Swede Mauser 96

[TMan]

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Swedish Mauser 96, with matching serial numbers, and a bore graded of "1". The stock was in rather good condition, so I decided to just use lemon oil on it, followed by a couple coats of gun wax.

It is chambered in 6.5 x 55, and I took it to the range today. I never expected it to out-shoot my Swiss K31. I was wrong.

The first two shots were low. I was shooting at 25 yards because I didn't have my spotting scope. (The Honda Element didn't like rain. Dome light shorted out, battery was dead. I forgot the scope was in it. Took the Z8 to the range. The 96 just fits in the trunk.)

The rest of the shots were in a tight group, which I should have measured. I was extremely pleased.

There is something about these old military rifles. I could buy any current production rifle that I wanted, but I doubt I would get the pleasure from it that I get from these old military rifles. There is some mystic about the old guns.

[5ontarget]

I have never shot the Swedish Mausers, but everyone I've talked to tells me they are the most accurate unmodified Mil-surps.

Was the trigger as sweet as the K31?

The cost of ammo as prevented me from buying either of these guns. We'll see what I come home with. I like to buy mil surps because the are cheap to own and operate.I'll be going to a gun show this weekend, and it usually has a nice collection of mil-surps. The history behind them versus a new Remington or Savage is hard to beat. I'm not sure what it is about them, the real wood, the wear and tear on them, the age, or something else.

[TMan]

Sorry 5ontarget, I missed your post until just now. Can I blame it on jet-lag?

Anyhow, no the trigger isn't as sweet as my K31, but my K31 is exceptional. I've dry-fired others and their trigger isn't near as good as mine. I think I got lucky.

Did you buy anything at the gun show?

[5ontarget]

Well, I've been to two gun shows the past two weekends. There are usually 3 gun shows every month within a hour of my house.
I was really disappointed after the first show, I didn't see much that interested me. Only a few mil-surps, and they were overpriced. The only other thing that really caught my eye was a S&W model 28-x (I can't recall exactly), but it was overpriced for its condition, $450. It had the usual holster wear, and a little cylinder wear, but it had a couple of really deep scratches down the barrel, and one across the muzzle.

So, I went internet shopping that night, and saw some nice offerings from AIM. www.aimsurplus.com I did a little shopping and trading. Monday, I went to their "storefront" and bought a bunch of stuff. The "storefront" is basically the size of a small walk in closet built into a warehouse. You place your order and they bring stuff out to you. The advantage is you get to handle the stuff before you buy, and no shipping charges. (great savings when buying ammo!) By the time I was done, I acquired a Yugo M48, Mosin-Nagant 91-30, and a K31Swiss. (Thanks for talking the K31 up so much, I've always liked the looks of them, but your reviews spurred me into ownership) I also stocked up on some ammo, ~2000rds of both 7.62 x 54, and 8mm, and a case of 7.5swiss. 2k rounds of either the 54r, or 8mm was about the same price as 460rds of the 7.5swiss.

Once I cleaned them, they all have excellent bores, even the old MN. The triggers on all of them were much better than I had expected. The M48 was really hard to tell with the really thick cosmoline the Yugos use on their guns. The "bluing" on the MN is more like black paint, and the metal is hardly finished at all...very rough. I guess I should expect that from a 1938 vintage MN though! Nothing matches on this gun, but it does have the laminated stock, which I wanted to see/try. I bought it to be a project gun for me. I have a few things in store for it.

I still have a Mosin-Nagant M38, and a German K98 (either a Yugo capture, or more likely a Russian capture)on the list to get. I don't plan on tinkering with that one. At the current prices and conditions of the MN's I may buy a couple more just to have around. I'll probably wait till summer to get the K98 though. I take a chance and hope the spring shipments will be better than the current crop of left-overs.

I've intstalled some new sights on my SKS this weekend as well. Reviews to come some time later.

Oh, and the gun show this weekend, I saw a new Ruger MKII Government Target Competition that was priced to move, so it moved into my safe.

So yeah, I guess I've been a little busy the past couple weeks.

[MLB]

Whoo Hoo! Another RMIICT in the house! ;D

[TMan]

I need to dig out the MK II Comp and take it with the MK III Hunter to the range. I put the Volquartsen kit into the MK III Hunter and it will be interesting to see which one I shoot better.

[TMan]

5ontarget, I'm impressed by your recent acquisitions. I think I bought a Yugo M48 myself on the day before I left the states. It looks sort of like the Persian Mauser in that the rear sight has wood on both sides. My Yugo capture 98 only has wood in front of the rear sight.

I'm interested in what the trigger is like on your K31. A couple that I tried had two stage triggers. You would pull on the trigger, it would stop, and then you would pull harder and it would go bang.

Mine doesn't work that way: it is a long pull at 2lbs, and suddenly it goes bang. You don't get any warning.

I don't know how big your shoulder is, but mine doesn't have much padding. I bought a shoulder pad, and it didn't help much. Then one day at the range, I mentioned to my boss that I had forgot my pad. He let me borrow his. His had a lot more padding. I mentioned to him that I liked his much better. He told me that it was a magnum pad. I went to the store, bought one, and it makes a big difference. I don't enjoy having a sore shoulder after shooting 20 rounds.

I really want to get a Persian Mauser. They had several, the manager of the store told me that I should buy one, I didn't, and the next time I got there, they were all gone. Should have listened to him.

