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This is Dutch Mannlicher M1895 made by Steyr in 1896. Just starting and will probably take better part of the coming year. (A new barrel from Kreiger will take 4-5 months itself). Many proposed changes like new bolt handle, change to 7x57 rimmed, all new sights (front, 3-4 leaf express, and a new design for a peep sight similar to the Lyman 36 which I will make), I hope to modify the magazine system to a detachable 5 shot magazine, double set triggers, and of course a new stock. Its a tall order and I expect this list to be dynamic as this project is just for me and my wants.

It's like a grave yard over here so thought I would post a couple pics of this project to show the start and finish.
Before

After

It is together and now to the range for testing

A little more progress. The front sight base is mostly done now and I attached a few pics. I still have to make the sight blade, stipple the ramp, final polish, and then of course solder to the barrel.

A short update. (If anyone is still here or paying attention )
I made the new front sight this week and it is of sufficient height to compensate for the issues I was seeing plus a little more so I can regulate it at the range with a manual milling machine (ie; what my friend Ric calls a File). New testing won't happen for a few weeks at best as the snow is deep and winter is long. I'll report again when the seasonal climate change occurs and the snow melts.

Well after significant delay due to weather, buying a new turret lathe and getting it up and running, and finally another bout with the COVID disease, I managed to shoot my rifle this morning. With 3 goals: 1. Did and does is fire without blowing up 2. Does it feed cartridges well (remember it was a 6.5x53 and is now a 7x57) and finally 3. Do the sights both elevation on windage work well. (This includes the Peep and the leaf rear sights.
1. Yes it works and did not blow up. The set triggers are very functional and work good.
2. For the most part this went well also. I did have a few frustrating time for awhile until I discovered the en bloc clip I was using had a bend in it. Changed the clip and things improved.
3. Sights. When I made these sights I did a fair amount of calculations to determine the height of the front sight, express sights (3 different leaf's) and the rear peep sight ( I wanted to have this sight, when in its lowest position and given the front sight height, be on at 100 yards. This I achieved very nicely. However not so much for the leafs. I only tried the first 200yd leaf. I was shooting at the same 100 yd target. It shot very high as in 18" or so. Not what I expected so I determined to stop and go back to the spreadsheet and see where I made an error. I did expect the bullets to print high at 100 yards but not that high. The good news is it did shoot high and there is room the cut the sight notch lower.

Guess I am not quite finished with the project. LOL

Bolt re assembled and installed in receiver. I think the checkering is a nice touch...

I started this project just a bit over 3 years ago. It maybe the most viewed thread in this forum, over those years. It took 3 years for lots of reasons which aren't all that import. But I stuck with thru the VID and numerous health issues. None that serious but they were delaying.
So I have completed it and I am pleased and thankful that I have completed it.
Here are 3 pics, hope you like it.

Yes I am working on it.
Shaping the stock. Its been very cold here and I don't like spending a lot of money on the "inflated cost" (thanks Biden) of natural gas to heat the shop. LOL
Also I bought myself an English made Jones type action double rifle in 450 3 1/4" BPE. I have been spending time getting ready to shoot it as soon as it warms up. I made a paper patch mold for it. Should be fun.

I'll post pictures once I am a little further along with the stock shaping work.

It has been about a month since my last post with project pics, so here are a couple showing where I am today. I am at what I like to call stage 1 finishing. The stock is pretty much shaped with about .030 to .040" of wood left to be removed on every surface.

I got pictures today from the person doing my checkering, it is finished and will soon be back here.
I am very pleased with the look:

In early March I sent the bolt out to have the knob checkered with 2 panels. I got it back today and here are the pics

Went shooting and the gun shoots quite nicely. I was shooting the express blades, so as to test regulation, (all 3: 200yds, 300yds, & 400 yds) at a target setup at 100 yds. Now they all went high to the heights predicted by ballistics programs (like JMB). I shot 2 rounds off each blade. The groups for each blade were 1.75" for the 200 blade, 4" for the 300 blade, and 2.0" for the 400. All the group centers were very good on windage, except the 300 which had one round on center and one 4" to the right. The flyer was probably me.

Now I was most impressed with my self. I can see better then I thought possible with these aging eyes (BTW, I go tomorrow to the VA to measure up for cataract surgery.)

So now I suppose I have no excuse to not start the bluing process. Its hot and humid here so great rusting weather. Going to use Mark Lee's solution and will pickup a fresh bottle from Mark tomorrow afternoon.

LRF,
I greatly enjoyed following your project. I learned a lot from your pictures and descriptions. If someone talked you into a Lee Speed project I’m sure that would be fascinating for several of us to follow. I’ve always admired the Lee Speed that Phil Shoemaker has written about: http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=00&Number=199064&an=0&page=4

Of course the 30-30 is also a favorite of mine, and a single shot 30-30 would be equally fascinating. Whatever project you pick please share it with us!

Larry

Wel got the bottom metal inletting finished this morning. Now hoping the barrel comes as promised.

As I a wait for word when the barrel will be ready and ship I worked on inletting the trigger guard. It had its challenges but I believe I resolved them and its done for now until stock shaping time is upon me.

You can do it that way but since I have the equipment to taper the mount I chose to do it with that equipment. I will also use the setup to make the front sling attachment and front sight band.

I guess it has been sometime since I posted, sorry. Number of reasons for that. First spring has been almost unbearably hot here in Minnesota, high 90's and a couple +100 days, and as dry as a popcorn fart. We are in trouble for the lands of 10000 lakes. Second I has had some health concerns with a bunch of testing which so far has all been negative but it takes a toll on your mental condition. Right now its a strained knee, not related to the testing, but that really hurts. Fell while Turkey hunting on Memorial days. Last, lots going on with the grandkids and their parents which will include a week of dog setting starting later this week.
Anyway I haven't been totally idle:
1. I decided to give the engraving of the sight blades over to my friend Roger Sampson and he did a bang up job. I still have to mount them and finish but the engraving is done.

