Free floating a Mauser style stepped barrel

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Gentlemen,

Does anyone have experience floating a Mauser style stepped military barrel? I have a Romanian M69 .22 caliber rifle I'm tuning a bit and it's got the stepped Mauser style barrel. I'm used to free floating standard barrels, am good at it and have the proper tool/scraper to do the work with.

What I'm not sure is wether I should free float all the way up to the receiver or stop at the large step that's two inches long just before the barrel goes into the receiver. The more I look at the design, it seems like I ought to stop, but I'm not sure.

If anyone has free floated Mauser 98's or other stepped Mauser style barrels and knows which gets the best results, please let me know.

I'm also planning on doing some basic bedding to the rifle, but I'd like to try just free floating this particular rifle first, as the action to stock fit is pretty good and not sloppy as I've read it is on some of the Romanians.

Thanks,

Dave

[Char-Gar]

Dave.. I am stocking a Persian 29/98 barrel action. I cut the barrel off just behind the last step giving me a 24" barrel.

I glass beded the receiver ring, lug and 1 inch of the barrel. Of course I also glassed the flat behind the lug. I also glassed the rear tang. Everything else is hanging on air.

I am waiting for the bolt to come back from The Bolt Man and then I can shoot it and see how things work. If everything is OK, I can do the final detail work, sand and finish the stock.

Then I have to plug a couple of holes in the metal and have it finished after a hand polish.

If wears an a neat old Redfield rear sight and a Williams shorty ramp on the front. The wood is a nice piece of black walnut I have had since 1959. The stock is shaped to a 40's style classic, patterned after the stocks of Bob Owen.

[Blackwater]

Dave, I've tinkered with mine, along with cutting that ugly front sight off just behind the ramp and recrowning, and then a good polish and reblue along with refinishing and slightly reshaping the wood. Shoots good, but still not quite truly target grade.

As to the bedding, what I did with mine was use glass bedding and I left that large ring of the barrel near the receiver bedded, with the rest floated. If I had to do it again, on mine, I think maybe I'd bed the rear of the barrel about 12" or so to the step at the forend tip you refer to. I'd try that, and if that didn't quite give me the accuracy I was looking for, I'd chip out the bedding with a dremel or a gouge, which shouldn't be too bad a job, and gives you two options with one bedding.

Just how I'd do it in retrospect. I need to try some more varieties of ammo in mine, too, though, so take that into the equation. Maybe another brand will give me the one-holers.

[Char-Gar]

Dave... I have taken my Mauser to the range and it shoots just fine. I glassed the front end of the receiver and the rear portion of the barrel that forms the first step. I also glassed the rear tang of the action.

I started with a raw blank with a 1/2 inch straight channel. I used nothing but the round Jerry Fisher scrapers and spotting compound (Prussian Blue) to bed the barrel in the channel. This was a very slow process, but there is no danger of hoging out to much wood with a power tool.

[jjamna]

I bedded the Front and rear lug on a Spanish Mauser with stepped barrel. It shoots fine

[22cf45]

I agree with Charger. Regardless of the type of bolt action rifle, I always bed the first couple inches of the barrel and float the rest. Since your first step down is about 2" from the receiver, I think bedding that portion will be perfect.

If you are going to be doing any bedding of the recoil lug, the Mausers I've stocked were rather fussy in that area. I found if I only bed behind the lug, leaving the sides, bottom, and front of the lug with slight clearance, the rifle has always shot well.
Phil

[jonk]

You could try the cheap easy way first and insert a shim under the lug and possibly the tang, of thin sheet metal; heck some of my guns shoot so well this way I didn't bother doing more.

[Larry Gibson]

Gentlemen,

What I'm not sure is wether I should free float all the way up to the receiver or stop at the large step that's two inches long just before the barrel goes into the receiver. The more I look at the design, it seems like I ought to stop, but I'm not sure. Dave

That's where I free float them to. I've free floated a lot of Mauser barrels and have not had a single one that did not shoot more consistantly. Correct bedding of the action is also essential.

Larry Gibson

[redneckdan]

when I built my mauser I bedded the first 2" of the barrel, the front ring, the recoil lug with a small front clearence for disassembly, the rear tang, the sides of the reciever (helps stiffen the stock). I also bedded the floor plate this helps keep even tension on the action screws.