cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Munich I might be going to Munich in April. We'll see. This would be a business trip. In order to go I'd have to be coughing up half of the air fare myself since it's not, strictly speaking, a necessary trip. Right now I'm waiting for more details on it. Cost of the hotel, etc. Also, today I will be finding out how much my dividend check will be for. If it's a healthy enough amount, that will make a big difference, since I need to cough up probably 00 or so towards the plane tickets. I've always wanted to go to Munich. Or at least for the last 10 years or so. I'd be scheduling in 2 extra days for the trip in which to get some touring done. One day for touring breweries and another day for museums and general wandering around. I wish I could be in Germany long enough to get out into the woods and the countryside but that's not going to happen this time around. Yesterday I got my Mauser back from Paul. The steel butt plate that he forged is perfect. He did a black finish on it by heating it up in his forge and then dipping it into a bucket of oil. We were talking about maybe applying that same finish to some other parts on the rifle. This is a very, very elegant-looking rifle now. I've decided that I can't bear to chop the barrel down unless it's necessary to improve accuracy. It looks so elegant with the long barrel. Also, the extra weight at that end lends an excellent balance when it is on one's shoulder that is quite unlike any other rifle I own. Also, I'm thinking that Bob (Trish's father) might want to use it to hunt with some time. As he gets older his hands are starting to shake and it's difficult for him to hold a steady aim off-hand with many rifles. That's part of why he's been using his Hawken muzzleloader so much. It's got a very heavy barrel, which resists the shaking of his hands especially well. This Mauser of mine balances so very well with that extra weight at the end that the muzzle wouldn't be wobbling around too much. And who knows? Maybe in 50 years I'll have the same problem and this will be the hunting rifle of my old age. Yesterday I ordered a glass bedding kit for it. Glass bedding is the application of a liquid fiberglass compound to certain areas of the inside of the stock. That application then hardens up after you have pressed the barreled action of the rifle down into it. It results in a perfectly molded bit of material in there which ensures firm contact between the stock and the barreled action. If the action wiggles around even a fraction of a millimeter within the stock, you are losing accuracy. Glass bedding stops that wiggling from happening and improves the accuracy of the rifle. Since this stock was salvaged from an old Brazilian Mauser, reworked into a sporting contour and then slightly re-inletted by yours truly with a Dremel moto tool, I have to assume that the bedding is currently far from perfect and that glass bedding it will be very much a necessity. We'll see what accuracy is like after that point and then I'll figure out the next step from there. The project has taken a year or so already and I'm in no great hurry with it. I still can't decide how to go about scoping it. Meanwhile, I'll replace the front sight with a brand new one that isn't so banged up; replace all of the springs with new ones that should result in smoother feeding and less lock time; replace the slightly buggered vintage trigger guard screws with crisp new ones and do various other little things like that. Things that are inexpensive and minor but will add up to a more attractive rifle. 10:36 - 2008-03-04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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