Henry Rifle Forums

I was given this rifle by a good friend. It had been in his family for ever. It has been started to be sporterized. The SN numbers put it as made in 1944 by Gustloff Werke, Weimar




It has had a Redfield peep sight added.


There is almost no finish left on it. The gun as set in the back of a closet for 30, 40 plus years or more. Bolt is really really stiff. Dried grease and oil in the action. Surprisingly there is very little rust on the action. Just brown dried grease and oil. It needed a good soaking in degreaser. After a through cleaning I found the bore to be bright and shiny. Story has it that my friends dad and his buddy's had bought a bunch of these to make sporters out of. This one had issues and was never fired/finished. The cosmoline and crud in the bore would appear to make it be a true story.

The rear sight base was removed and it was put in a stock that looks like it was whittled on to fit. It's not a usable stock. A Boyds is on the way.The rifle is so far along in to the sporter process, and the finish is so poor that I am going to finish sporterizing it.. The barrel has a fair amount of pitting on the outside. The action took some cleaning, but pitting is very slight on it. The cosmoline protected the bolt raceway, the bolt and the bore. Kind of sad in a way, because it is a numbers matching gun. Or at least what's left of it is.



More to come about the other issues to be resolved and changes to be made....

I was told they thought the bolt was bad, poorly machined. Plans were to have a gunsmith eventually go over it. A really good look really shows it was built at the end of the war. Nothing is polished. The proof marks are poorly struck. One of the numbers in the SN number appear to have been struck wrong and they restruck over that number. I doubt that would have been let go in the early days of the war!

Once I got the action cleaned and degrease it was only slight better to cycle the action. I notice the safety was stuck. But was at least in the fire position. the mauser uses a firing pin block safety that is in the bolt assembly. I disassembled and found it packed with cosmoline. I cleaned it thoroughly, lightly oiled and reassembled and the Safety and the bolt lock worked perfectly!

While I was a it I looked the complete bolt assembly over and spotted some serious rub marks on the extactor ring. I remove the extractor and the ring and put the bolt back in the action and the action cycle beautifully. Hum.. intresting. Apart the bolt comes again (getting really good at it now I degrease it thoroughly reassembled it dry. Thoroughly coated the bolt with Dyechem and cycle the action a half dozen times and the issues were very apparent.



Circled it red is the biggest issue. The ring is hitting the receiver right at the receiver ejector opening. There are a few other rub spots on the ring in other positions around the ring. while i had the ring out it was apparent the rind was seriously misshapen. Kind of looked like it was stepped on. And sort of shaped back in place. Sabotage?? Maybe?? I took a jewelers file and clearanced the ring in the area and bent it as circular as I could and dychemed the bolt again and it was about 90% better. Still rubbing a bit in a few spots

So, being on to something I ordered a new ring. I found a NOS one on Ebay for about 8 bucks & 3 bucks shipping.



More to come...

Thanks for the update
Enjoy.

I lightly lubed and reassembled the bolt once again. I thought the ring was going to be a PIA because most of the "how to" posts I've read on the internet said it would be, but it wasn't at all. It went on pretty easily. Once together and installed in the receiver, the action it is smooth as silk now. No more tight spots!!



I have a lot more to do. The trigger guard was missing the captive looking screws. Those have came in. The action still needs some more external cleaning. The Redfield sight needs removed, disassembled and thoroughly cleaned an reassembled and reinstalled. I have to decide on the finish. And address the pitting on the barrel surface. That will come later. I have a Boyds stock on order. Once that is in I will test fire it after the head space is confirmed ok. Then the finish will be addressed. As well as a different front sight.

BTW, once I had the action great cycling I took it back over to my friends and he was amazed that's all that was wrong. The story behind receiving the rifle is he still has his dads original sporter. No kids to leave this one too. I have helped him a lot over the years and the rifle was a thank you gift from a very good friend. It will be cherished in my family for years to come. I will be redoing his dads original rifle for him (he just doesn't know it yet) as a thank you.

My 8mm dies came in a few days ago and the brass and projectiles will be in tomorrow or Monday. The stock is several weeks away from coming in according to Boyds sight. I will post more when there is more progress. It will be probably in several weeks though.

Thanks for checking out my project. I have others I could bore you all with

tip of my cap to you for being able to handle a project like this .... I'm enjoying following along

biglever wrote:Thanks for the update
Enjoy.