Take a look at this article before you start working on the stocks. www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2006/dishwashermethod/index.asp

I haven't tried this approach, but the next time I get a crappy stock, I'm going to do it. I like the fact that it will remove small dents, and leave it looking clean and ready for sanding.

I tried several Tung Oil approaches and the best I found was to:

1) Apply with a 1 part Tung Oil, 2 part mineral spirits, and 1 part stain, and sand with 320 sandpaper in a circular pattern. Then wipe of crosswise the grain.

2) Let dry over night and then repeat step 1.

3) After drying over night again, repeat but with 600 sandpaper. (I wipe off with the blue shop "towels" available in rolls from Sam's Club)

4) For the next 16 days I use a 3 parts Tung Oil and 1 part mineral spirits mixture and with a surgeons disposable glove, I rub the mixture into the wood until it gets tacky. I then wipe if off with one of the blue towels.

I've tried several different methods and I find the above to take the longest and produce the best results.

I don't know if I'm going to put a new finish on my British Enfield or not - I think not.

When my wife was hope for the holidays, I had one stock from the MN in the family room and I was using the above approach. Before leaving for China, she had to admit that the stock really looked good, and it still needed an additional 3 coats.

Oh, incidentally, that was a lot of ammo you bought there dude. Think you are going to have a lot of fun.

[5ontarget]

My K31 has a 2-stage trigger. I don't have a gauge to measure the pull, but it is pretty light, I'd guess less than 4lbs. I have the original sling on mine, and I have another theory as to how the stock got so banged up. Most of the dents are on the opposite side from the sling loops. When I looped the sling around the butt of the stock, the aluminum button hit right on the heavily dented areas. When sling was in the normal position, the dents and dings again lined up with the button on the sling.

I shot the MN recently, recoil wasn't as bad as I thought. Then again, it was cold out, and I had a sweatshirt, and a heavy Carhartt jacket on. The Hungarian heavy ball ammo I shot was really dirty. But it was reliable, and put a hole where I aimed the gun.

Maybe this weekend, I'll get to test fire the others.

I'm partial to the kitty litter in a bag for sweating out the cosmoline. However, it is too cold out for it to be effective. I have visions of the dishwasher, the drain, or the pipes getting plugged up with cosmoline. I know it has been done a lot, but I’m also leery all that hot water on the wood. I saw the light bulb in a garbage can contraption on Surplusrifle.com, I may try something like that with an old watering trough. (Although it will have to be less damaging, I’ll need the trough this spring.)

I’m getting a pretty good ammo depot built up in my house. I have about 2k in three rifle calibers, and 1k each in 4 pistol calibers. I figured since I was at the AIM warehouse, and I was bypassing the shipping charges, I might as well stock up for a while. Now what to do with all the wood crates… The 8mm cases (70’s Yugo surplus, which many have said is the best 8mm surplus currently available) come with a hinged top and some locking rings, so I might be able to use this for storing something after the ammo is used up. Still not sure what though.


I'll try your mix on the mauser stock. That's a pretty thin mix, should penetrate well though. The MN as I said, is laminated (not sure how that would look on the laminates) and the Swiss looks pretty good, execpt for the dings. I'm going to leave it alone, at least for now.

[TMan]

I used your kitty-litter in the garbage bag trick on 3 of my stocks. After a week of that, (and strange looks from my next-door neighbor), I took the stocks and sprayed cleaner on them and washed them off with the garden hose and dried them in the sun.

Before I started sanding, I saw some darker spots. I used a hair-dryer to heat those spots, wiped with paper towel, and repeated several times. It worked.

After wiping the cosmoline off the stock, there isn't a ton of cosmoline left in the wood. Therefore, it wouldn't worry me to do it in the dishwasher. Besides, if it did ruin the dishwasher, it would give me a good excuse for buying a new one. Ours is 15 years old and isn't exactly quiet. Our neighbor has a Bosch and you can't hear it running until it starts to dump out the water.

Something I forgot to mention was to use oil-based stain on the stock. For the sanding mixture, I doubt very much that the water-based would mix well with the oil and mineral spirits mixture.

Home Depot sells little tubs of disposable plastic gloves that work well for doing the stocks.

[5ontarget]

I've got a Bosch dishwasher, had it for about 8 years. Not as quiet as it once was, and doesn't clean quite as good as it used to, but still does a pretty good job. It has been used about every other day for 8 years without a single problem. When it was new, I'd have to look at the display to make sure it was on.


Wasn't this thread about your Swedish Mauser, not German dishwashers?

[TMan]

5ontarget said:

...Wasn't this thread about your Swedish Mauser, not German dishwashers?

Ahhh, Swedish - German they are both from the United States of Europe, whats the difference. Dishwashers - rifles both can get you in hot water. Both are mechnical devices that we can't live without. Of course convincing our wives that we need rifles can be a problem. "Do you reaaallly need all those guns." I guess buying them 14 dishwashers wouldn't work. However, jewelry works quite well.

My wife got some fresh water pearls of extremely high quality on this trip. Just not quite Wilson CQB price - unfortunately. (Fresh water pearls aren't nearly as expensive as salt-water pearls because there are a lot of pearls in each oyster, not just one.) More thread-drift. At least the pearls are round and hard like a bullet from a black-powder rifle.