Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Mauser build for my son

That is very cool and something I expect will be cherished by your sons and grandchildren. Thanks for sharing.

Great thread thanks for posting!

I sporterize a number of Mausers each year, but my son does not want them.

Be grateful your son likes guns.

For better or worse, my 3 sons are like me....we believe all guns are cool, some are just cooler than others.

Yeah, I'm lucky. Son was home from college for a few weeks and we spent lots of time working on the rifle and my milling machine. I got to let him make some decisions on it, length of forearm, ebony tip or not, forearm shape, etc. He's excited.

Just one a personal note, you are a great dad for building something for your kids!!


While my dad and I did shoot together.. it was only target practice with a 22lr, but never hunting.



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Really nice job on the bolt handle and the tang. I look forward to seeing the rest as it progresses. GD

My hat's off to you sir. I would imagine very few dad's have the knowledge, skill, and equipment to accomplish such an endeavor. Building a rifle for your son, with your son being involved, Is awesome. The memories of the build, shooting/hunting it together, and creating a rifle that your son will probably pass on to his son. Those are memories of a lifetime.

Here is a 98 Mauser I sporterized 1n 1971 for my brother. I bought a semi inletted stock and I emphasize "semi", reblued it myself, had the bolt handle bent and the bolt jeweled, the only thing I didn't do myself and I glass bedded the action and barrel. It shoots very well and it was the 1st gun I ever did.

Awesome Mrfixit! Well done! I know your sons appreciate these rifles!!!

It will probably shoot better than you expect. As long as the bolt isn't jumping madly, Mausers can shoot fantastically. And if they are sloppy in the rear, you can weld up "shims" and turn them down so when the bolt is closed, it is centered. After that, you might do a final finish bolt lap. But so far, so good.

Love these. Wish I had the skills to do that kind of machine work

Very nice work and for a son is priceless.....

Post weekend update:

Got some work done on the wood, I actually started on the inletting a bit back, and have been finishing up on it lately. This was a Richard's Microfit stock I've had for about 25 years or so. I want to say I remember it being a 98% inlet.....but it didn't seem like it. I say that because I have a newer stock from Richards that is 98% for a Yugo Mauser and a bare action drops right in. I'm thinking this one is more like 95% or so? Anyway.... Since I'm not that experienced with this I decided to start and do one part at a time. I started with just the bare action and got it in. Then I worked on the bottom metal, and then after that I added the barrel and worked on it.

As I got the top and bottom closer together, I found I had cracked the stock in the web between the trigger slot and the magazine opening.


This really made me sit and think... I had already realized I had 2 opposing beliefs; First that a .270 in a decent walnut stock didn't need a cross bolt for recoil, and second that a Custom Mauser should have a cross bolt for looks if nothing else.

So now I have a crack behind the magazine well. I decided to drill through the stock at the crack and use a brass screw to hold the crack together along with some epoxy. Since I had to drill it out, I drilled a bit larger hole on each side and used the epoxy to make a faux plug as if a cross bolt were in place. I did this at the crack, and behind the recoil lug. I milled the screws down below the level of the stock and then filled with epoxy. I'll clean them up as I work on the outside.

Now to be perfectly honest, I had already messed up and didn't know it yet. My inletting on top was not level, I had the action going nose down a bit. I had to use a bit of bedding compound around the front of the action, just a little pad, and pulled it down to the mark I had made on the action. After that set up I let the bottom metal a lil deeper to get it all 'right'.

Then sanding the wood flush to the bottom of the metal and starting to shape the stock.



I used chisels to shape the grip area. Before doing that I put the bolt with safety shroud on it in the action in the stock. I took a pencil and marked the outline of the shroud on the stock. My goal is to try not to undercut the stock below the shroud. I had a metal 2-screw grip cap to put on this. I was planning on engraving it with my son's initials or his 'brand' that I found in one of his old books. But it wouldn't fit. The inside line of the grip was too 'flat' and it wasn't long enough for the oval to fit. So I guess I get to make a custom grip cap. In the mean time I have a piece of wood on it to help keep from rounding it off.

This rifle will have not only a grip cap, but a forend tip as well. I bought a piece of ebony, but it looked much more brown than the black I have had in the past. I've read about how oily it is supposed to be and some issues using it for forend tips. I bought a piece of African Blackwood, which is touted to be much more stable and dry. The ebony is on the left, darker blackwood on the right:



I cut the stock and added the tip. I used West System epoxy with the slow cure hardener. I mixed it and used fine sanding dust from the belt sander of the blackwood to mix in and color it. I drilled the cap and stock for a small dowel rod to help hold it.



I am debating using a slice of the blackwood as a grip cap to match as well. The grip cap is more acorn shaped, or more like a tear drop shape. I am open to suggestions.

Very nice

Looks like the cast in the stock is backwards for a RH, right-eyed shooter.

I think it's a trick of the photo...there isn't any cast, or shouldn't be anyway. In person I don't see what we see in the photo. I thought the same thing when I looked at the photo the first time.

On that note, I do have questions about the pitch of the butt. I'm trying to decide if I need to alter anything from the way I got it from Richard's. It appears that pitch is about zero, or in other words the heel to toe line is abut 90* to the line of the barrel. Looking at older ads for Winchesters and such (all iron sighted for what its worth) it looks like there is some pitch built it. Not sure how it should be. Thoughts?

The blackwood grip cap would look great. I'd go with a steel cap myself, but I don't think you'd go wrong either way.