1941 Swedish Mauser needs a LOT of help

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Great results. I have seen a product at our local bearing supplier, some tupe of liquid metal (similar to JB Weld) but supposed to be industrial grade. This might be the ticket if it can be tinted to match.

[westkraut]

Better learn to swear in Swedish to help the metal part of the project along.......German works too! Best wishes and lots of patience on this project. For drying out old (antique) carvings of wood I have used fine dried silica sand and time as one does for presrving/drying plant material....it's slow but not intrusive or damaging

[charmolly]

What an uplifting accomplishment for any of us who have headed down the path of resurrecting an old milsurp! Congratulations on "sticking with it" and not giving up on the old war horse.

[Aragorn243]

Update, there has been some progress this weekend. I have been shopping around for something to fill the pitting with and settled on something I can get locally, JB Weld. I opted to get the type that cures less fast but holds up better under higher temps. So I had a lot of impatient waiting while it cured. Put the first coat on Thursday night and sanded it Friday evening. Put a second coat on some of the low spots after the sanding Friday and sanded it a second time this evening. Decided to try Krylon paint in a flat black and it looks pretty good after one coat. I only did the pitting where it can be seen on the barrel. I did not fill the pitting on the barrel under the wood or on the receiver.

With the paint, I can see I missed a few areas that could be smoothed a bit better so I have to decide if I want to sand it and coat it again. I'm not seeking perfection so I may leave it. I have no idea how durable this paint is going to be either, it is a primer and top coat in one and aside from Dura Coat seems to be what the majority recommended as a second choice. Pricing the Dura Coat, it wasn't too hard a decision for me to go with the Krylon. $70 vs $4 was pretty easy. I can repaint it a lot of times with that one can and it's probably not going to be used other than on the range where it isn't likely to get banged around. If this paint proves to be durable, I may fill the pits on the receiver and paint it although at this point, it has most of it's bluing and I don't want to alter that.

My tang screw arrived yesterday. Still waiting on the new cleaning rod and sling.

It has been an interesting project and while I could not possibly make any money on a restoration of this kind due to the sheer numbers of hours I have in it, it was fun and I'd be willing to do it again sometime.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

PPP! (please post photos)!
Would love to see the process. Excited to see how she turnd out.

[Aragorn243]

I forgot to take photos of the filling process so I'm already beyond that. What I can say about it is that I was surprised that there wasn't more fill when I was finished. I layered it on pretty heavy and then sanded it off by pinning the barrel and pulling the sandpaper up and down while it was wrapped around the barrel. I stopped sanding when I hit metal and I hit metal just about everywhere except for two spots. It may have just been a peak or two of metal but it was not hard to get it to the original dimension.

The Krylon paint seems to be pretty durable as I was able to put the metal fittings back on it without tearing or scratching it.

I wasn't going to post final photos until the cleaning rod and sling arrived but I guess there's no real need to wait until then and I'm home sick today.

I'll post a couple of the before's for comparison:

















I am leaving the butt plate in the white for now. I kind of like it that way but if rust becomes an issue I'll cold blue it. I'm very pleased with how it came out and that it remains functional with minimal swapping out of parts. The original stock was not numbered to this rifle, it was a cut down 96 stock as is the replacement. I've read this is common with the 36's so not unusual. The barrel band and the bayonet lug no longer match, everything else remains original with the exception of the band springs which are not numbered. Not that it is or ever will be a collector piece. It fills a niche in my collection.

I don't know that I'll ever shoot it again, I'd like to get a better group than I shot with it the first time but it's not critical, I'm confident that it is functional and is as safe as any of these old rifles can be.

It is missing the little metal trajectory plate so I'll have to keep my eyes open for one of them but I'm in no rush.

I do have the bayonet for it and it fits fine. It's the interesting one I mentioned on the edge weapons forum. Should have taken pictures of it on the rifle when I had it out but too late now. I know there's some discussion on where these flash suppressors come from but the bayonets fit over them perfectly. The bayonet did not fit over the plain cover and is extremely loose if put on over the threads alone. A lot of the Swedes I see for sale here in the states have them but that doesn't mean they were not marketed here in the US. The one I have installed on this I took off of my 96. I have a second one on order to replace that one.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Congratulations on a wonderful job, well done, and the most extreme "before and after" contrast that I have ever seen!

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

I do not think spectacular is to strong a word to describe this reserection from the dead. Well done!
P.S. Thanks for the pictures.

[Aragorn243]

Thanks for the compliments guys, it means a lot.

Now I have to find something else to fix. Flea Market season has officially started but I found nothing this weekend.