Rifles

"Hey, Richard, I've got an old Czech Mauser that's kind of rough, and I'd like to sporterize it. My wife says my gun budget for the year is blown." The club meeting was folding up, and the last chuckles from "Good of the order" were dying down. I could see clearly where this conversation was going when Joe came to the point. "How'd you like a project rifle?" he asked cheerfully.

Joe Lantieri is one of those yeomen who every gun club has or should have who fully supports every club activity and effort. A regular since the days when English was still spoken in California, Joe is a perennially cheerful Past-everything who gets bored when a rifle doesn't change from time to time.

"Sorry, but there's no story in 7x57. Folks were doing that before Jack O'Connor turned in his first college term paper. We can do something in .338 Federal."

"Isn't that still in development?"

I smiled a Cheshire-cat smile and reached for one of his beers. "You're darned straight. That's why it'll be a fun project. We can build a budget sporter, something that a guy who's still paying for his kids' college can afford or for the guy who blew two years' worth of his wife's financial patience on that failed out-of-state elk hunt."

Joe said he'd be happy just to see the beat-up old Mauser change, and as the crowd cleared out we began to talk.

Details
I followed up a hunch and called Dan Pedersen of Classic Barrel and Gunworks in Prescott, Arizona. Dan regularly does two things that a lot of gunsmiths won't even attempt He makes tapered octagonal barrels for vintage treasures and also practices the fine old American art of recutting worn barrels to larger calibers.

We needed .338 plus two times .125--.588--at the muzzle. No problem. Just behind the front sight it was over .600. When the work actually started it was found that long ago an armorer had attempted to clean up worn rifling by the simple act of drilling out an inch and a half of rifling. That necessitated taking off an additional half-inch. That still left 22 inches, but with .338 Federal you want as much barrel length and as slow a powder as possible to get those heavy 200-grain slugs up to working speed.

The reader should know that I don't carve up fine collectibles. This VZ24 had been ridden hard and put away wet. The bore was pitted worse than Rosie O'Donnell's thighs, and the stock was a nightmare. I've suffered no guilt, even after looking at "before" photos of the project.

Sporterizing a Mauser is an established American art form dating back to Cuba in 1898. I like to imagine a cavalryman, souvenir 1895 in hand, gazing over at his Krag carbine and putting two and two together. The reason for my interest was to see how cheaply I could do it and create a modern, accurate and good-looking piece.