2. I worked on the barrel fitting. Got the breech end machined for the ejector/extractor, then screwed in and indexed. Finally I worked on the feed of dummy rounds since I changed from the Dutch round to the 7x57. I had to do some opening of the rails since the new round in slightly bigger just in front of the rim and would get jammed depending on which of the 5 rounds in the clip was up for feeding. A perplexing issue but got it solved.

last I started work of shaping the front sight. I first 3D printed a model of what I want and then just file till they match. Not done yet but getting there. Oh BTW I did finally get my dovetail cutters so I can now finish the sight machining.

Great ,,really enjoy seeing your work

Some of us assemble rifles from components we mostly purchase. This is genuine gunmaking, and it's a treat to see it unfold. Good work, and good on you.

"Hope you get back on your feet I enjoy your post"

"I'm sorry for your trouble, I understand very well what you are going through. Try everything you can before they tell you, you are too old. There is not much you can do on a lathe or mill, sitting on a stull, and nothing laying down. You figured all your projects out, you can figure this out too. Hang in there.
Mike"

Thank you mc and Mike for the kind words. Age is a double edged sword, it comes with added issues, however it also comes with added days and hope for the issues being dealt with.

Got all the solder and heat discolorations polished out. Finishing polish will be done just before rust blueing

Time for an update. I took the barrel up to the engraver and he is engraving the caliber on it. I have also started the stock work. Lots of wood to remove and a long ways to go. But the project is moving forward.
Here are a couple pics. I suppose the most interesting is you can see the stock is cast off and the toe cast out. The pistol grip will be Price of Wales knob

Apparently you missed this statement in my earlier posting, "It will be final finished and elevation and windage hash marks added after testing."
Defined, "elevation and windage hash marks", ie: the venier scales.
And "after testing", means shooting the rifle on the range at known distances so as to calibrate the markings to actual

I hope that answers your question

Made progress this weekend however nothing I can take pictures of. On the barrel I have to solder on the rear sight mount, the sling swivel, and the front sight. All 3 wrap around the barrel. Not being an expert at soldering in the least I was able to tin the inside of all 3 attachment and then tin the 3 locations on the barrel. I learned a lot and you get better as I progressed. I am happy with the results if I do say so myself. Now I have to locate all 3 attachment in their proper location and alignment and then sweat them together.

However, that will have to wait a couple of days as I am not yet 100% on the knee and back issues and doing this work listed here has set me back a little. Damn it get old and wore out sucks but I guess I ain't dirt sleeping so cheer up.

As soon as I have pictures of something worth showing I will. Thanks for following.

Finished the stock and now waiting for checkering. Slow as it is I am nearing the finish line.

Maybe a little update is in order. The project is still progressing. The biggest thing is I am waiting on the checkering to be completed. I do not checker so I have commissioned that to be completed. I can't give a timeline and I am not going to ask. They will complete I am sure in due time.
However while waiting I have worked on three areas. First I decided to make a new barrel wrench that included a flip out screw driver blade that can be used to remove the forend screw and the barrel retainer screw. (It then stores in the stock under the trapdoor buttplate). Here are a couple pics. It still needs polishing and press fitting the pin:

I also re-thought the function of the enbloc clip retainer. Normally when the last round is loaded from the clip it falls out the bottom and basically lost. I wanted to change that so that the clip only fell part way out waiting for the user to remove it. In my first design (shown in earlier posts) I used a small spring which was not very robust. The new design is held closed and locked up by the standard clip release button piece. So now you use this button to either remove a loaded or empty clip. Actually works very nice. Here again are a couple pics:

The third area has been to refine the feed of the larger 7x57R cartridges which are larger then the original 6.5x53R cartridge. To anyone who has ever done similar type work they know this is involved work spending many hours to determine just what has to be done and then doing it. I have mine working and now just need the stock back so I can test the feed in the final form and insure that it works as good as possible. (FYI a Mauser 98 of M70 are way easier. Probably why the Dutch action was replaced by improved designs over the years like the M98 and M70 and others

Very nice.

+1!

That's really nice looking

Oh my. Impressive, and yes IMO the pattern works well.

I received the stocks and the checkering is first class. I am putting finish in the checkering now and hope to have the rifle together next week. Then I need to refine the feed and make some screws. Then "Bang" and see if it works.
Then refine the sights and last blue the metal. Once that is done then only time will tell.

I agree whole heartedly with earlyriser.
Mike

"Nice touch", indeed!

Thanks.....
Well if I could find a early model Lee-Enfield/Metford or better yet a Lee-Speed in need of restoration I may be tempted. But to be perfectly honest I am not looking that hard. It's an age and health issue. Along with the crazy political environment we live in. It is disappointing to know that my 2 years of fighting in a war to preserve what I thought was the right way a people should exist, only to find out the people I thought we were protecting were and are the true enemies.

Here's one built on a #1
https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3281019521/m/1841044852

FYI, I got a Lee Speed today at the gunshow in Sioux Falls today. Not a donor but a very nice collector, so no project here but it is sweet. WW Greener was the maker. I'll post pics in a day or so in a new thread. I am quite pumped over the purchase. I should be all ready to go Lion hunting soon LOL

Great to see Dan Hudson and his Officer model Trapdoors and Bob and his wonder gun making abilities at the show. i truly wish I was half the craftsman he is. Seriously!