.
The only thing I had at hand was an airbrush for models and it worked surprisingly well - am shopping now for a better one or small spray gun. It had an attachment to hook to an air compressor which I set at 30 PSI. I degreased and washed all of the metal parts and waded in. All in all, I was pleased with the results, a few minor mistakes but you have to look hard to see them. I put everything together but am going to leave it alone for a few weeks to harden up even though everything seems to have set up pretty well already.
Not totally happy with the scope setup. I have a Bold trigger with a safety but didnt install it as the bent bolt isnt radiused to clear a lower mounted scope (same height when retracted as the safety) - so I left the military safety and trigger on for now. Need to do more research before I attempt to radius the bolt handle... Also, most of todays scopes have such large power adjustment rings, its going to take a fair amount of metal removal to clear them. I ended up using some high Vortex rings and an older Burris 1.75 - 5x scope on it which is close to the 2 -7x I wanted to mount on it. Going to keep playing with different rings to get it brought closer to the receiver
Its nice and light and I look forward to putting some shots through it! Just need the snow to melt so I can get out to the 100 yard range without snowshoes!
