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My Mauser is 1913 Obendorf sporting rifle. the rifle has had little use and mint except for the stock which has faded and become very dull. I would like to re finish this stock to a high oiled / waxed shine. I don't know the best way to go about this. I have used Danish oil on furniture diluting the early applications with turpentine and gradually building up to full strength but I don't think it would be very good in rain.
Can any one advise me on this .
Can you please post a photo?
IIRC they used claro walnut on them? Boiled linseed oil was one of the most common stock finishes back then for both military and sporting rifles. I do not believe they began to use hard finishes until after WWII, but I know much more about Mauser mil rifles than I do sporters, especially one that old.
Often in restoring an old walnut stock it is necessary to stain it, especially if it has been badly sun faded, but I am not sure from the way you phrased it if it is the wood that has faded or just the finish.
Personally, I prefer to use a matte polyurethane finish on a hunting rifle as oil and paste wax is not particularly rain proof, nor is it very stable in a humid climate. Shiny stocks are not my first choice when hunting either.
Sealing it with urethane inside and out will stabilize it so that it will hold zero much better with changes in seasons and varying humidity levels. Of course back then there was generally finish only on the outside of the stock, barrel channel, action mortise, and under furniture was left untouched.
Birchwood/Casey makes a product called TruOil specifically for stock finishing, but I don't know if it is available there or not. It dries hard and seals very well. Multiple coats applied with fine steel wool, as many as you have time and patience for. It usually takes at least two or three to completely fill the pores in the wood, and a dozen coats or even more is not unusual if it is a really fancy stock blank. Careful light rubbing with 0000 steel wool after it has completely hardened will give you a nice matte finish which you can apply paste wax over. That way you can see the beauty of the wood but won't spook game from sunlight reflecting off of it.
Many thanks Versifier, I will check up on the Birchwood/Casey true oil. and see if it is locale here.When I was a boy many years away. we shot with old English Hammer side by side shot guns Names like Hollis , Bonehill, West and I had two muzzle loaders, one Purdy 15 bore and one west 10 bore and a mate had a Pape 16 bore, the Pape of course had different choke barrels Pape being credited as the inventor of choke in shotties. The stocks on these guns were brighter and reddish than the Mauser but muzzle jobs had powder staining around the nipple area. in most cases the checkering was worn to fine lines and much of the browning of the older guns was gone or else the Damascus or English twist was very visible. modern guns were expensive and not available to school boys besides we fed quite well off the old guns anyway.Attachment 330Trying to download pics of the Mauser, never tried this before.
Best regards Ancestor.
What a beautiful rifle! I'm drooling. What is the chambering? Do you know anything about the old girl's history? What are her favorite loads and how accurate is she?
My 1917 military 98 came to me with a shattered stock and 6" hacksawn off the end of the barrel. Looked rough outside, but the bore was really good despite use in two wars. Rebuilt, reblued, trigger job, restocked. Now it wears a B&C synthetic stock and a scout mount forward of the action. If I do my part it shoots just under 2MOA, much better than many WWII vintage 98's I have owned and shot.
Keep the steel wool away from the checkering, it's a bitch to recut. If it is still in good shape I would only remove finish from the uncheckered areas. Better to dilute a stain and have to apply more than one time rather than overdo. I have made both mistakes - and that's way too nice a rifle to repeat them on. ;) I have seen more than one eager refinisher get so much of the finish onto the checkering that all the valleys were filled, but that can be easily avoided by blotting up any oil or urethane that slops over onto checkered areas as it's being applied. I have also seen more than one idiot unthinkingly sand all the points off a stock and then bring it to me to see if I could "fix" it afterward. :mrgreen:
Not much of a shotgun man, that's my brother's thing. Purdys I have seen and shot, the other names are new to me. I like the vintage rifles and milsurps.
I'm not sure I would want to touch off a 10bore smokepole now. Sounds like a repro Brown Bess I once shot. My .54 caplock is abusive enough with hunting loads, with a recoil pad on it for comfort. We have a week before regular firearms (whitetail) deer season for muzzle loading, but most use .50cal inlines these days, very few of us left who shoot traditional caplocks or flinters and most are used strictly for hunting. Twenty years ago the club used to have regular matches for them, but no more.
