JWFilips
Well-Known Member
Hi Guys:
A number of years ago I was gifted a Mauser 98 in a 1950 sporterized wood stock. My co-workers father had pasted and he asked me if I wanted his rifle. I said I would gladly pay for it but he told me if I would use it it would make the family happy. So It arrived in my possession...Very nice rifle . At the time I didn't know anything about German WWII Mausers So I did a lot of research and found out that this one was made by J.P. Sauer Und Son in 1939. It was a contract authorized by Hitler to produce 6000 fine Mauser 98 rifles for his elite troops. Not being a fan of the Third Reich I would have had little interest if I saw this at a gun show but now it was in my hands. I was also given 20 rounds of factory 8mm ammo. Well I decided to clean the bore ...after a week of work ( no doubt taking copper out of the bore that was probably shot at our GI's ) I got the bore to a dull gray look. I took it to the range to try it out with my 20 rounds of ammo. At 50 yards and with it's 4x weaver scope the best I could get was 4" groups. Well ya al know! I wanted to shoot cast bullets in it & posted my delima over the street at Cast Boolits...Well a very fine gentleman Larry Miller ( Largom) PM'd me and said he would help me fire lap the bore; So two years ago to the date using his direction and some cast bullet he sent me I started fire lapping the barrel. The bore was so bad we decided to start with 150 grit! I had a full line of industrial Diamond grits at my disposal after Photographing a Polishing compound Company's Facility for a brochure! (No valve grinding compounds here)
Well 20 rounds of 150 and 30 rounds of 220 and things were not much better ( dark bore)
Larry had me go back 20 more of 150 & 50 of 220 add'l ( by the way these were on soft cast karabiner slugs rolled between flat iron plates coated with the grit and a beeswax based lube shot with 3 gr BE)
Ok now I'm seeing metal so next I went to 40 rounds 320, 40 rounds 400 and 40 rounds 600 grit (BTW I had to run a cleaning patch up the bore after every shot!) So Now I'm ready to try...But Larry says you got to do a pound cast (?) Pound what cast??? Of course he directs me to tim's pound cast sticky over there. Well nothing like beating a rod into a classic weapon!!! Well It took me 3 attempts but finally it showed I had a .332 throat into my now oversized 8mm bore. I bought a Lee 329-205 mould ...beagled it & i was casting a .333 bullet I honed out a Lee sizer die to .332" but amazingly still the Hornady Annealed gas checks fit easily on the base. I was golden. Shot a bunch of these with the now improved 12 x scope & I got at best 1 1/2" groups at 50 yards!
So Folks Can I do better then this if I jump into the world of "Paper patching"?
But before you say yes.... you must realize the most paper patching I have done was my high school homework after "the dog ate it" & I never had a dog! So that should tell you where you are headed!
A number of years ago I was gifted a Mauser 98 in a 1950 sporterized wood stock. My co-workers father had pasted and he asked me if I wanted his rifle. I said I would gladly pay for it but he told me if I would use it it would make the family happy. So It arrived in my possession...Very nice rifle . At the time I didn't know anything about German WWII Mausers So I did a lot of research and found out that this one was made by J.P. Sauer Und Son in 1939. It was a contract authorized by Hitler to produce 6000 fine Mauser 98 rifles for his elite troops. Not being a fan of the Third Reich I would have had little interest if I saw this at a gun show but now it was in my hands. I was also given 20 rounds of factory 8mm ammo. Well I decided to clean the bore ...after a week of work ( no doubt taking copper out of the bore that was probably shot at our GI's ) I got the bore to a dull gray look. I took it to the range to try it out with my 20 rounds of ammo. At 50 yards and with it's 4x weaver scope the best I could get was 4" groups. Well ya al know! I wanted to shoot cast bullets in it & posted my delima over the street at Cast Boolits...Well a very fine gentleman Larry Miller ( Largom) PM'd me and said he would help me fire lap the bore; So two years ago to the date using his direction and some cast bullet he sent me I started fire lapping the barrel. The bore was so bad we decided to start with 150 grit! I had a full line of industrial Diamond grits at my disposal after Photographing a Polishing compound Company's Facility for a brochure! (No valve grinding compounds here)
Well 20 rounds of 150 and 30 rounds of 220 and things were not much better ( dark bore)
Larry had me go back 20 more of 150 & 50 of 220 add'l ( by the way these were on soft cast karabiner slugs rolled between flat iron plates coated with the grit and a beeswax based lube shot with 3 gr BE)
Ok now I'm seeing metal so next I went to 40 rounds 320, 40 rounds 400 and 40 rounds 600 grit (BTW I had to run a cleaning patch up the bore after every shot!) So Now I'm ready to try...But Larry says you got to do a pound cast (?) Pound what cast??? Of course he directs me to tim's pound cast sticky over there. Well nothing like beating a rod into a classic weapon!!! Well It took me 3 attempts but finally it showed I had a .332 throat into my now oversized 8mm bore. I bought a Lee 329-205 mould ...beagled it & i was casting a .333 bullet I honed out a Lee sizer die to .332" but amazingly still the Hornady Annealed gas checks fit easily on the base. I was golden. Shot a bunch of these with the now improved 12 x scope & I got at best 1 1/2" groups at 50 yards!
So Folks Can I do better then this if I jump into the world of "Paper patching"?
But before you say yes.... you must realize the most paper patching I have done was my high school homework after "the dog ate it" & I never had a dog! So that should tell you where you are headed!