So I wanted to post this up here since it is finally done, and I wanted to give some credit where credit is due. Here's a little backstory:
I bought this gun originally from Gander Mountain. I was browsing around there one day with a buddy of mine and we came across about 4 Yugo capture German K98 Mausers. Two of the four had matching numbers so we each bought one to do some iron sight shooting at our range. Time went on and we both decided to molest them a bit and tap the receiver for an EGW scope rail. He wanted to convert his over to a nice Michigan white tail hunting gun and I decided I was going to prep this one and start gathering parts for a custom Mauser build.
I know there are plenty of better receivers out there to build on, but I wanted to see if this could be done and the Mauser receiver is a very nice receiver. I sent the bolt off to Fincher's Corner in Texas to have the bolt forged down, polished, and have a low profile Timney safety installed. While the bolt was gone for that work (he ended up turning it around in 2 days!) I brought the receiver over to the shop at my buddy's dad's farm and tapped and threaded it 8-40 (he has MUCH nicer tools than I do in my garage). Like most Mauser receivers that haven't been annealed, this sucker was tough as nails and busted two bits before I got through.
The gun sat like this for a little while in its factory wood stock as I assembled parts. I slapped a cheap Simmons scope on there to sight in and make sure I didn't mount anything crooked. About 10" windage adjustment and I was right on at 100 meters. Then the search for a nice stock began. I looked into some of the Boyd's and Bell & Carlson stocks that are in stock at various online distributors, but most were a hunting style for the lightweight factory profile barrel. McMillan was a solid 6-7 months out on a custom stock, plus they required the action and about 3 hours of shop labor to custom fit it. With this in mind I tossed up a wanted ad on here and had a guy contact me about 3 days later. He had one coming from McMillan in about 2 months and said I could pay for it and have it when it showed up. It wasn't inletted for bottom metal, so I got in touch with Jeff at CDI Precision about making me custom bottom metal for it. He was very willing to work with me and even gave me a straight trade for one that I ordered for my Winchester and never used.
About 10 weeks later the McMillan showed up at my house and I forwarded it right to Jeff with the factory barreled action sitting in there and some 8mm mauser blanks. He inletted the action to accept the AI style mags (the bottom of the action needs to be taken back just a little bit just like on Winchester actions) and sent it back my way in about 2-3 weeks. I now had a factory barreled action sitting in a McMillan stock with CDI bottom metal and a custom Accurate Mag 30-06 3.715" mag (thanks Accurate!).
After all of this was done, I started looking around for a smith to build my gun. I decided to do a 6.5x284 Norma and wanted to find a gunsmith who had the reamer in stock and was someone that I have used before. Keith from Phoenix Custom Rifles said that he would take on the project for me so I sent him all my parts. Eight weeks later and a whole lot of awesome work by Keith and I have quite the unique gun sitting in front of me! Modded my feed lips a bit on my accurate mag and got 20 rounds down the pipe with no hiccups at all. Factory ammo from Nosler didn't shoot good but the first two handloads I put together yielded some pretty promising results. I think with a little work on my handload I will have this gun shooting a consistent sub-MOA without difficulty.
Enjoy the pictures!
I bought this gun originally from Gander Mountain. I was browsing around there one day with a buddy of mine and we came across about 4 Yugo capture German K98 Mausers. Two of the four had matching numbers so we each bought one to do some iron sight shooting at our range. Time went on and we both decided to molest them a bit and tap the receiver for an EGW scope rail. He wanted to convert his over to a nice Michigan white tail hunting gun and I decided I was going to prep this one and start gathering parts for a custom Mauser build.
I know there are plenty of better receivers out there to build on, but I wanted to see if this could be done and the Mauser receiver is a very nice receiver. I sent the bolt off to Fincher's Corner in Texas to have the bolt forged down, polished, and have a low profile Timney safety installed. While the bolt was gone for that work (he ended up turning it around in 2 days!) I brought the receiver over to the shop at my buddy's dad's farm and tapped and threaded it 8-40 (he has MUCH nicer tools than I do in my garage). Like most Mauser receivers that haven't been annealed, this sucker was tough as nails and busted two bits before I got through.
The gun sat like this for a little while in its factory wood stock as I assembled parts. I slapped a cheap Simmons scope on there to sight in and make sure I didn't mount anything crooked. About 10" windage adjustment and I was right on at 100 meters. Then the search for a nice stock began. I looked into some of the Boyd's and Bell & Carlson stocks that are in stock at various online distributors, but most were a hunting style for the lightweight factory profile barrel. McMillan was a solid 6-7 months out on a custom stock, plus they required the action and about 3 hours of shop labor to custom fit it. With this in mind I tossed up a wanted ad on here and had a guy contact me about 3 days later. He had one coming from McMillan in about 2 months and said I could pay for it and have it when it showed up. It wasn't inletted for bottom metal, so I got in touch with Jeff at CDI Precision about making me custom bottom metal for it. He was very willing to work with me and even gave me a straight trade for one that I ordered for my Winchester and never used.
About 10 weeks later the McMillan showed up at my house and I forwarded it right to Jeff with the factory barreled action sitting in there and some 8mm mauser blanks. He inletted the action to accept the AI style mags (the bottom of the action needs to be taken back just a little bit just like on Winchester actions) and sent it back my way in about 2-3 weeks. I now had a factory barreled action sitting in a McMillan stock with CDI bottom metal and a custom Accurate Mag 30-06 3.715" mag (thanks Accurate!).
After all of this was done, I started looking around for a smith to build my gun. I decided to do a 6.5x284 Norma and wanted to find a gunsmith who had the reamer in stock and was someone that I have used before. Keith from Phoenix Custom Rifles said that he would take on the project for me so I sent him all my parts. Eight weeks later and a whole lot of awesome work by Keith and I have quite the unique gun sitting in front of me! Modded my feed lips a bit on my accurate mag and got 20 rounds down the pipe with no hiccups at all. Factory ammo from Nosler didn't shoot good but the first two handloads I put together yielded some pretty promising results. I think with a little work on my handload I will have this gun shooting a consistent sub-MOA without difficulty.
Enjoy the pictures!
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