Good morning Versifier, Chambering is 8x57 js.It came from a hunting lodge in Europe, I have not tried for a favorite load as 196 grain ammo and reloading components are all that's available. I have tried some reloading but again 196 grain Norma Vulcan and Alaskan were all that was available. Now I see Hornady have a range of bullets which I should be able to source so will look into this. Properly loaded this caliber pretty well equals the 30 06 in performance. At 100m it is a 6 Oclock hold.group less than 21/2 inches which is as good as I can shoot anyway and that on a good day and most of my days are not that good believe me. I like a 6 Oclock hold over open sights it gives me a fast lead and back stop picture on running deer. I have seen a Oberndorf sporter of 1930's vintage 30 06 original barrel and an ancient Ziess sight mounted high to clear the safety. I would have fitted an aperture I think. I don't know if the rifle is still around As I regretted not buying it when I had the chance. I guess I have always had Mauser rifles since my first and only odd ball, at 17 years cutting down SMLE 303 Ex WW2 into a sporter, to my 30 plus year companion, a hand finished long bolt Belgian Mauser in 375 Mag which my son now has. Regards ancestor.
You're quite right, there's no real difference performance wise between the 8x57 and the -06, just a much greater available selection of components in .30cal. I have been happily loading 8mm's for almost 40 years.
Can you get Sierra bullets there? They make excellent 150 & 175gr 8mm's. My rifles love the 150's and they're a lot easier on the shoulder. Though I could launch them a lot faster, I get great accuracy around 2500fps and I have also loaded them for a bunch of friends. Recoil is minimal even with milsurp metal butt plates. No deer has ever complained about a few hundred fps difference and 100yds is a long shot in the thick cover around here.
Mostly I shoot cast in them though and I'm quite happy with Lee's 175RNGC offering. Do you cast and can you get Lee molds?
Tell us please about where you are, what the terrain is like, and what you can hunt there, large and small, seasons, bag limits, nonsensical regulations, gun laws, etc. NZ is a long way from NH and I am curious. Even if I'm not likely to ever make it there I'd still like to learn more about how things work there than I know now (which is not much).
Hi, Well if you have a atlas or a map of NZ we live in the South Is West coast. Approximately 5 to 6 miles from the mountains as the crow flies bit longer by road. lat about 43 south.The coastal plane is more or less out wash from ancient glaciers and river erosion.We live over a subduction where the pacific plate is riding over the Australian plate. Our mountains are roughly 6000 to the highest being over 12,000 feet The great alpine fault runs virtually the whole length of the South Island and beyond, so the mountains are rising but very slowly and erosion more or less balances this. Occasionally a major top failure on the mountains can slip thousands of tonnes blocking a valley system until the water pressure or the dammed area over tops and lets go and the downstream effect is a disaster. A few years ago the top fell off a mountain I have hunted around and a whole farm was washed away and many damaged when she burst. Still there are not so many places where one can soak in a hot pool sharing a riverbed with a glacier fed river roaring past about 40 feet away. The prevailing winds are westerly and although warming has taken place we still get hammered from the south polar fronts. Rainfall in these conditions is measured in meters rather than inches or mm once the coastal plain is cleared. If one allows the fall in a river around 10,000 feet in say 5 or 6 miles these rivers are moving. The terrain from this side of the alps for hunting is thick rain forest steeply rising foot hills and mountain gorges and bluffs can be a sheer thousand feet high. There are walking tracks but why spend time lugging your gear for a week to get near the tops when it takes about 10 to 15 min in a helicopter. and there is plenty of the vertical stuff when the helicopter leaves one. Going into the high country from the east side of the mountains is much easier I was up there this week but not hunting.
This is a brief on the area where much of our stalking takes place, though I do go to the North Is Volcanic Plateau for some hunting and the youngies are planning to go in east side later so who knows. Well sir If this is boring you just tell me and I will let it go. I will dig up a few photographs if you are interested.
Regards Ancestor.
Hi versifier Just an odd pic or two.Attachment 331Attachment 332 The outside world goes away with the chopper.
Wow Beautiful photos
Thank you, the top photo, the white bit is ice and not snow,Rule never step on to without Ice axe and crampons, otherwise if one starts to slide no recovery. Cheers.
The Mountain bit is below. On access to hunting.All of our National parks and most of the bush land is Dept of conservation estate whom administer it all. Unless there is a special reason area to ban Hunters it is all open to hunters by permit, which can be accessed on line and there is no charge. The only change to this is Fiordland during the Wapiti ( Elk) bugling season when it is all cut up into hunting blocks which are drawn by ballot each year. there is great demand from both NZ and overseas hunters for this and it can be the most difficult and dangerous country( subject to blizzards and heavy rains up to 13 meters per year.) to the inexperienced. the Dept maintains huts in a number of forests and are open to hunters, trampers and the like for a token charge. These huts are basic comfortable and with a stove and cut wood and usually 6 to 8 bunks with usually a helicopter landing clearing near by and also often a stream cold enough to chill out meat properly packed and sealed in waterproof plastic bags. Rimfire rifles and shotguns are banned on conservation land without a special permit. I believe in a rifle with stopping power up there as the odds of catching an even heavily wounded animal there is not certain. I have had to put in a stopping shot on several occasions where a small caliber has gone right thru. I always carried my 375 Mag, or a 300 win mag. Today I have the 8mm. There are places in the North Island where much of the terrain is easier and I have hunted Sika, Red and Fallow deer up there. Sika and Fallow I hunted with a 275 (7x57) Mauser using a 175 grain bullet which had plenty of lead showing. Sectional density mod velocity and a good mushroom is the way I think. except the 375 where the reflected hydraulic shock wave just shredded internal organs. There are no bag limits on Deer, Chamois and Tahr but on the last 2 you aren't going to break the bank. Unless you join the super rich and just shoot from a chopper. If you wish me to continue this type of essay I will continue bit by bit otherwise I'll not trouble you . Regards AncestorAttachment 333Attachment 334
Please keep sending up the stories. It is lovely country.
