Making a Custom Rifle?
I have a Mauser action & was consdering making a custom rifle.How much will it cost to make a rifle?How much can i do myself?What about a stock?I need all the info i can get.Thanks everybody......Hunter
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I'll tell you right up front that you can buy a good commercial rifle cheaper than you can build one. The typical smithing bill will run about $150 or more plus whatever finish you pick ($70-$125). Then you have to add the cost of the new barrel, trigger,safety, and stock. I've been on a mauser kick lately and have made some pretty reasonable buys on parts and pieces, but I still have more in the finished rifles than a like new used name brand would cost. I do things like fitting the stock, safety, trigger, and install the scope. These are within the scope of most home workshops. A good vise, screwdrivers, punches, files, and a dremel tool will do about all the jobs.
Mobuck0 -
I honestly depends on all you want to have when its said and done. You can sporterize one fairly cheap, and if your handy, you can pretty much do it all yourself. I know that midwayusa.com has a book on customizing mausers, I'd highly advise starting there.
If I'm wrong please correct me, I won't be offended.
The sound of a 12 gauge pump clears a house fatser than Rosie O eats a Big Mac !0 -
Because of the high cost of building a custom rifle, start with an unpitted action in primo condition. A polished out pitted action really detracts from a custom gun that is otherwise perfect. 0 -
A word to the wise ... If you want to build a custom gun, start with a modern barreled action ... this is coming from a guy that is in the ending phase of going down the path your thinking about. I've easily spent more than enough to buy a new Kimber 22-250 heavy barrel varmint rifle ... and that's not counting my time.
German receiver - complete .................. $150
Parker-Hale bolt and adjustable trigger ... $189
Boyd's Thumbhole stock ...................... $179
Douglas Heavy Varmint Barrel ................ $145
Leupold rings and Bases ....................... $ 70
I went with the P-H bolt and trigger (which has a safety lever similar to a Remington) instead of the modified wing safety and military trigger, (which I'd bought and didn't like) I felt its not only more modern, but also cleaner looking. After almost 2 years, I decided I wasn't going to buy the scope mount drilling jig, receiver wrench, barrel jaws for my vice, reamer and headspace gauges ... a competent and real gunsmith charges less to do it than I could buy the tools for, and since this is not a project I'm going to take up again, I opted to have him do it and test fire it ... he noticed the bolt wasn't closing all the way and also had to inlet the stock a bit more for the trigger and bolt handle, everything came to another $200 ... so now were up to $933 ... and I still have to do a lot of polishing and some bluing ... and haven't decided weather I'm going to try to clean up the floor plate/trigger guard or just spend another $150 or so for a commercial hinged floor plate ... I still need to do some inletting to fully float the barrel and lastly it will need to be glass bedded, which I can also do myself ... which brings up a question for others that have wandered down this path ...
Is there a shorter follower and block I can get for the mag well? Because the 22-250 is so much shorter than the 8mm Mauser, the cartridges will slide around (under recoil) and bind making it impossible to have more than 1 in the chamber and 1 in the mag.
Anyway, it looks like I'll have somewhere around $1100 plus Optics and a total of 60 hours (seems like 100 hours) of my time in this puppy ... frustrating at times, but its been fun and educational. And BTW I did shoot it 2 days ago to break in the barrel ... 5, 5 shot groups, 4 shots were always about 3/4" or less, but one of the 5 always increased the group size to about 1-1/2" ...
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Just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!kimberkid@gunbroker.zzn.com
Edited by - kimberkid on 08/23/2002 16:39:130 -
kimberkid, The rifle looks good and you did it yourself! That's what makes it fun! I figure to have 50 hours in chambering, threading, and truing the action on a rifle. If I build one it will have a Match grade barrel and not necessarily a heavy barrel. That's a misconception that all Match grade barrels are heavy! The 257WSM I'm building will have a #4 contour barrel but it will be about the same as a Remington Magnum barrel in configuration. It indicates less than 2/10000ths variance in lands and grooves on both ends. That's match quality!! When I finish it better shoot .300 or less or I will be unhappy! The next one you build you should use a 700 or a 600 or 660 or xp-100 action to start. It will be a whole lot easier and lot less problamatic in the end! GHD 0 -
GHD - this is a #5 contour, and is a little heavier than I thought it would be, but decided since its basically for prairie dogs, figured a little heavier wouldn't hurt anything, and hopefully will be more resistant to walking when the barrel warms up ...since I'm not going to be toting it around much, what the heck.
Is there a shorter follower and block I can get for the mag well? The 22-250 is so much shorter than the 8mm Mauser, the cartridges slide around and bind making it impossible to have more than 1 in the chamber and 1 in the mag. Or does someone make a floorplate and magwell for the shorter cartrages ... I know there are all kinds of Mauser parts out there ... its almost mind numbing!
Also what is truing the action? I've heard of it, but really don't know what it is or how its done ... feel like enlightening me a little? Does it make the action tighter, smoother or what?
Thanks,
kk
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Just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!kimberkid@gunbroker.zzn.com0 -
kimberkid, Basically trueing the action is making sure everything is square. Look at the lugs on your bolt. Are they both contacting the same? Probably one is making more contact than the other and that's because the threads in the receiver and the threads on the barrel are not perfectly straight. To true and action the threads in the receiver are recut to be perfectly alined with the barrel so that when you chamber a round it's as close to center of the bore as possible. Also the bolt will need lapping and the bolt rails get lapped. This makes everything work smoother. I also try to make sure the firing pin is perfectly straight so that it isn't contacting the bolt as it falls. As far as shortening the magazine I don't know of any drop in kits available but you can find a block to put in there and then cut your follower to fit and if you want to ajust or reposition your boltstop to the right length. It will feed better but not perfectly just because of the mauser design. That's another reason to choose something besides a mauser action to build on. Let me know if you try this. Hope it helps a little. GHD 0
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