I'd been reading and perusing some of my gunsmithing books, and one of the things I'd noted was that it can be pretty easy to improve the look of an old military rag just by filing and otherwise re-shaping things. The trigger guard was a natural fit for this treatment, so I decided to go for it.
As you can tell by the photo, the original trigger guard wasn't attractive worth a hoot. Oh, it did its job well enough, but it surely could have looked better while doing it.
And there's not much I like less on a gun than sharp edges, so some rounding was certainly in order. I grabbed some files and set to work.
More of This Article
- Page 1: Before Shaping the Trigger Guard
- Page 2: After Shaping the Trigger Guard
- Page 3: Finish-Cutting the Chamber
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 1: Before I Began Gunsmithing
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 2: Beginning The Work
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 3: More Gunsmithing Work
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 4: Modifying the Bolt Handle
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 5: Jeweling Bolt, Modifying Shroud
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 6: Shaping Trigger Guard, Finishing Chamber
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 7: Bedding Action, Fitting and Finishing Stock
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 8: Finishing the Metal Parts
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 9: Conclusion, Finished Rifle, Tools and Materials
I didn't go to extremes with the shaping of the trigger guard, but I did manage to give it some contour and round some edges. Even though it's not a huge change, the completed rifle looks a lot more finished and streamlined now than it would have if I'd left the guard alone.
I used some electrical tape to protect the extended floor plate release from accidental filing.
More of This Article
- Page 2: After Shaping the Trigger Guard
- Page 3: Finish-Cutting the Chamber
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 1: Before I Began Gunsmithing
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 2: Beginning The Work
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 3: More Gunsmithing Work
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 4: Modifying the Bolt Handle
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 5: Jeweling Bolt, Modifying Shroud
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 6: Shaping Trigger Guard, Finishing Chamber
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 7: Bedding Action, Fitting and Finishing Stock
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 8: Finishing the Metal Parts
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 9: Conclusion, Finished Rifle, Tools and Materials
The time had come to install the barrel permanently in the action, and I did so. Because I had trued the receiver face to the barrel already, all I had to do was thread the barrel into the receiver and tighten 'em up good.
After that, I turned to the chamber.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, I'd bought a pre-chambered barrel. This meant the chamber was mostly cut, but had been purposely left short.
After installing the barrel on a receiver, the chamber had to be finished. For that, I had obtained a finish reamer from Brownells.
The reamer came in a package with the Brownells brand on it, and was marked 7 x 57 FINISHER MANSON 9/09. I used an old, simple reamer handle, which worked very well.
The procedure is simple: You carefully place the reamer into the chamber, and turn it; it cuts when turned. This reamer turned and cut very easily. After a little bit, you remove the reamer, clean all of the steel chips out of the chamber and action, and check the fit with a go gauge. If you can close the bolt with the go gauge in the chamber, you're done cutting. If you can not close the bolt with a no-go gauge in the chamber, then you've done it right.
The thing to do is cut a little at a time and check often. As Dad always said, it's easy to cut a little more off if you come up short, but it's a lot harder to cut some on.
I used a set of Clymer go and no-go gauges for this, and they worked very well.
Thanks again, Brownells.
Along the way, I checked to see if ammo would fit. I found that some Winchester ammo, and some old military ammo I had, would chamber in the rifle even before the go-gauge would fit. Hmmm. I also tried some cheap Prvi Partisan ammo, which was a tight fit even after I finished the chamber.
That's it for this installment on the series. Next time I'll cover the stock work; it took a lot of filing and bedding to make the stock just right. In the end, though, it pleased me greatly.
- Russ Chastain
More of This Article
- Page 1: Before Shaping the Trigger Guard
- Page 2: After Shaping the Trigger Guard
- Page 3: Finish-Cutting the Chamber
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 1: Before I Began Gunsmithing
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 2: Beginning The Work
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 3: More Gunsmithing Work
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 4: Modifying the Bolt Handle
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 5: Jeweling Bolt, Modifying Shroud
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 6: Shaping Trigger Guard, Finishing Chamber
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 7: Bedding Action, Fitting and Finishing Stock
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 8: Finishing the Metal Parts
- Spanish 93 Mauser Article 9: Conclusion, Finished Rifle, Tools and Materials