Golden State Bubba's Work

[Pressman]

I don't have a positive model ID yet, either a 96/11 or K-11. A lot of these were cheaply converted into sporting rifles some years ago, most were re-chambered for 308 though a few got by in their original 7.5 Swiss caliber. This one did. But, Golden State's bubba's and some other red neck got their hands on this rifle and the result is what you see. It is functional, but dirty and missing some hard to find parts like the trigger guard plate and magazine.
The stock has been aggressively sanded leaving sanding marks in the nice french walnut.
It will take a lot of hand work to get it back into a condition where it's safe to take oi out in public this spring. Sanding and polishing all the metal parts prior to refinishing and the same for the stock.

I am hoping to make it a strictly cast boolit shooter as the stock butt has been sanded to narrow for the recoil of the 7.5 cartridge. And it weighs very little.

It had been setting in my local gunshop for 10 years so I got it for less than the vintage 22 single shot I was looking for. Good deal, maybe.

[RustyReel]

That doesn't look like Golden State's work to me. May have started out as one of their conversions but someone else has gone at it pretty hard. I've owned several Golden State Mausers and Lee Enfields. In my experience they went from very little altering (whacking off a forearms and removing a handguard) to some pretty nice conversions. All of which would make the modern day collector have a stroke, but it was common practice at the time.

Me, I like military based sporters, but looks like you have quite a project there. Clearly Bubba, not Golden State.

[smithnframe]

Good looking chunk of wood!

[Gewehr-Guy]

What a crime to have hacked up that beautiful piece of wood ! Did they shorten the barrel, and what is the condition of the bore ? Swiss Products makes a scope base for the 96/11 rifles that were drilled by Golden State, and saved you the trouble of drilling and tapping yours.

I recently purchased a Swiss 1889 from Simpsons that was in horrible condition, all exposed metal was encrusted with rust and deeply pitted. The action was stuck, but after a Kroil treatment was able to get the bolt open, and pushed out some very old grease out of the bore.

The bore condition looks new, but the chamber may have a slight pitting issue, but I have not fired it yet. But I look at this rifle to be a perfect candidate to drill and tap for a scope base or reciever sight. I will keep my eye out for your missing parts and send a PM if I see anything .

[Pressman]

I have narrowed it down to a 96/11 based on the trigger plate shape. The bore is bright near as I can tell. Pierre at Swiss Products and I go way back, great person and a great company.
I think I can re-work the stock to make it look better, like get all the rough sanding marks out of it. I need to find a cushy butt pad for it as recoil is on 30-06 levels. And this is a very light rifle.

There was another company besides Golden State that did these "conversions" and this may be their handiwork. Golden State did the most and is well known for that. And yes we do have rednecks in Minnesota too.

[frkelly74]

The name Bannerman just popped up in my memory.

[Pressman]

Some progress on the easy part, stripping and re-sanding the stock. Easy-off oven cleaner really stripped the stock clean. I have sanded the butt to remove the gouges where they fitted a buttpad using a bench grinder then reshaped the little pistol grip to remove the contour lines of the original. The rest of the stock is in good shape so no work needed. Next is locating a recoil pad and getting it fitted before final sanding and finish. The wood is very dry and sanding is done by hand to avoid removing too much material.
As it is now, the length of pull is barely 12 inches, I need a thick pad and probably some spacers to get it back to normal. I am thinking of the Kick-Ezz line of sorbothane pads. The 7.5 cartridge is just a bit larger than 308 and my tired old shoulders do not relish getting kicked around.

[444ttd]

i do NOT like getting kicked around!!!!!!!!! a nice mild load will make happy and the deer are still scared.

[dogmower]

Bad Ace Tactical makes a nice no drill, no tap scope mount for the K31s. I love mine.

[Pressman]

I am a big fan of Swiss Products scope mounts and everything else they sell. They have a scope mount designed to fit the existing Golden State holes.

[Pressman]

Bubba is making progress. There is a lot of work yet to be done though it's looking like it will be ready to test fire before too long. The stock is nearly finished. Some more work with stain and then the final finish. The stock is 12 inches long, too short for this hard kicking mule. I added wooden stock spacers from Gun Parts Corp and a rubber but pad I had on hand.
The most serious grinder marks have been removed from the receiver, getting them all out will take several hours of hard polishing. The barrel finish is good, it only needs a final buffing.
I have gotten the trigger fixed, the pull weight was too light, very unsafe. It's a very simple and unique design, and a spring had become worn/damaged over time. Reversing it in it's mounting hole returned everything to normal. I found a trigger guard and plate from an 1889 rifle that I modified to fit. The guard itself and the through hole need some final fitting. Then it's blueing and ordering a scope mount from SwissProducts.com
One other surprise was when I made a second check of the chamber, it's a .308 and not the 7.5 Swiss I thought it was. Not a big deal as the action is plenty strong.

