OT - a completed project gun - Swede M94 Mauser sporter

[O.S.O.K.]

I bought this gun a couple of three years ago. When I got it (already bubba'd), it had a full-length manlicher type stock, but the forend was badly warped. It also had other issues: 1) the scope mounts were loose and the screws were stripped, 2) it didn't feed properly and 3) it had the military safety which meant you had to have a realy high mount or not use the safety.

Well, I bought it because I figured I could fix all of that and because it was a m94 Swede Mauser in distress. Besides that, the stock was made of decent walnut (Fajen?) and it had been full-length glass bedded and the inletting was quite good. The trigger was decent too....

Well after all that time, I decided it needed to be done...

I just finished it up - finally. I had done work on it earlier (like a two years ago) and it was funcitonal but I didn't like the look of it at all. The stock looked weird to me - I had cut the fore end off and that was fine, but it had a monte carlo "hump" and the pistol grip was flared - which looked strange to me. I figure the inital work was done in the 70's when these things were popular.

Anyhoo, here are some pics - the first one shows the "before" after I cut-off the forend and fixed the scope mounts and made it feed, but before the Beuhler safety was installed... the second shows the cut-off portion of the old stock with the now completed rifle.








As you can see, I decided to surgicaly remove the monte carlo hump and the flared pistol grip "thing". I also slimmed the wrist down. I chose a military "spirit stain" that I got from Brownells and finished it with a couple coats of boiled linseed oil.

I was going to remove the white line spacer on the recoil pad but the screws were not going to come loose and I figured it looked OK afer all

Previous to this, I had installed the Behler safety which works very well and is positive, redrilled and tapped the scope mounts with a larger screw size and replaced the mounts with fresh Weavers (which is what it had before too). I fixed the feeding problem by bending the magazine box back into original shape - it had been bent in in the back for some reason? Works good now.

So, after a lot of work, its now a nice looking sporter. I think so anyway.

[mescalero1]

I like it!
But I am partial to 6.5mm

[O.S.O.K.]

Yeah, me too. And the bore is excellent. A shame that this was hacked on but then it came cheap because of that... and it was done back when that was the norm with milsurps.

[Old Savage]

Finn would love it!

[Marlin .35]

Really a nice job!!! I'd be very proud to carry that rifle!! Art

[Hobie]

Looks better than my Swede! I'm a 6.5x55 fan, too.

[Ysabel Kid]

Very cool!

[shawn_c992001]

I'm partial to the 6.5x55 also, I have a sporter that is assembled by Kimber. You talk about a shooter now that baby is a shooter! Factory Remington 140gr. go into one hole !!! My handload 120gr X-Bullets do the same thing.

[mescalero1]

My gunsmiths have a bore scope hooked up to a television, even they say my swede is the best looking bore they have ever seen.
I think those guys just took more care and pride in thier guns.

[DerekR]

I'm partial to the 6.5x55 also, I have a sporter that is assembled by Kimber. You talk about a shooter now that baby is a shooter! Factory Remington 140gr. go into one hole !!! My handload 120gr X-Bullets do the same thing.

I have one of the Kimber sporters also. I bought it in the box for $239 back in the day. I replaced the Ramline stock with a walnut one from Fajen. I would LOVE to find a reasonably priced model 94 Swede in original condition. You don't see many and most have been tinkered with.
Good lookin gun O.S.O.K. I bet it will be a dandy deer gun!

[Bill in Oregon]

OSOK:
Sweet. There's not a better caliber for deer, to my way of thinking. The Swedes I have fooled with all shot the 120-grain Ballistic Tip extremely well.

[rjohns94]

looks great. nice work.

[O.S.O.K.]

Thanks guys. Just went out to the shop and fondled her a little more. The only thing I can detract from it is the buttstock is a little long for me. I might have to have another go at the recoil pad removal... if I put a thinner butpad/plate on it (it doesn't need a recoil pad) it'd be perfect for me. I'm 5'8" and most factory stocks fit me right. I think the original owner must have been tall with long arms. I think that would balance the rifle a bit more too.

It could use a recontour of the barrel to elimate the steps and maybe a rifle basix trigger.... but not needed.

The last time I shot it with some handloads (taylored to another swede) it produced 1 1/2", 100 yard groups. I am sure that if I make up some specifically for this rifle, it'll shoot better.

Hobbie - nice report. As you can see on my rifle, the bolt has been nicely reworked - by the previous owner or his smith.

And I have to say that I like the Simmons scope - its the only one I have but it's a nice 3x9 scope. Has held its zero and performed well so far.

I'm still partial to the Nikon prostaffs for the price, but I am impressed with the Simmons.

[C. Cash]

That looks great OSOK. I'd keep the steps in the barrel as it will make it stiffer.

I am STILL working on my M94 Cavalry Swede that my Grandfather bought back in the 50's. I am very slowly working on fitting it into a Mannlicher stock, but my time has been extremely limited these past two years. I am tipping it in German Silver with a Texas star in the cheek piece to honor my Grandfather. Will get pics up when done. These are great old guns.

[Noah Zark]

Very nice. Those flared grip caps were abortions in the '50s and '60s and still are. Glad to see that yours was eradicated.

I'm a longstanding fan of the 6.5x55 cartridge and the Swedish Mauser. The 94 makes a wonderful woods carbine for small and medium game. I'd never consider whacking up an original, but there are enough already-sporterized guns out there from which to choose.

Congrats on a sweet little Swede. (sorry!)

Noah

[O.S.O.K.]

Thanks.

I'm a little embarassed to mention this, but I figured why not

I went to test the feeding and couldn't even get a cartridge to go down into the magazine.

Seems I didn't fix this problem previously

Well, I got to looking at it again and saw that the magazine well didn't completely come up to the bottom of the action and the follower was catching in this gap. The previous owner had tried bending the mag well to overcome this and I had worked on it before and straightened it out but hadn't fixed the problem - and forgot that fact...

Anyhoo, what I had to do was deepend the inletting on the bottom for th trigger guard/magazine piece so that it would come up all of the way - I had assembled this to the action out of the stock and everything worked perfectly....

So, bottom line, that's what I did - and also removed some wood off of the bottom and then for good measure, I decided to epoxy bed the front and back - top and bottom. I did this after I drilled some "anchoring" holes for the bedding.

The nice thing about using the spirit stain and BLO finish is that you can redo it after sanding an area and it matches perfectly - you can't tell it was worked on again.

It all worked great and it is now finally complete and in a funcional condition. Looks the same except that its a little slimmer.

Anyhoo, I may drop a timney trigger in it, but that's it.

Home gunsmithing sure can be.... fun

[donw]

nice rifle! nothing wrong with that at all...

i did a similar thing with the '93 spanish mauser.