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Thread: Difficult Barrel Removal on Mauser

  1. #21
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    Welcome back Bruce. Did you just dunk the reciever in the bottle of coke?

    Robert
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  2. #22
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    Yep. Took the trigger off first but just slipped into the 2 Liter bottle of coke. Cut the top off a empty bottle and then filled it to just over the top of the front reciever ring.

    Now it's standing in the corner over the garage away from anyone to tip it over. It's working on something. dipped my fingers in the coke when I went to adjust the barrel this morning. Left a greasy feel to my fingers. Must be stripping the cosmolene that it was caked in as well.

    Spent the day installing crown molding in the bathroom for the missus. Might get to the barrel tomorrow after Church.

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  3. #23
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    Good deal. Please keep us posted.

    Robert

    BTW, you dipped your finger in it and it felt greasy, what did it taste like?


    Quote Originally Posted by bruce drake View Post
    Yep. Took the trigger off first but just slipped into the 2 Liter bottle of coke. Cut the top off a empty bottle and then filled it to just over the top of the front reciever ring.

    Now it's standing in the corner over the garage away from anyone to tip it over. It's working on something. dipped my fingers in the coke when I went to adjust the barrel this morning. Left a greasy feel to my fingers. Must be stripping the cosmolene that it was caked in as well.

    Spent the day installing crown molding in the bathroom for the missus. Might get to the barrel tomorrow after Church.

    Bruce
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  4. #24
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    Like New Coke!!
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  5. #25
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    Coke can be pretty corrosive. It has a lot of phosphoric acid in it. I've known people to clean chrome with it. It's not really my first choice for dunking an action. I'd probably have chosen something less aggressive, like WD-40 or bust rust.

    My most frequently successful method for separating frozen parts involves repeated applications of WD in conjunction with repeated hammer taps & lots of patients, followed by eventual application of heat. If you keep giving it a little squirt of WD followed by a few taps with the hammer, 3 or 4 times a day for about a week, that should eventually break the bond without doing damage. Somewhere within the first few days of that treatment, most frozen parts will break free. After a week of that, if I had no success, I would then try to gently heat the receiver to about 300 with a propane torch & see if it lets go. Once she's warm, get the torque to her quick. If she has a chance to cool at all or if the heat gets into the barrel, then she'll grab up tight again.

    You can get temperature melt sticks from welding supply places that let you know when you reach a predetermined temperature, so that you don't go too high. You buy the stick for the particular temperature that you want to test (they're cheap). Then you use it like a crayon & just draw a line on the piece to be heated. When the line melts, you stop heating. It's that simple. If the heat trick doesn't work, then you are in for a real fight.

    As some have said, it is sometimes possible to relieve the pressure on the threads by removing material from the barrel. If you have a small ring Mauser, then the bearing surface is out in the open where you can see it. In that case, turning a slot in the barrel just off the contact point should loosen things up. If you then tap the muzzle end down towards the receiver, the threads should really loosen up.

    If you have a large ring Mauser, then there are two barrel contact points. One is in the same place as on the small ring, the other is the rear face of the barrel. The barrel is supposed to be machined for a perfect mating of both faces, but one usually wins out over the other & it is a krapp shoot as to which one actually carries the stress. In this case, turning a slot, like on the small ring, may or may not help at all. You would also need to then take an internal slotting tool & relieve the area near the butt end of the barrel. This is not an easy cut to make, even after sawing off the barrel short enough to get good access. That type of turning tool is also pretty fragile & unless you are a pretty good lathe guy, you can expect to break at least a few of them.

    I would probably saw off the old barrel, set the receiver up in a jig on a milling machine & have at it with a boring head until I reached the minor diameter of the threads. After that, I'd peal the individual threads out with a pick.

    Another option would be to use excessive heat to get them apart & then re-heat-treat later. My shop manual from Jerry K. recommends using Blanchard Metal Processing in Salt Lake City if you need to heat treat a Mauser action. He actually recommends heat treating all actions that you work with since there are reports of various quality heat treating from the factory on many Mausers.
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  6. #26
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    The Coke bath after one day left my action looking like it was parkerized. Shine is definitely off the Blue and but no give at all was seen when I tried to tap the barrel off today.

    One plus was that excess cosmolene was eaten by the Coke.

