Marauder Restyle Part Duex

[Sharps40]

Okay, back to the Marauder. I often put a sleeve in stocks at the rear tang. Always on a mauser, its a factory way to keep the stock tight w/o compressing the wood and it prevents splits at the tang....common on mausers, and possible on any stock that uses a thrubolt at the rear. So, I'll add one here....and I buggered up the inletting in the process, so, got some wood repair to do up top where its visible later on. Course, it wouldn't be a home smith project if something didn't get buggered. Here we go.

The steel sleeve is simple...Brake line of the right ID to allow a slip fit of the tang bolt.

Trim the new sleeve till it just slips between the tangs when they are installed on the action. (Open the hole in the tang of the stock for the sleeve...here's where I buggered the upper inletting, file slipped when working from bottom to top and I carved some extra wood away on the side. But I'll fix it....it'll be fine.) The idea is a sleeve of bedding between the wood and the tube. Works best it the hole is a bit bigger all around than the sleeve, it lets the sleeve insert and line up without any stress/cockeyed which might make it difficult to install the tang screw. You could also drill the hole out larger....I didn't want to set up the drill press, should have though!

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Grease/wax up the action, tangs, etc, the Inside of the sleeve, the Outside of the screw and plug one end of the sleeve with clay.

The plug keeps bedding out of the inside of the sleeve when you install it in the hole on the wood. Put some bedding in the hole in the wood and on the Outside of the sleeve....install the sleeve in the wood. Install the stock, insert the well greased screw and secure the stock to the action.

When the screw is lined up and hits the threads in the lower tang, it forces out the plug of clay that kept yer screw from getting glued into place.....i.e. it should all come apart later and the steel sleeve should stay in the wood forever.

We'll see, tomorrow evening we try takin apart the Marauder and the Renegade....LUCK!!!

 

[loadnplenty]

Nice work on the lever

 

[Sharps40]

That lever fighted me....too much bend an had to go back and forth just a bit and had Mina givein me love and so had slobber glasses and now I think of it....slobber glasses mighta been what started all the problems. But we gots it now and she opens/closes snug and with a snap and all is well. Bit of shapeing to do on the drill press later and it'll be perfect for blueing.

 

[Sharps40]

Buttplate arrived...off to the range sunday to see how it shoots before I take it any further!.....betcha it shoots good!

 

[Sharps40]

Don't know but it sure was a great day learning.....

Took the old fuzzy cheap 3x9 off my sisters Remlin Stalker (30-30) and replaced it with a nice crisp fixed 4x bushnell and spanky new and quite low weaver rings. She's quite happy, missed an opportunity last year, her first out, she says cause she was fiddling with the 3x9 and would I please fix it so it doesn't turn and tempt me and have me missin another opportunity. Well, its fixed best way I know how. And she's happy. Zeroed it with Fed 170s at 25 and the first shot at 100 was 2" high and well centered. So, she spent the afternoon banging away at the 10 and X rings at 100m and quite happy with the clarity and fiddlefree nature of the fixed 4X.

I discovered that I sure am quite and totally glad I missed that buck at 100 yards last month in the Low Country. Thought I flubbed it and I pretty much did....went out to shoot the 7x57 and was havin a wonderful time bangin the 200m and 300m steel and went hunting. Blooded the 45-70 the second morning with a perfect high shoulder shot, thru and thru...time to blood the Mauser. Wed evening, nearing last light and a perfect broadside lined up under that 7mm mauser......one each 140g Nosler Partition in the air and.....where the heck did the deer go? But he hot footed it outta there lickety split...no blood, no hair, dog couldn't even find it. So, sure am glad I went out to the range today...first 4 at 100m made a lovely well centered group on the target, 8" high......shot clean over that buck I did. Glad I missed clean and glad I missed it and glad I went back to check...had I assumed I simply pulled the shot, I'm sure I'da missed more at the end of this month when we go back. As it is, that good ol mauser is now sited about 1.25" high at 100 and good for a dead on hold at 200. I think if I hold steady and squeeze right, should be able to ventilate a deer or two with it here in Oct. It pays to check and be sure, assumptions woulda done me dead wrong later!

