wildcat junkie

TARGET! My future son in law has gotten me interested in traditional archery again. I dug this out of the hay loft. This had spent nearly 21 years up there. It was in 4 pieces, faded, and covered with pigeon dung when I brought it down. I spent an hour the day before yesterday gluing the pieces together with Glidden Gripper Primer. I pinned it with bamboo BBQ skewers with pointed ends ground on cedar arrow shafts for reinforcement. I spent yesterday painting ir with some red oxide primer, satin black and red spray paint. I used the Gripper Primer to do the batted wing feathers and white crown. Some serving thread made the finishing touch with a wavy beard.

Looks like someone has lead a "sheltered life".

Missed that in the picture!

A "Kodiak Bear" is a Grizzly/Brown Bear subspecies that inhabits Kodiak island. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodiak_bear

One time in the knee cap was all it took. Remember, if a bear attacks, you don't have to outrun the bear. You only have to outrun your companion.

None other than Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird"

140 gr Ballistic Tip 46.0 gr Alliant Rl 17 2.872" OAL 2915 fps This is a max load in the particular Savage Axis II that I personally worked the load up for. Very consistent Mv and .5 MOA groups at 100 yds. Reduce by 10% and work up.

When we were cutting shooting lanes last fall we piled some cedar branches from trees we cut down around a ground blind. Within weeks the deer had stripped the branches clean.

Ahh, the 1909 Argie, the Holy Grail of military Mauser actions. Prized by custom rifle builders for its "hinged floorplate". There are custom rifles built on the 1909 Argie that run high into the 5 figure range. The one in the link below is a rather "plain" one. Some with extensive engraving go for much more. https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-for-sale-online/rifles/mauser-rifles---sporter-pre-war/mauser-by-duane-wiebe--500-jeffery--a-complete---total-custom-1909-argentine--tough---functional.cfm?gun_id=100447650

Here's a 219# buck taken from my property on November 3rd, 2004. 46" heart girth. For some perspective, I weighed 285# in that picture.

Add 30% so closer to 300#

Here is a picture of the three M98 actions I have in hand. Excluding the various commercial 3.340" magazine length standard and magnum length actions, these represent a pretty good cross section of the most common desirable types for use as a basis for custom gun building. I drew lines at 7 7/8" and 7 5/8" the represent the action screw C/Ls of the 2 action lengths. There is some distortion of the C/Ls. The actions are laid over their corresponding C/Ls for the type. I focused in on the front action screw and receiver ring to show where the difference lies. The distortion is worse at the rear and bottom of the picture. Top is the 1939 vintage K98 Oberndorf action. It is a LR (large ring), LS (large barrel thread shank) action. It measures approximately 7 7/8" between action screw C/Ls This is standard length and has an internal magazine length of 3.315". This type can easily be lengthened with nothing more than some skillful millfile work in the rear magazine wall to accommodate 3.340" standard 30-06 length cartridges. By working both ends it can be stretched to 3.450" with home workshop tools, 3.750" by a skilled gunsmith/machinist. Middle is the VZ500 Yugoslavian commercial version of the M48 Yugo. It is a LR, LS action. It measures approximately 7 5/8" between action screw C/Ls. This is intermediate length and has an internal magazine length of 3.235". It is difficult to significantly lengthen this action beyond 3.300" It is ideally suited to 8x57, 6.5x55, 7x57 and cartridges derived from the 7X57 case such as 6mm Remington and 257 Roberts. It is much more suited to these cartridges than the short action commercial bolt actions marketed in the USA that limit COAL to 2.8". Of course the various 308 family of cartridges, 243, .260, 7mm-08, will also work nicely in this action with a bit more flexibility as far as bullet seating depth and COAL than the SA rifles designed for 2.8" COAL. Bottom is the 1910 Mexican Mauser, it is a SR (small ring) SS (small shank) action. This particular action has Belgian proof marks indicating it was manufactured by F N. This is the most desirable if you are building a rife with medium/short cartridge chambering. A good quality action of this type will go for >$250 in military issue condition. It measures approximately 7 5/8" between action screw C/Ls and has an internal magazine length of 3.235". It is suited to the same cartridges as the Intermediate length LR actions. In addition there are LR SS actions such as the various "Turk" Mausers as well as SR LS standard length actions such as the GW/33, the later is not recommended for high pressure cartridges due to the thin receiver ring. Below is a picture of the SR SS 1910 Mexican receiver ring threads (left) and the LR LS VZ500 (right) receiver threads. One can imagine how thin the SR LS combination receiver ring would be. These three actions represent my "bucket list" builds in 8X68S, 7x57 and 257 Roberts Ackley Improved respectively.

Here is the rust blued bolt for my 8mm-06 Ackley Improved.

You can make a "sweat box" with a hot plate and some 3" PVC drain pipe. It is supposed to work as well or better than as boiling tank. http://www.rustblue.com/blog/how-to-make-a-sweat-box/

Do your own high quality rust bluing job. The 2nd thread has more how-to information.

The 8X57IS I built is on a VZ500 action, the commercial version of the M48 Yugo. The M48/Z24/VZ500 and their ilk are "intermediate length" LR M98 actions built to the SR (M93/M96) length. Triggers, bolt shrouds, safeties, extractors and just about anything but the firing pins, bolt bodies and trigger guards will interchange between the M98 and M48. The M98 Mauser is the small block Chevy V8 of the rifle world. Lots of interchangeability and tremendous aftermarket support. Below are 2 of my rifles, the top is the 1960s vintage VZ500 Yugo intermediate length, the bottom is a 1943 vintage J. P. Sauer & Sohne K98 standard length action. The intermediates are 1/4" shorter O A but are already stretched to near maximum internal magazine length at 3.235" while the standard length action are 3.315" internal magazine length. The intermediates cannot readily accommodate 30-06 length cartridges (3.340") while the standard K98 can be opened up to 3.450" with tools readily available to the average "Bubba". With some machine shop work, the standard length actions can be opened up to accommodate .375 H&H length magnum cartridges. (3.75"}

Numbers matched M48s in good/average condition go for $400-$450. My son is looking for an affordable milsurp and these are about the most reasonable right now. Try to find a good SMLE. Those are getting expensive. A few years back a bought an unissued, never in a stock Persian Mauser M9829 barreled action for $179 form SARCO. I spent 2 days with kerosene and acetone cleaning the dried, caked cosmoline from it. Someone gave me a stock for it. I ended up selling it when times got hard.

I have already built one of those. Don't sell the 8X57IS short. Perfectly capable of + or - 3" to 275 yds when loaded to adult pressure levels with 200 gr bullets. ( The German "I" for Infanterie "S" for Spiegel is interchangeable with "JS") 200 gr Speer Hotcors perform well too.

Since the 7x57 headspace gauges I got from Santa Clause will also work for 257 Roberts (as well as the Ackley Improved version) I couldn't pass these up on E-Bay Now I need to get that 7 x 57 project wrapped up so I can start on this small ring M98 Mexican Mauser.. Sighted in 2 1/2" high at 100yds with 115 gr ballistic tip will impact 3"" low at 330 yds. Ought to make a dandy mountain rifle if I can find appropriate glass for it that doesn't add too much weight.

Ouch! You know where that blood came from don't ya? Sounds like that buck must be into S&M.

BLASPHEMY, REPENT OR SUFFER ETERNAL DAMNATION!!

Howard Hill shot grouse on the wing with a longbow. I haven't seen that in the Olympics yet.