    I'll just have to work the WD40 into the action over the next several days before I resort to doing a relief cut at the front shoulder.

    Bruce
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  7. #27
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    Inside of a large ring Mauser receiver showing the internal shoulder the barrel seats against.




    Top barrel is large ring 98 Mauser military barrel showing what looks like a shoulder is actually about the same diameter as the threads. There is no pressure to relieve with a cut on this "shoulder". Sporter barrels often have a real load-bearing shoulder at the front of the receiver, but military don't.


  8. #28
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    I saw a trick that worked for this gunsmith. IF you dont care about the take off barrel. He took a 2lb hammer and hit the muzzle end about 3 good blows and it came right off

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by shotman View Post
    I saw a trick that worked for this gunsmith. IF you dont care about the take off barrel. He took a 2lb hammer and hit the muzzle end about 3 good blows and it came right off
    One thing about Mausers is that some are brittle, I have heard of them cracking from being dropped on a concrete floor, they break or crack right in the thumb slot that is provided for using stripper clips. I remember reading that mauser barrels were installed with a large handwheel, sort of like a sailing ships wheel with more than one pair of handles, but made from metal, and they gave it a good windup to tighten it, quite a bit of flywheel effect in other words....then add 50 years of aqueous cleaning solvents dripped into the receiver ring and it is no wonder some can be tough to get out.

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  10. #30
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    BCP, thanks for the photos - Now I just need to get to working on it again.

    Willbird - The Flywheel probably gave it a lot of mechanical advantage when they spun it on. I wonder what it would cost to make one of those craftsman tools now?

    Shotman - Was the whack on the end (crown) of the barrel a means of sending vibrations down the barrel to loosen rust or was it along the side of the barrel?

    I've hadn't had a chance to try it in about a week. I've painted a sunroom with a lot of windows, a bathroom and a kitchen this week so my time on vacation has been spent working on the house.
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  11. #31
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    well If you use the hammer . Two things it will mess up the crown for sure, It works like hitting a bolt or nut to free it. The other thing a GOOD receiver would take any type of hit. If it cracks you dont want it anyway.

  12. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by bruce drake View Post
    BCP, thanks for the photos - Now I just need to get to working on it again.

    Willbird - The Flywheel probably gave it a lot of mechanical advantage when they spun it on. I wonder what it would cost to make one of those craftsman tools now?

    Shotman - Was the whack on the end (crown) of the barrel a means of sending vibrations down the barrel to loosen rust or was it along the side of the barrel?

    I've hadn't had a chance to try it in about a week. I've painted a sunroom with a lot of windows, a bathroom and a kitchen this week so my time on vacation has been spent working on the house.
    Well back then they believed in Apprenticeships, so it might take 6 apprentices a full year to make one with nothing but hand files
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  13. #33
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    I mounted the barrel vise on a 400 pound bench.
    I have a 5 foot cheater bar on the action wrench.
    I have a 20 pound piece of steel for hitting the action wrench while I sit on the end of the cheater bar.

    1000 foot pounds of torque + the impact of a 20 pound hammer at the same time will not get off half of the 1903 Turk barrels that I have tried.
    Hit it again and again, no movement. They are rusted solid.

    Put 5 drops of Kroil in the crack and wait a minute.
    It comes apart on the first hit.

    All those that watch the demonstration go out an buy Kroil.

    Today's Kroil job was an old rusty Rem700.
    It looked like a surplus Mauser inside.
    But it only needed 300 foot pounds and no hammer.
    Last edited by Clark; 01-24-2009 at 01:55 AM.

  14. #34
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    Clark,

    THanks for the photo and testimonial. I guess it's sold me on Kroil. I'll call Midway on Monday and order a can.

    Bruce
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  15. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by anachronism View Post
    Freeze it for a few days, then apply heat with a propane torch. Don't overheat it, it's not necessary. The quick change from frozen to hot is usually enough to break the bond. When you apply heat, heat only the part that you want to expand, which would be the receiver. Heating the barrel & not the receiver would likely make the fit tighter until temperatures equalize
    This process works great, I have used it for barrels and nipples in percussion revolver cylinders and rifles.

