straight bolt mauser

[cosmoline]

I have a vz 24 mauser and I was wandering if I could put a scope on it with out changing it up too much. What scope and mount would you recomend? I don't have a lot of cash to spend. It also bleeds out comoline from the furniture EVERY time I shoot it. I've used simple green on the furniture to clean it off along with soap and water several times. I was wondering if theres anyway I can solve this without hurting the wood. Its not like its worth money or in great condition, I just like its character. Do you think I should just break down and refinish it? Thanks in advance.

cosmoline

[Stan K]

Use a hairdryer, heat the stock and oil will ooze out of the stock. Don't try to do it all in one shot. Do about a 1/2 hour's worth and then let the stock rest and let the moisture content normalize. If you try to do it to quickly the stock may become brittle and crack, Remember it took years for that stock to soak up that oil and it will take time to get it out. To raise dents, this sometimes works if the wood fibers are not broken in the bottom of the dent. Take 3 or 4 cotton cleaning patches and soak in water. Place on top of dent. Heat an old spoon with a propane torch. When dull red, slap it on the wet cleaning patches. The burst of steam may raise the dent or it may not. You used a water based cleaner to clean the surface of the stock, which is fine but it may have lifted the end grain of the wood (feathers). Use 0000 steel wool and buff lightly. When the wood feel smooth to the touch, fold a Kleenex into a 2 inch pad soak with rubbing alcohol and wipe down the stock. This will do several things. First it will raise any more grain feathers. Second it will remove surface dirt and oil. Third it may slightly lighten the color of the stock.Buff again with steel wool to remove feathers. Repeat this until no more feathers stand up. Now the stock will look dull and dry. My favorite finish is boiled linseed oil. You can get it any hardware store and a quart will last forever.
Put a small amount on the stock and then rub with your hand until the oil warms. Just a little goes a long way. Recoat until you are happy with the finish. Rule of thumb. Drying time between coats in days is coat number plus one. This has soft shine and looks good on old rifles. Plus it can be renewed by simply putting on another coat. On the minus side it's not a water proofing finish. It will resist water better than bare wood but not a good as varnish or poly finishes.

[Schuetzenman]

Originally posted by cosmoline
I have a vz 24 mauser and I was wandering if I could put a scope on it with out changing it up too much. What scope and mount would you recomend? I don't have a lot of cash to spend. It also bleeds out comoline from the furniture EVERY time I shoot it. I've used simple green on the furniture to clean it off along with soap and water several times. I was wondering if theres anyway I can solve this without hurting the wood. Its not like its worth money or in great condition, I just like its character. Do you think I should just break down and refinish it? Thanks in advance.

cosmoline

Yes, B-Square corp. makes a scope base that replaces the rear iron sight. It mounts by the pin that holds the rear sight to the base. An "Intermediate" eye relief type of scope of 4 power or less to make a "scout" type rifle. Got a friend that has done this to a M48 (not the A version) Yugoslav 8 mm rifle. Works ok for him.

I think Burris and Leupold, (probably others as well) make scopes with the longer than usual eye relief but less than a pistol scope type eyerelief.

Getting Cosmoline out of the stock. I assume you did pull the rifle apart completely and clean out the barrel channel and mag well cutouts for the steel parts. Heating with the blow dryer thing does work. Also setting the stock out in the sun on a nice warm sunny summer day also works and gets a bigger area quicker. Wipe off the oozing cosmo as it puddles up.

Once you have that done the boiled lindseed oil can be used. I prefer tunge oil because it is better at keeping out water and bore cleaning solvents. It won't darken with age as the Lindseed oil does and tunge oil can't mildew as BLO can.

[cosmoline]

Thanks guys for your replys. I love this board. I've been on it for a long time, I just didn't register till a few months ago. Would any one know how to take the furniture off a VZ 24 or the tools I would need? I think I'm gunna try to use an iron and some cloth to get the dents and cosmoline out, because I don't have a torch. Thanks for the alcohol tip too. I'm going to use tunge oil since I just bought some for my Sar 1 that I'm refinishing, I need to put some on by bass guitar too. I'm going to look for that b square sight, would you happen to have a link?
Thanks once agian,
cosmoline

[Stan K]

I think the address is http://www.reliablehost.com/bsquare/classicmil_2.html

[Schuetzenman]

Cosmoline to disassemble any Mauser you need screw drivers that fit the screws and a hard rubber mallet and a piece of hardwood that can be used to tap off tight barrel bands.

First the nose cap band / bayonet lug must be removed from the stock in order to get the barrel band off. The nose cap band is held in by the opposite end of the barrel band keeper. You should see a round stud sticking up in a hole on the nose cap band. Push down on this with a small pin punch and then pull the band or tap it forward. You should be able to pull this off over the front sight even if the shight has a hood on it.

To get rear barrel band off you have to push down the barrel keeper until you can work the band forward towards the muzzle. If it's tight you may need to have someone help you tap it forward while compressing the keeper. Sometimes there is a ton of cosmoline behind the keeper spring and you can't hardly compress the some-bitch!

After you have both bands off, then take out the screws that hold the floor trigger and magazine well group in the stock. These are also the bolts that hold the action in the stock by connecting the trigger guard and mag well to the action. There should be small keeper screws that you'll need to remove first, then unscrew the actin bolt and trigger guard screw. Pull on the trigger tuard and it should come out of the stock.

That's pretty much it. Oh, to remove the floor plate and magazien follower, push down on the button at the front of the trigger guard and slide the floor plate back towards the trigger guard. You have to keep the button in the small hole depressed or it will recatch the floor plate. Some of these can be very tight so once again you might have to tap on the floor plate to help persuade it to move back and unlatch while keeping the catch button depressed. You might need a second pair of hands for this as well. Some of them can be real stiff to say the least.

Hope all works out for you, good luck.