Check fired in the Marauder Marlin project. 150g Winchesters and iron sights at 25m. It hits about 1/2" high at that range with the rear in the lowest notch. Prolly could use a scooch higher front sight...I figured as much but for now....I wish I could post the photo of the group (can't find the camera cable),,,,cover most of it with a quarter....that's great for me and iron sights. But this here project as a wonderfully perfect bore too. But function was perfect and overall, its time to get the buttplate installed correctly and start the do over on the wood finish. Final step will be striking and reblue and it'll be done and ready for the woods. Gonna make a fine stalking rifle and the accuracy looks fine enough for 150m+ shooting.

Took out Ol Ugly, the once blue, once rusty, once foreign military sale now back in the USA, currently poorly nickel plated with a bent rear sight and loosie goosie slide Colt Officer MKIV Series 80 45 ACP. Ol Ugly for short. Tested his magazines converted from 6 rounds to 7 rounds with Wilson guts.....perfect. Tested the refit of the extractor...no more stuck/bent/crunched brass on the last shot.....tested the function of some of the most recent 1000 rds of 230g FMJ that were loaded with HP38 and perfect, a 6 oclock hold nets a fallen plate or moveing dueling post plate from 5m to 15m as long as I don't jerk it around. Happy, happy....runs so well and consistently....and nearly rust proof with some nickel on the outside and plenty of dirt inside but I still toy with stripping it down and makin it like new and blueing...since it left the factory blue but came home with nickel over rust pitting.......but Ol Ugly is so reliable like he is......I'm torn...but happy, he's reliable like only a Colt ever will be and like Sig and the rest aspire to be!

So now, drinkin part of my birthday present from my sister, Dornfelder wine....the only wine I ever tried and liked....no sour wine taste. In a frosty beer mug to be sure! And gotta fire up the grill tomorrow and test out my new stainless steel and camo grillin tools....High Speed! Lovin them tools!

Learned a lil bit bout leadin runnin deer with buckshot and my shotgun. Basically I didn't think much bout ballistics, lined er up and let er rip, centered up pretty nice....a deer chest broadside would catch 9 of 9 pellets at 25m with the full or modified choke. But, there is that pesky drop to think about.....shots are pretty consistently centered low and I can see a bit of lead on a runner and a bit of a spine height hold too. This could be quite interesting when we hunt with the dogs next month. As for them said 100 yard or 75 yards or even 50 yards......I'm not thinkin so much. With my rig, maybe 50 yards is gonna be the max range ad in some lead and maybe I oughta be thinkin less than that. But, and I quote...."With lead in the air and hope in the heart"....me and Dad are goin huntin!!! I'll bring extra flashlights......might be some trackin to do!

Wonderful day spent with family. Everybody should try it, I highly recommend.

 

[Sharps40]

Here is the target from today's function check. Shoots great, functions perfect.

 

[Sharps40]

Good progress today...buttplate fitted...and final shapeing of the wood stock is completed. Here after the first wet sanding and waiting for it to dry so I can shave off any additional whiskers. Leaving the wood slightly proud of the action panels but down flush on the tangs. Looks nice I think. Just good straight grain walnut.

The forend, stripped and all the dents and scuffs removed...also drying to remove the whiskers.

Factory forend has a bit of sap wood....blonder than the rest on the right side. I may stain it I may not. We'll see after some more smoothing and an initial coat of tru oil to freeze the last whiskers for removal.

One coat of TruOil rubbed in hard an hot till nearly dry. This coat, when flashed over will be sanded back level to get the last of the lil whiskers that invariably pop out when doing finish work.

The wood looks great.

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[Sharps40]

Been under the weather yesterday and today. Tomorrow evening should be able to do a final sanding with the wood on the metal and then remove it all to seal the inletting, under the buttplate and get into a real good finish and hand rub before the end of the week. I'll get my rustbluing set up going late next week too. Should be able to get this one done in time for rifle season.

 

[RamRoddoc]

That rifle is shaping up quite nicely sir.

Yep a home smith project would not be complete without a hiccup or two like a bit of corrective wood work, stripped threads, broken tap, milled out firing pin retaining pin hole requiring a few more unplanned steps (TIG welding) and a bit more time.

 

[Sharps40]

The progress is accelerating now...after the bits and detals get done it always speeds up....I'll be finishing up the wood this weekend prolly. Gettin started on the metal rust blueing too. Thinking of scopeing it, got a Marlin issue scope from another rifle move this one along and start lookin for the next project.