When I was 14 my dad and I went to a hunting and fishing show in WV, and dad booked us a bear hunting trip to Canada. Dad told me he would give me 350$ to buy a rifle. At the time, a brand new Remington ADL was about 330$, but one of my dad's coworkers was an amateur gunsmith. Dad told me that he could build me a rifle for 350$ with a scope. Since I didn't have any money to buy a scope, I though having one built was a really good idea.

When the rifle was ready, we went to the strip mine where they worked to pick up the rifle, and try it out. We pull up to this old pit, and the guy get out of his truck, not with my rifle, but with two tomahawks. He proceeds to tell me that everyone should know how to use one, and I got a 30 minute lesson on throwing tomahawks. Then he pulled out some weird looking butcher knives, and after that he grabbed a rifle case. I was so excited, I thought I was finally going to get to see my rifle. Well, no, it pulled out a Garand, and started giving me a history lesson on the Garand and hip shooting lesson. After we blew through 100 rounds of 30-06. I finally go to see my rifle.

It was ugly, real ugly. A sporterized Mauser, .308 Winchester, with a black ram-line stock, 18.5" barrel, Timney trigger, and a Simmons scope. Of course, at the time, I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. It shot amazingly well too.

I never really like the stock, because it was ugly, and metal was all rusty and pitted. The simmons scope fell apart after several years of deer hunting. The shells always hung up in the magazine.

When I ran across boyds replacement gunstocks, I thought I would change the stock and scope out.

I ended up duracoating the metal all flat black, and it made the rifle look 10x better. When I had the rifle apart, I found why the magazine never fed right, it had a busted spring, and the magazine follower caught on the lip where the trigger assembly met the action. I guess 60 years of wear/abuse on the magazine box wore the side wall out a little.

Then I saw someone on this forum paint a synthetic stock with textured paint, and thought I would give that a go before dropping the money in a new stock and bedding kit.

1. Duracoated rifle flat black
2. Replaced Magazine spring(brownells +10% spring) and Magazine follower (Oberndorf aluminum)
3. Replaced buggered trigger guard screws
4. Refinished rifle stock with textured OD green paint
5. Leupold VX-1 4-12x40mm

While it is not a sleek sexy Model 70 or 700, at least it isn't ugly to my eye any longer.

Replaced parts

Taking it to the range in the morning to get it sighted in.

Any Mauser guys out there know the history on this guy? Receiver says FAM AGE 1952. I think the action was originally made in Belgium, and refurbished in South America, then imported into the US. That is just what I was told by the gentleman who built the rifle, I don't know if that is true or not.

That's real nice! What kind of paint? I mean is it like spray paint?

The stock paint was rattle can made by Rustoleum called "STONE", color was called Canyon Moss.

I stripped and prepped the synthetic stock with acetone and an etchant solution to give the plastic tooth for the paint to adhere to. This stuff sprays out like spray on insulation almost. It takes about 3 thin coats to get full coverage. After it dried to the touch, I set it in front of a heater to cure it quicker. Then I sealed it with a couple coats of matte clear coat.

The duracoat is a two part enamel finish. You mix the color with a hardener, and spray it on with an airbrush or detail hvlp gun. Then I bake it at 170 degrees for an hour. Duracoat says you don't have to bake it, but I have never been able to get duracoat to fully cure without baking it. Besides, air curing could take weeks, and baking it cures it rock hard as soon as you bake it.

That turned out truly nice. Great job!

Thanks HMK.

Refinishing my new 7.7 arisaka this week. Ramline stock has 3 coats of self etching and action/barrel will try on some satin caliper paint.

How available is that 7.7x58 ammo?

Eh, saw a few boxes at the mesquite show. Its available. But if you roll your own, dies are cheap and you cam reform 30.06 brass and load with
303 load data using .311-.312 projectiles

New produced brass is avail from PPU also

That's a pretty nice looking rifle, Colt. I have a weakness for rifles built on 98s to begin with, about the only thing better is a Model 70 Classic or pre-64 Model 70, if you ask me.

If you don't mind me suggesting, you can get a stripped bolt body for the Interarms Mark X and it's other iterations for around $100 if you don't like the looks of the bolt handle. I have a .280 built on a VZ24 action by a guy in Nevada, and he bent and forged (?????????) the original bolt handle to make it work. It did work but I always thought it was a little weird looking. I bought a stripped bolt for a Mark X to replace it and it looks 100% better.

I always liked the "spoon" bolt handles.

Well FMR....



Looks like when I pulled the action out of the stock, I cracked the Timney trigger. I cycled this several times, then all of a sudden the safety wouldn't work. Forced the bolt open, and it was catching on the sear hard. Got the bolt out, and the trigger just wasn't right. Took the trigger out, and put the bolt back in, and the bolt was working fine. Then I started looking at the trigger. Once I pulled the actual trigger out of the assembly it was clear what was wrong.

It might be interesting to see how willing Timney is to stand behind a decades-old product. Let us know, would ya?

I'll be honest, it wasn't Timney fault. I am pretty sure I know exactly when it happened. I can remember seperating the stock, and the action was little stuck. I tapped on it, and the front side came out. Then I grabbed the barreled and yanked it out. I can remember hearing something crack, and feeling the trigger snag on something. I inspected everything and everything looked okay. I guess working the action back and forth finally bent the trigger and caused it to hang up. I am glad I didn't have a round in the chamber during all this.

I can even see the marks the trigger made in the trigger guard when I yanked it out of there. Stupid mistake on my part. I got excited to get everything together, and rushed the job.

I like what you did with the stock, it looks great!

It's fun to turn something like a k98:

into something like this:


Or a Yugo 24/47:

into one of these (still a work in progress):

I like those.

I placed an order for a new trigger. I hope I didn't mess up anything on the bolt, and the new Timney fixes everything.

I used Bold triggers in mine, absolutely love them for Mauser actions.

I love what you guys are doing with those original old actions.

I think it looks nice. If it is more useful, then all the better. My 1909 Argentine calvary Mauser is one of my favorites.

Good looking stock on that one.

10-4. Love those Mausers! When Model 70-style safeties are added to them they are every bit as good a as Model 70. The only thing about my 98s lack that my Model 70s have had is the smoothness. Every other feature is perfection.

I've used Bold and Timney both on a pair of custom 98s I have, and I like them both. I can probably adjust the Timney a little lighter than the Bold, but both get down to around three pounds which I think is about perfect. The bottom line is I have no complaints on the way either of them feels.

Beautiful guns! Great job!

I have been eyeballing model 70s for a few months now. Wish I could afford one.