cellini's Diaryland Diary

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The Mauser Moves Forward

I got my dividend money yesterday! It was a bit more than I had actually expected.

Oh, I've gone and done it. I ordered a bunch of stuff to finish this custom Mauser I've been plugging away at for the last year. Most importantly, I found a gunsmith to forge the bolt handle into a turned-down, back-swept thing that will clear a scope. I'm paying him 0 for that and I've decided to pay him another 0 to drill and tap the receiver for the scope. Plus I'm going to have him re-crown the barrel while it's in his shop so that it will look terribly pretty. Currently, the muzzle end of the barrel looks like, well, like a 65 year old rifle that has been used and abused by a bunch of Turkish soldiers. The front sight and the crown of the muzzle are banged up and there are no longer any crisp corners to it. I've got a replacement front sight coming in the mail right now and between that and the re-crowning job it's going to look brand new at that end.

It's the whole mating of new and old that I really like about this rifle. I don't want every detail to look fully modern. If that was what I wanted then I'd just buy a brand new rifle. I want crisp, new edges on what is clearly old steel. A modern Timney trigger and a military stepped barrel in the early 20th century style. A marriage of modern pragmatism and accuracy with old-fashioned, European aesthetics.

This thing will be a work of art. I have been thoroughly enjoying the whole process.

After work tomorrow I'm driving to the lumber yard to order enough wood to finish the workshop. Things are good.

09:42 - 2008-03-05

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