This is the complete rebuild of my 1891 Argentine DWM Berlin Mauser.

Below is a list of tasks and items that were needed to complete this project. I performed ALL the work myself other then the bluing

1. 1.New stock
   

2. 2.New Barrel
   

3. 3.New bolt handle
   

4. 4.Timney Trigger
   

5. 5.Scope bases
   

6. 6.Talley rings
   

7. 7.Wing safety
   

8. 8.True up action
   

9. 9.Weld up extra scope holes drilled years ago by some hack
   

10. 10. Fit barrel to action
    

11. 11. Chamber barrel for minimum head space
    

12. 12. Grind charger hump of rear ring.
    

13. 13. Weld up ex wife's initials on trigger guard ( it was going to be rebuilt for her but oh well)
    

14. 14. Glass bed action to stock
    

15. 15. Free float barrel
    

16. 16. Sand and oil finish stock
    

17. 17. Checker stock ( or how to “F” up a stock in a hurry)
    

18. 18. Assemble and test fire
    

19. 19. Polish all steal parts so it can be bead blasted and blued (IN PROGRESS Deadline June 12 2011)
    

20. 20. Blue barreled action and all parts. (Farmed out) It’s out for bluing as of 11/04/11
    

21. 21. Assemble rifle and admire the hard work.
    

22. 22. Rifle is complete and ready to sight in at the range as of 11/21/11
    

Think thats enough???? I hope that covers everything.

Anyway A little history on this rifle. I bought this rifle when I was nineteen it was originally a 7.65X53mm Arg. I shot the hell out of it as ammo was cheap at the time. Sarco back in Ohio had 1978 surplus ammo 200 rounds for $50 plus shipping. That kept me in ammo for a long time. Well some time in 1996 I was twenty four by then, the rifle’s hundred plus years of use was showing its age. I was seeing signs that the headspace was growing. So not having any money I spent some extra time at the machine shop and built a barrel vise and an action wrench. I had lots of time and no money so it was just a labor of love. I built 99% of all the gunsmithing tools I own and use today.

Barrel vise.

Action Wrench

Bolt welding fixture

Recoil pad sanding fixture

Scope alignment pins

Scope base drilling fixture

and then a copy of a Forester universal sight drilling jig.

Yep I built all that stuff.

Anyway I pulled the barrel in 1996 and had my buddy Ron Blair engrave my (at the time) wife’s initials in the bottom of the trigger guard. Then I was looking for a barrel, set this project on the back burner,  Got a divorce, and so on.

So about a year ago I decided to rebuild this thing and finish the project. I got tired of looking at the box of parts and wanted it done and as I type this the rifle sits in the garage on a cleaning stand awaiting final polishing. She is done and ready to go off to Duncan’s to be blued.

But I digress. There were two problem with this project. One, not to difficult to over come the other near impossible for the amount of money I wanted to dump into this rifle. First was the barrel. Very limited selection for small ring Mausers. 7X57mm, 6.5X55mm .257 Roberts was about it. All low pressure ancient cartridges other then the .257 Roberts. And I had pretty much settled on the Roberts until I did a little calculating with what this rifle was originally chambered for. Now I knew I could not chamber this action for a real modern cartridge like a 30-06 or a .270Win but there was no reason I could not chamber it for something equal to 56,000PSI or less. Here’s the reason for that conclusion. The 7.65 Arg is rated at 56,000 PSI and is ballistically identical to the 7.62mm Nato. And in researching the reloading manuals you can see that they are nearly identical in CUP pressure ratings for near identical velocities and bullet weights. So that tells me my 1891 Arg is under rated and can handle 56,000PSI but that is the safe limit. So a mild reloaded .220 swift will be no problem. Now please don’t mis construe this to mean you can go get any old small ring mauser and re chamber it to .308 or 30-06 and be good to go. Far from it. Most small ring mausers are too soft an action and are not of decent steel to be considered a high pressure rifle. My rifle was made in Berlin Germany (Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken) and this factory did not exist before 1896. Which means my rife even though a 1891 model was made with 1896 steel. It was founded by Ludwig Loewe. And as any Mauser collector will tell you there are two types of rifles highly sought after by collectors. DWM, & Olbendorf. Thats it, those rifle are the best quality and best craftsmanship available for a pre 1900 rifle. So don’t try this with a Spanish small ring, Turkish, Swedish or anything else. If this rifle blows up in my face I have no one to blame but myself. And if you decide to try this. You do so at your own risk and shall hold K.L. Stottlemyer & Co. harmless.

Now the other problem was getting a stock for it. Well due to a friend (Impingement) on Accurate Reloading board.  I was able to get a Micro fit stock dirt cheep.  Then thanks to another friend on AR (Theback40) I was able to locate a NOS Timney trigger. So there was no holding back now No excuses Time to put up or shut up. Are we going to do this or just look at it??

Below are the pictures in as near chronological order as possible.

Final tasks: Fabricate a screw for the bolt stop, Fabricate some sort of grip for the bolt stop, Final polish.

Then off to blue

It’s been fourteen years but she is near completion and ready to take on the pesky jack rabbit and bob cat