Photos of building a 98' Mauser Sporter Rifle

[Ben]

The link below offers a slide show showing the build from beginning to end :

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/haysb/slideshow/8 X 57 mm Sporter

 

[Brad]

Way more patience than I have. Way more.
Excellent work Ben.

 

[Ben]

They say Rome wasn't built in a day.......................
Thanks for your comments Brad !

 

[Brad]

True but I waited a good couple thousand years ago free Rome was built to visit. Sometimes I figure it is best to let those in the know do the work and I will just enjoy it when done.

 

[uncle jimbo]

Very nice looking rifle. You definitely have talent when it comes to doing this work. You have the patience of Job. Nice slide show also.

 

[Gary]

Absolutely breathtaking Ben; show piece for sure.

 

[Ben]

Thanks for you nice comments.

Ben

 

[JWFilips]

Beautiful job, Ben
I have always enjoyed that build !

 

[Brad]

Has Jim ever restocked a modern rifle? Somehow I think he would do a very nice job. A curly maple stock wouldn't bother me at all.

 

[Ian]

Gorgeous piece of Walnut and wonderful whittling, Ben. I love the knots and erratic grain patterns with curl and fiddleback scattered throughout. Not often we see a stock with all that eye candy that still has perfect grain through the wrist. Your work did it true justice! I also like the way you did the tang with a groove in the wood, like the original. A lot of people will tell you that the "right" way to shape that is to file the tang down at the back so it blends in with the sear notch and the wood requires no groove, but to me that spoils the classic Mauser line of the wrist and makes it look too much like a Winchester.

 

[oscarflytyer]

They say Rome wasn't built in a day.......................

THIS made me chuckle! My Mauser Sporter project, built on a Swede 6.5x55, was started in 1992. And STILL not finished! All I really need to do is get it to Ben and have him fit the Boyd stock to it! I have zero patience in that dept!

 

[Ben]

Gorgeous piece of Walnut and wonderful whittling, Ben. I love the knots and erratic grain patterns with curl and fiddleback scattered throughout. Not often we see a stock with all that eye candy that still has perfect grain through the wrist. Your work did it true justice! I also like the way you did the tang with a groove in the wood, like the original. A lot of people will tell you that the "right" way to shape that is to file the tang down at the back so it blends in with the sear notch and the wood requires no groove, but to me that spoils the classic Mauser line of the wrist and makes it look too much like a Winchester.

Many thanks Ian,

Ben

 

[Pistolero]

Beautiful stock work, Ben. The first time through, I thought that peep sight had a square bottom
and you had inletted it into the wood.....then the scoped pic with no big hole in the wood with
peep sight removed. I had to recycle way back to look again and see that the bottom of the sight
was concaved to clear the wood, and you had matched the stock shape to the sight.

Very nice work. Do you sand wood or scrape for final surface? I see some folks saying scraping
is best but I have always sanded, never really tried scraping, which I guess was standard a hundred
years ago when sandpaper didn't exist or wasn't common, not sure which.

Bill

 

[Ben]

Do you sand wood or scrape for final surface?

Always sand.

Ben

 

[Brother_Love]

Ben,
That is a wow! Beautiful rifle in a great old caliber.
Malcolm

 

[Ben]

Thanks Malcolm ! ! !

Ben

 

[Pistolero]

OK, good. I was wondering if scraping was something else I was going to have to learn to do.

I can sand.

Bill

 

[Ian]

Scraping is really handy for inletting, but I agree with Ben, block sanding is the way to go on the outside.

 

[KHornet]

Have come to expect nothing but the best from Ben!

Paul