I bought out a 30 year home based shop that included 50 or so Mauser actions of various vintages and types. Unfortunately they were stored in an environment which was not the best for preservation. What do you know about salvaging these old actions? Can you tell me anything about the metallurgy and how they might respond to an anneal, fill weld, normalize, and case process. This is not something I would recommend for one or two, but with so many- would it make sense. If not why.
Your thoughts about alternative uses, other than paperweights would also be appreciated.
Don’t worry about annealing. They are a mild steel and cased…..if done correctly at the factory. Fill the pits/holes with mild steel dress it down and when you have done all the alterations to the actions and bolts send them to Industrial Heat Treat in Salt Lake City for rehardening. Many old and worn actions can be saved and built into nice custom rifles. Depends on which models and how much work you want to do to or with them. Good manufactured 98’s are preferred but the small ring actions can be built into passable rifles as well. Really depends on how much you are wanting to spend. If you are simply looking for a quality bolt action rifle it is NOT cost effective. If you are looking to have fun with them and/or just like Mausers and want to fool around with them….I say WELCOME to the crowd. 😎
If you are going to use for paper weights send some my way. Ken
Additional
A lot of metal in the Pattern 14/17’s so they make great magnum actions. A-Square uses them for their monster caliber guns. No more will be made so if they are still in the military configuration and not too beat up they are still collectable. Anyway keep us appraised as to what you have and how they turn out for you. Ken
