Oldtimr

Back in 1970 my brother got a 98 8mm mauser surplus to hunt with. He was still in high school and a store had a barrel full of them, litterally selling them dirt cheap. I sneaked it out of his bedroom and took it home with me to sporterize for him for his birthday. I bought a Fagen semi inletted stock blank and went to work. Wgen they say semi inletted, they mean it, I had to go to work with gouges and lathe tools and I got it inletted well. I went a little deeper in the critical spots because I was going to glass bed the barreled action when I had the gun finished. I stripped off the blueing and the metal sleeves on the stepped barrel and reblued the barrel myself using a cold blueing. I plugged the muzzle and chamber and put the barreled action in a chicken feed trough on top of the stove over two burners filled with water and boilled the thing and it flashed dry when removed from the hot water. I put the bluring on with cotton balls and when dry it went back in the water for another round. I did this about 20 time. When I had a good deep blue I rubbed the barreled action lightly with 000 steel wool and repeaded the blueing sequence and light rubbing till I had a deep shiney finish. I then sanded and applied about 15 coats of Birchwood casey True oil with my finger tips, when dry I rubbed it down with 000 steel wool between each coat. The coat numbers do not count the the ones I put on to seal the wood by putting on heavy coats and sanding it down. I had the bolt handle bent down and chromed by a gun smith. I then glass bedded the barreled action with accu glass and had it checked for head space by a gun smith. I put it back in his closet in his bed room close to his birthday and on his birthday I asked him if I could take a look at his surplus mauser. When He came from his bedroom he had a priceless look on his face and said his gun was gone and he had no idea whose gun he was holding. Believe it or not, the thing is a tack driver and he is still using it and the finish is still as good as ever which surprises me since that was my first attempt to sporterize a gun, and the last I will add. Some pics