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  16. #36
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    I had a 788 that I need to rebarrel. Never rebarreled anything before, so I did a search and found this thread. I tried everything including Kroil soaking, heat, cold, everything, no dice. So I tried the Coke, rather than dunking the whole action though I cut the barrel off about 2" ahead of the action just enough to get a 24" pipewrench on it then submerged just the threads in it, left it in for 4 days, it popped right off, stripped the blueing off.
    Now that that is done and seemingly without any damage other than the missing blueing I have a question for you real gunsmiths, one of the threads in the action about 2/3 in is missing, is this normal? Will it weeken anything when a new barrel is installed? Common sense tells me it will be fine considering the shear number of threads still undamaged. Post #33 appears to have a thread or part of a thread missing similiar to my 788.
    Any advice would be appreciated.

  17. #37
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    I had a barrel that was a bear to remove!
    I know several roofers. I get roof boots to melt for my Cap and Ball, and front stuffers.
    I could not get that barrel free for anything! No way, no how. When I finally got a large enough bar to handle the torque, the reciever could not handle the pressure.
    I made a form from lead! That did the trick. I could lever the barrel loose. When it finally let go, the pop was audible! More of a bang! actually.
    That one was on to stay.
    I helped my favourite gunsmith with his reluctant barrel. He tried everything. I just wouldn't let go. I mean everything. He bent his large lever!
    He finally cut the barrel leaving only the thread part. I cut out the interior after he milled out the chamber. Being a jeweler, I have these little cutters. I cut to the threads in four spots from the muzzle cut, to the chamber entry. Four slits that just hit the top of the threads. We then dripped some muriatic acid on the exposed thread tops. After waiting for a bit, we used a reverse Easy Out he made to fit in the chamber/hole. Out it came. It took some effort, but it did come out.
    He showed me a reciever that was severely bent in the mag well. He never explained that one to me, but I can imagine. The reciever was scrapped.
    He told me of another technique he had used where he melted lead and floated the reciever in the lead. He ran water through the bore while the reciever was still hot. Still hard to do, but easier than most. That reciever was being sent out anyway to be hardened and case coloured. An experiment that worked, that time.
    Those Mausers can be a bear.

  18. #38
    Boolit Grand Master leftiye's Avatar
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    I'm about to do a vz-24, and a Siamese Mauser - to 45-70 (or 45-100), and a .35 Whelen. I'll keep this post handy (and copied). I'll try a flat sided action wrench and a barrel vise first. If the barrel vise slips, I'll put two flats on it (the barrel) and stick it in a vise and try again. Then I'll go to the more esoteric methods. Milling out a barrel shank sounds like all of the fun one could stand. It should be possible to turn the threads clear off leaving only a "helicoil" in the reciever. Or - how about turning a cylinder inside the barrel shank, and threading it - say 7/8" X14 left handed, and screwing a grade 8 bolt into it?
    Last edited by leftiye; 05-31-2009 at 05:31 AM.
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  19. #39
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    Having trouble with a 1910 Oberndolf Model 98 action. When you hit the muzzle with a hammer, is the action held solid against something or allowed to move? I had previously plugged the chamber and stood the barrel up so I count pool Koil on the chamber end of the barrel. Think Koil will penetrate from that direction? Barrel is toast so I drilled two 1/4 inch holes to keep barrel from turning in the vise. Well, I have not found a bolt that will not bend as it continues to turn in the tighten vise. A tough one.

  20. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pirate69 View Post
    Having trouble with a 1910 Oberndolf Model 98 action. When you hit the muzzle with a hammer, is the action held solid against something or allowed to move? I had previously plugged the chamber and stood the barrel up so I count pool Koil on the chamber end of the barrel. Think Koil will penetrate from that direction? Barrel is toast so I drilled two 1/4 inch holes to keep barrel from turning in the vise. Well, I have not found a bolt that will not bend as it continues to turn in the tighten vise. A tough one.
    Hopefully you have a flat bottom action wrench (mandatory). You can take the handle off the action wrench, and put it in a vise, or weld a thick bar to it with holes so you can bolt or clamp it to a sturdy bench. Then use a pipe wrench on the barrel with a blow from a deadblow hammer to add vibration. The Kroil will indeed penetrate from the breech end. I have yet to get an original Mauser barrel off without the pipe wrench, but I don't have a hydraulic press to put my barrel vise in.

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BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
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LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check