Building a Rifle

[Rubber Ducky]

Hi Guys,

This may be a stupid question, but a few years ago I remember reading an article by Jim Carmichael of Outdoor Life on taking an old mauser (or other) action and building a rifle. I would most likely buy a Lilja or Shilen barrel with a varmint contour and have the headspacing done by a gunsmith, but it seemed to me the rest could be done by a semi-competent amateur.

I had been thinking about it for a long time and was wondering if there are any books or articles that might get me started. What I'm interested in is using the rifle project to build an ultra long range varminter. Here in Alberta Canada, wolves can be tough to approach at times and so I need a rifle with reach. Typical shot would be in the 600 to 800 yard range with the odd shot at up to 900 yards.

Thanks,
RD

p.s. Also any calibre recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

[James Jones]

I've put a couple of the pre fitted barrels on for a few guys and none of them actualy fit well without some lathe work , especialy the older military guns , they were made buy so many differant places that none have a accurate standard.
If your looking to save some money then do it on your stock not your metal. You can make a rifle bedded in a 2x4 shoot well if the barreled action is put together properly.
Pac-Nor does a pretty good job of barreling old Mausers and doen't cost you an arm and a leg and I feel that their barrels are better than the Douglas and Shilen pre-fitted tubes you get from brownells. But for about the same price you can have a good smith do a great job in about half the time.

As for the caliber , the wolves I've seen were all pretty big critters around 75-100lbs so i would say that for the ranges your looking at that a hot 6mm would be a minimum and I'd strongly lean twords a faster 6.5 or 7mm like a
6.5-06 with 140gr A-max bullets or a 280 Ackley improved with some 162gr A-maxes both of these would have good energy and accuracy out to 1000yds and both would feed well from your Mauser. The A-max bullets are great for smaller long ranges game like coyotes,smaller deer and such in the 100lb class because they open up pretty well. You could probaly get away with a slower round like the 260 or 7-08 and they both would feed well from your action but the added HP from the bigger cases is pretty nice when the wind gets up. I've got a buddy that shoots 25-300Win mag and that thing is awsome on deer out to 800yds , I'm gonna build a 6.5-300Win mag one day. Its a step up fom the 264 and you get to use Lapua brass. I've seen several old Mausers mad into magnums though I've never done it my self so I can't comment on how had the process is.