doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com The Whitey-Fred Rifle Project

A couple of weeks ago, Whitey asked me if I would have any use for a stock for a large ring Mauser. It looked like a very nice stock, so I said yes and promised to begin work on putting a barreled action in it upon arrival. We agreed on the barrel ed action to put in the stock, awhile back I bought someone�s unfinished project, a VZ-24 action, with a 6.5x55 barrel and opposing triggers. The front one takes the slack out, the metal needs a fair bit of work. I�ve kept a journal of progress. Rather than give you the day-by-day progress, I will summarize highlights from the first couple weeks of work and try to update things after significant changes. If you want, send me a PM and I will send you a pdf file with the daily progress. Please understand that progress will be slow. Much of the work is done after the kids have been put to bed. Whitey likes to see what people are working on and we hope that others might add to this thread or create similar threads.

Here is what we are starting with:





These pictures show the stock and action. I like the cheekpiece of the stock, and it does have a Winchester style steel buttplate. It looks very much like a Paul Jaeger stock, but there are no initials carved behind the buttplate.

Week 1. I inletted the trigger guard and action into the stock, put the triggers back on and inletted those. I replaced the white line spacers with black line spacers and began reshaping the trigger guard and polishing the floorplate.



Week 2 to 2.5. Whitey and I discussed putting in a hinged floorplate with a lever release. I had done this before and made a holder to help with that. But I was not happy with my first effort and spent a lot of time designing things, making file guides and correcting flaws in my holder. But in the end, I was pretty happy with things, here are pictures of the milling of the slot for the hinge and the drilling hinge pin.





And what the more or less finished product looks like



Once the hinge was made and soldered to the floorplate and a lever was made, I put it back on the stock and inletted the area underneath the hinge so that the hinge can rotate.





I glued on a Lyman 48 and a front sight to check if the sight combination is feasible. It looks good. I get a nice sight picture when I put the rifle to my shoulder.

Its a fine looking rifle and in a very good, accurate calibre. What do you intend to hunt with it ?

Thanks for the kind words, the rifle has got a long way to go, but I plan to give it to my daughter and let her decide what to hunt with it. She is only 5 months old right now, she has a long way to go, too But I hope she hunts whitetail deer with it.

Yes, but you'll have to keep it warm for her for the next decade or so.

PhysDoc,
I agree with bonny, nice work.I like your"set up" on the mill also. Whitey is a really nice guy, isn't he?
Mike

Yup, Whitey ia a great guy, he's given me a lot of help and great ideas over the last couple of years.

Thanks for the compliment on the set-up.

Fred, I enjoyed your progress PDF. I smiled, imagining that the person who fitted the white spacers was as pleased with the outcome as I was with the results of removing them

Hi Gary,

I have an old issue of the American Rifleman where someone wrote in to explain how he made his own whiteline spacers using sections cut from a white plastic bleach bottle. Removing
the spacer between the buttplate and the stock would have left
gaps and so, I made a blackline spacer using a section cut from a black 1 quart oil container. I was pleased at how nice things looked. I still have the whiteline spacer, just in case they become fashionable again.

Fred

I made several floorplate levers from Stevens single barrel levers, by hand before I had the machinery. I made them to please my eye because I didn't have a sample to go by. I made them smaller than typical, but they pleased me. It took a lot of filing, filed the lug small enough to start a 1/4-28 Die and cutting the thread made it truly round.
Mike

Fred, the bottom metal and triggers have a Model 1922 Newton look about them. One of my favorites. Very nice work.