Wow. Glad I asked. Wasn't kidding when I asked. What about the game? What kind of deer, etc?
Hi Versifier , Mike, I have already mentioned most of the deer the only might have missed. are Whitetail on Stewart I's just south of this Island. I have watched them eating seaweed on the beach from a boat. I had a 300 Win Mag sitting on a deck chair but seemed like murder some how so never took a shot. There are a few Rusa deer in the central North Is but hard to get at through land ownership and although a large deer are shy and elusive,The only other which comes to mind were some Sambar but I have not heard of any of these deer being shot for a number of years. There are Plenty wild pigs and a few Australian Rock Wallabies but these are mostly eradicated now.One point of note is the Wapiti herd breeding stock was gifted to NZ by one Teddy Roosevelt, one of your presidents.I will try to post a few pics to round off Westland where I live The first being one I have only had posted to me a young lady Student , with a Chamois she shot two points here Typical Alpine hunting for Tahr as well and she uses a 300 win Mag rifle, ie reach out and hit hard,
. The other also not one of mine a magnificent bull Tahr. ancestor on a typical forest track crossing .Attachment 335Attachment 336Attachment 337
Thirty (hell, even twenty) years ago that lady alone would have been enough so I'd buy a plane ticket out of curiosity. The hormones are still willing but the body can't run up and down mountains no more. Oh well.
Why the prohibition on rimfires and shotguns? (For many of us small game is an important part of our hunting: varmints, squirrels, turkeys, upland birds, rabbits, waterfowl, etc.)
I'm glad to hear the elk are thriving. I read about them in a history book a long time ago. (We could sure use another Teddy today, but that's a whole 'nother topic.) Does anyone hunt large game with handguns?
I think I'm going to start a new thread about "This is where I hunt....". I live in one tiny corner of the US and while I've seen a good bit of it and Hawaii, I've never really been much of a traveler. I suspect others might want to post some photos for you, too. We have members from all over the world, though most are from North America. But there is a LOT of North America to wander around hunting in and all of the different climates and terrains and critters.
Hi Versifier Agree age is a hell of a thing, to answer your question. Rimfires and shot guns are allowed for pro hunters From the dept of conservation and with a special permit for Canada Goose and some river hunting for ducks. generally I think too many animals were bring wounded by young enthusiasts with granddad's single shot rimfire or Shottie Some shots of NI's and Volcanic PlateauAttachment 339Attachment 340Attachment 341Attachment 342Attachment 343. All our animals here and a lot of birds are introduced and as we have no large predators ( Only rats, stoats , weasels, ferrets and feral cats and a few feral dogs)All game birds with the exception of wild ducks and some swamp species, game animals have been introduced for sporting purposes by European settlers. Having these animals and Canada Geese are in most cases as far as the conservationists and some institutions are concerned all Introduced species are to be eradicated. the Australian possum is the biggest case in point. 8 tons of 1080 poison has been dropped in the forests just lately this of course kills every thing. Officially Dept of Conservation position is to control numbers of sporting animals and Canada geese which do become over populated. The department has a Damned of you do and Dammed if you don't position and most of their field officers and rangers are good and helpful people. Hand guns are only permitted for pistol club use and are strictly controlled. as are military style automatic weapons. Every gun owner has to be licensed and a list of firearms kept
Licences renewed every 10 years.Upland birds and waterfowl are Controlled by Fish And game and are licensed at a cost and only shotguns are allowed. Rabbits Hares Feral goats possums etc are not controlled and maybe shot with anything. Rabbits are a pest in the south and annual drives are in place where thousands are shot. Similarly opossums in the central region of the North Island. We took part one year and I think the total was over 10,000 possums. The world looks down on fur clothing these days believe me Merino wool and Possum fur mix in sox and jerseys, vests etc are about as light and warm as one can get.