I've been tossing around the idea of making a hinged TG for my Yugo Mauser in .243 Win. Nobody makes one. I got the idea when I realized that the distance from the rear magazine wall to the rear guard screw was the same, whether it was an Intermediate Yugo or a standard 98. The difference in length is all in the front end, basically from about the mid point of the magazine to the front screw. So, I got the idea of finding a donor hinged TG, and doing some cutting and welding.
Well, I've had the donor for months now, and finally worked up the courage to do it. Realizing that I don't do this often, and I'm not trained, some of my ideas might not be the most efficient.
1st I hacked off the trigger guard off the donor at the rear mag wall. I ruined a previous Yugo TG, by cutting it in the wrong place, so I was very cautious and conservative today. I cut the military TG right in front of the trigger guard itself. I used an old Yugo stock as a fitting jig, and when placed in there, I had over lap. I ended up cutting the honor TG even with the latch. On the military unit, I had to trim back all the way to the mag catch/spring tunnel at the back of the rear wall. I actually had to remove some of the tunnel for everything to fit.
Once everything fit, I beveled the edged for a good weld. I would have preferred a TIG welder, but I didn't know anyone who had one. So, my neighbor and his MIG welder got drafted. Unfortunately, there wasn't any real support for the military unit, so it got slightly out of position during welding. Resulting in a slight downward tilt at the weld. But, that won't affect anything, and when in the stock, it's not noticeable. We also filled the front locking screw hole. Which has be cleaned out using a special reamer.
So far, I've ground down the welds on the sides, so they match the stock contours. Ground down the front screw hole fill, and still have a little to do. I used a 1/4" end mill to open up the hole for the hinge on the floor plate to fit into. Opened with 1/4", then cleaned up a bit with a 5/16". Then filed the end of the cut out square and with an angle inside. Hinge pin hole was drilled a while ago.
I've fitted the floor plate, and now I'm ready to start the latch. Once I get it to latch, I will finish profiling the sides of the floorplate at the TG. For some reason, Mausers have a 1/2" square cut just in front of the front mag wall. That leaves very thin metal where the hinge pins will be going. So, my thoughts on that are once everything is done, short of refinishing, I'm going to bead blast all the parkerizing off. Then coat the floorplate hinge tongue with Brownells release agent, put the floor plate in place with the hinge pin, then pack DevCon Steel bed into the space to give extra support. I will also fill in the hole just in front of the trigger guard. Rifle is finished in parkerizing, and I don't believe that the parking solution will affect the DevCon.
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