Topic: Mauser barrell

[monkeywrench]

I still have the first deer rifle I bought, however I did not take very good care in cleaning it thru the years. As a result the barrell has suffered and accuracy is bad. I am thinking about an Adams & Bennett barrell replacement. I am not a gunsmith and do not have the neccessary tools to do it. Any ideas on doing it myself verses a good gunsmith? I know a good smith would be expensive, and I don't know of one personally.  The price of tools might come close to the price of a gunsmith doing it.  The rifle is a Mauser in 30-06. It has sentimental value. I am open for advice. Thanks for the help.

[Spiff]

A receiver wrench and barrel vise are both fairly inexpensive (sort of). The wrench of course is specific to a given receiver but the barrel vise can be used for other rifles/applications. If you can install the barrel yourself you will almost certainly have to have a smith cut the chamber out to the proper dimensions. Most brand new barrels that screw on are sold with "short" chambers.

I barreled my M1A, M1 Carbine and M1 Garand as I built all three from spare GI parts. The M1A's barrel was brand new USGI (don't even ask how much it cost). And after installing the barrel I could not close the bolt on a "GO" headspace gauge. The smith at Buckhorn Gun an Pawn did the work, and did a very good job.

Unlike an AR15 or even AK's barrels that screw on, screw on *tight*. At least this is my experience with these 3 rifles. The Carbine barrel was easy to line up as the receiver and barrel had indexing marks. The Garand and M1A I lined up using two bubble levels. One level on the receiver and the other on the end of the barrel. Both installations turned out excellent (If I do say so myself!!). All 3 rifles shoot very well (for two of them having ~ 60 year old barrels).

I went into all 3 projects with the mind frame that I would do as much as I could by myself, so the cost of the tools really did not enter into it.

[monkeywrench]

I thought about doing it myself, as far as bluing goes though, I don't really want to get into the chemicals and the waste afterwards. I would like to try changing the barrel, am not sure about reaming the chamber. I suppose I could farm out the critical aspect of reaming the chamber. Another question. The barrel I am thinking of comes in the white. Are there other alternatives to hot bluing that won't look too bad compared to the already blued receiver? Or should I just refinish the whole rifle?

[Spiff]

Monkeywrench, cold bluing actually works pretty well and is easy and cheap. You can buy the "dye" from Sportsmans or Cabelas. You just clean the metal off and swab or brush the bluing on. Coat as many times as you want to get the desired darkness.

I have to add that I've only used it for relatively small parts (1911 grip safety). Not sure what it would look like on a larger part like a barrel. I think it should look ok as it goes on pretty uniform. And you could always test it on a large piece of metal.

I have successfully parkerized an M1 Carbine receiver. Turned out pretty good. Parkerizing is interesting to watch because the process actually causes the metal to look like it's boiling.

Also, much as I like to do things myself, I decided to farm out the chamber cutting on my M1A to someone who had done it before. You would not think of a barrel chamber as being "precision" in it's dimensions, but it actually is. I did not want to ruin my barrel. I sat next to Mike, the smith at Impact Guns last weekend during the gun show, he said with the proper reamer it was not a difficult project. However we all know that "difficult" to a person who has experience doing something, and "difficult" to someone who's never done something are two different things.