[gwpercle]

No one was buying the strange Swiss Rifles in 1965 ... there was a barrel full in the local Army Navy Surplus store Steinberg's (now it has become Lipsey's) and no one had ever heard of 7.5 Swiss ammo and Steinberg's was the only place that sold it , Full metal jacket surplus military ammo .
the un-issued 1903A3 Springfields were $59.00 , 98 Mausers $39.00 , 303 British Lee Enfield's were $29.00 and the K11 Schmidt-Ruben Straight Pull ...$19.00 . I bought two and all my high school buddies bought one too .
I "sporterized " one with a Herter's walnut stock but left the other alone mostly .
The 1911 and K11 make good cast boolit shooters (better than the K31) because they have a long throat .
I bought the Hornady Reloading Manual #1 when it came out (rifle data only at that time) because it was the only manual with data and info on reloading the 1911 7.5 Swiss ... that info had just come out and was the only source of data I could find for several years .

Pressman ... I'm glad you're going to rescue the old war horse ...she's been rode hard , but if anyone can breath new life into her you can ... ATTABOY !
Good Luck,
Gary

[fiberoptik]

Bubba was a midget???


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[mike britton]

Good work on the stock! Looks wayyy better!

[Pressman]

Thanks Mike. The stock has it's new finish and looks decent, like dad said about painting your car with a brush, looks good from 20 feet. I will have finished photos next week when the scope and mount arrive.

[Earl54]

Some progress on the easy part, stripping and re-sanding the stock. Easy-off oven cleaner really stripped the stock clean. I have sanded the butt to remove the gouges where they fitted a buttpad using a bench grinder then reshaped the little pistol grip to remove the contour lines of the original. The rest of the stock is in good shape so no work needed. Next is locating a recoil pad and getting it fitted before final sanding and finish. The wood is very dry and sanding is done by hand to avoid removing too much material.
As it is now, the length of pull is barely 12 inches, I need a thick pad and probably some spacers to get it back to normal. I am thinking of the Kick-Ezz line of sorbothane pads. The 7.5 cartridge is just a bit larger than 308 and my tired old shoulders do not relish getting kicked around.

dry wood=1/3 each, boiled linseed oil, turpentine, and real spar varnish. Old antique store cure for dry wood, use liberaly.

[Pressman]

Thanks for that information Earl, I may really need it for the next vintage rifle project waiting for warm weather to test fire before doing additional stock work. For this stock I used Permalyn and rubbed on 8/9 coats. Finished with Brownell's 3F stock rubbing compound.

Bubba is nearly finished, all that remains is making a wood block for the mag well to make single feeding easier. Original parts are near unobtainium and very pricy.
I test fired it this past Thursday on the 50 ft indoor range with 180gr cast boolits and 12 grains of Herter's 106 powder. It's a shooter for sure.

One last problem turned out to be the chamber, it's in .308 as most of these so called conversions were. However, the chamber was cut with a reamer that had been sharpened too many times and normal .308 brass won't fit. The shoulder and case head above the rim are too large in diameter. I found enough other types of dies to make brass and all is well, for now.

The Swissproductsusa.com scope mount is great and bolted right up. I had to rob a scope off of a Remington 572 that is a bullet sprayer as I didn't have rings (oops). This is an offset mount as these rifles eject straight up. It takes some getting used to but the accuracy is there. Now it's summer shooting season please hurry up.

[725]

A valiant effort. Those Swiss rifles are a treasure.

[Markopolo]

i am a total fan of the swiss rifles, but I did have some trouble with my k-31 efforts... it always wanted to string my boolits... jacketed was non issue. diddnt matter what lube, first shot was high about 4 in.. i gave it up... it was durring the 2014 powder shortage and I wasnt gunna waste components on a problem child, but i Loved the swiss design. yours is beautiful Pressman. looks like somebody already had a scope on it at some point durring the bubba years?

is there a crack in the stock just below the trigger guard? or just the picture?

[Pressman]

Markopolo sir, Get yourself another K-31 then go to swissproductsusa.com and read everything you ever wanted to know about loading and shooting these rifles. The K-31 is a fine shooter but some examples need a bit of fine tuning to the stock/barrel fit. A 168 gr Sierra Match King and a decent charge of RL-17 will give amazing accuracy. Ditto for 42.5 grains of IMR 4350.

Bubba began life as a Model 1896 rifle, it was later converted to the Model 1911 rifle. In doing that it gained a little pistol grip grafted into the 1896 stock. That is what the crack looks like. The add on pistol grips were effective, but they will not win any style awards.

Ken

The sporterized "conversions" by Golden State and a couple of others were drilled and tapped for a scope mount on the left side. Fortunately for us today all the holes fit a typical pattern and Swiss Products is able to make a reasonably priced, and very good replacement mount.