Mauser 1888 almost finished

[Norton]

This is my $29 Centerfire systems Mauser so far. I came with a broken forearm, missing trigger guard screws no butt plate or front barrel band.
So here I am now with the help of Smokehouse, Kevin 917, ebay and my dad.
My dad helped me pin a new forearm on her at the barrel band, Kevin sent me a butt plate. Smokehouse turned me on to were I could get the barrel band and trigger guard screws. Now I just need to shell out for the bolt face , extractor and rear swivel. I used Danish oil for the dark Walnut color and took Buelligan's advice on the bees wax product 'Feed and wax' for the top coat. Not bad for a wall hanger (almost 120 years old) I hung it up with my Styers and Mosins. It fills a void in my collection of bolt actions. A German mass produced export rifle made on the fly mixing the Mauser with sort of Carcarno technology. While not as nice as my Turk M 88 with the tiger strip grain that I traded away back in the late 80s.. As they say
Not much but it will do.

[Smokehouse69]

Damn it looks great!!! You have saved another tomato stake from the garden for sure!!
Norton, you have something to be proud of, you have reconditioned a piece of history and saved a nice rifle from the scrap heap! :thumbup:
You know we all sort of laugh at CFS, SOG and OWS for selling these rusty relics, but they are doing a real service by importing these rifles and allowing some of us to bring them back to life!
I'll have to post some of mine, it's about in the same stage of reconstruction as yours is..

[kevin]

that turned out really nice, too bad i didnt know you needed that wood part, i threw away the forward area of a near mint stock. It broke mid magazine and behind the tang with a giant crack through the butt of the stock.

I do have most of a near mint butt except the last 2 inches and the area forward of a tang from another stock if anyone needs some splicing material

[Smokehouse69]

Kevin, I need it bad!!! I have one that I've been looking for the but portion for a long time! PM me!

[vair65]

Man, very nice job, 120 yrs and almost ready to bark again. Hope you find the parts to finish it! Will you fire it if you find the bolt face and extractor?

[97th Signalman]

Cool Rifle.

It will look great on display.

[Buelligan]

Looks good NORTON . When reloading for the 88 do you use black powder?

[AGG1]

THAT is some extremely nice work!!! :eek:

Tony

[turbothis]

i wish i could get one. does someone still selll them?

[nevada]

I see the important containers on those shelves are labeled. Do you just guess what's in the red containers? Beautiful work on the rifle. Reminds me when I brought home a 1943 BSA in two garbage cans. It turned out real nice when I was done.

[GreenWolf]

That is a true labor of love, Norton. Nice work. Are you planning on shooting that rifle?


Looks good NORTON . When reloading for the 88 do you use black powder?

The 88 was the first modern German army rifle - modern in that it used the "new" smokeless powders that the French had adopted. I'm not going to repeat the whole history of the 8mm round, so here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.92x57mm_Mauser

[ctdemolay0405]

looking good man!

[Norton]

[QUOTE=GreenWolf;70887]That is a true labor of love, Norton. Nice work. Are you planning on shooting that rifle?



The 88 was the first modern German army rifle -

Thanks for the compliments
I cannot shoot it for now. It does not have the bolt face, they are very hard to find at a reasonable price.
(Sometimes they want more for that than the entire rifle cost me)

If one comes along I may get the headspace checked and shoot my own cast bullet hand loads. That is the great thing about realoading and casting, you can make your own tame loads to shoot out of a 1888 vintage rifle.

[1deerehunter]

nice rifle.... have you checked out paralaxs forum.....they have an 88 section with some good do it yourself stuff .....swendelson has some bolt heads too...
h**p://parallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums.yuku.com

[Norton]

have you checked out paralaxs forum.....they have an 88 section with some good do it yourself stuff .....swendelson has some bolt heads too...
h**p://parallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums.yuku.com


Thanks for the link I may find a bolt head after all.:thumbup:

[Anthropy]

When you go to get the clips, make sure you use ones that are in good shape. Any of them with a bit of corrosion will not like to feed very well. I bought some from Numrich aka Gun Parts Inc years ago. They are a bit of strange beastie as when empty, they fall out the bottom through the cutout in the receiver.

Some weak 8mm loads using 150 gr sp bullets work just great. No special load, I just use the lowest powder charge listed in my Hornady manual.

[GearShanty]

I cannot shoot it for now. It does not have the bolt face, they are very hard to find at a reasonable price.

Found this
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=96496849

[Anthropy]

I forgot to ask if you have the S stamped on the receiver? The S indicates that it was re-barreled for the .323 aka 8mm bullet. If it is missing the S, it should be for the smaller .318 diameter bullet.

However, I have always been told to shoot mild loads out of the beastie no matter what the bore diameter.

[nevada]

I just found this site. Have you seen it? It might help.

http://www.gunloads.com/fam/swedenelson/album2.htm