JEBar wrote:tip of my cap to you for being able to handle a project like this .... I'm enjoying following along

Thanks guys,. I (we) have a fondness for military guns and have a few. Some are works in progress. Some are done. I am not a pro gunsmith by any means but I know my way around a lath, mill and micrometer lol. I follow instructions well and have assembled a small machine shop in the garage. I love all things mechanical and electrical. I have a good time with my son who seems to be picking up my same interest so hopefully some of this stuff won't go to waste.

Here he is shooting our M1919 project. I was mean and made him load his own ammo and used the linker to link it all himself . (with a very watchful eye from me of coarse).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_7b4zdfzOU

If he shoots it, he has to load for it, And he enjoys it to boot. We have spend many evens reloading ammo. It's great father son time.

Here is a a few years ago shooting the Sten Mark II semi auto we built. He did some of the machining himself. He is really proud of it. And rightly so!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09KgV160Nno

Awesome, that is a fantastic find and you have already done some great work on it. I really look forward to seeing the finished rifle.

Also awesome that you and your son are working on tinkering, reloading, and shooting together. That is absolutely the best legacy you can leave him. I do some volunteer work at a local maximum security prison and the one common thread among the majority of the men in there is either an absentee father or an abusive father. I don't think there is anything more valuable to your son than your attention and encouragement.

Lastly, I am green with envy. Recently got a chance to shoot a Mauser when a guy at my range let me try his. I immediately fell in love with it. I tried to be respectful and only shot two rounds through it. He encouraged me to shoot more, but I didn't want to be rude and shoot up all his ammo. I love bolt action rifles and the Mauser is really a nice one.

This is one of my 98's
1941 BYF. With the dirty bird's stamped on it.

White Squirrel wrote:Awesome, that is a fantastic find and you have already done some great work on it. I really look forward to seeing the finished rifle.

Also awesome that you and your son are working on tinkering, reloading, and shooting together. That is absolutely the best legacy you can leave him. I do some volunteer work at a local maximum security prison and the one common thread among the majority of the men in there is either an absentee father or an abusive father. I don't think there is anything more valuable to your son than your attention and encouragement.

Lastly, I am green with envy. Recently got a chance to shoot a Mauser when a guy at my range let me try his. I immediately fell in love with it. I tried to be respectful and only shot two rounds through it. He encouraged me to shoot more, but I didn't want to be rude and shoot up all his ammo. I love bolt action rifles and the Mauser is really a nice one.

Thank you for the kind words. I think sometimes I am doing some of the things I wish my dad would have done with me when I was this young. I am a single father (widower) with 4 kids, he is the last one at home. I am probably guilty of spoiling him a bit but he does have a chore list and responsibility's that have to be done first. He is a pretty good kid, typical teen though. we have typical growing pains at times. But he seems to get what it is going to take to make a good life for himself. I pray I am doing the right things to give him the best shot at life. I clawed my way up from the bottom to get where I am and I hope he can learn from my struggles along the way and be a better man, father.

You are totally right when you say most troubled kids come from homes that are single parent and or abusive homes. It's a sad thing indeed. Thank you for taking the time to work with the people that need the help. I pray you have, and will change many lives. You have my respect sir!

biglever wrote:20161125_181446.jpgThis is one of my 98's
1941 BYF. With the dirty bird's stamped on it.
20161125_181412.jpg20161125_181412.jpg

That thing is awesome. Great find. I doubt mine will ever be nearly that nice. You have a real keeper there!

I worked with a guy , that his father inlaw had this rifle and he brought it home with him in wwll
He fought in the European. Theater, then he was shiped out to flight romel in northern. Africa.
He's long gone , and Thats all I know. Don't know how he got it, but Iam sure it came off the battle field.

That's awesome provenance to have for it.

I had a chance about 35 years ago to by a German Luger all in a box from a guy that had took it off a dead German that he found laying in a ditch in Europe. The story is kind of grim though. He took the guys metals, knife and belt with ammo & mags along with his ID and Ear, Yeah, I said ear!!

I was creeped out about it at the time and passed on it. He only wanted $150 for it at the time. I passed on seeing the ear too I asked him if it (the ear) bother him and he said "na" if I had saw the stuff the Germans did to get gold out of solders teeth It would not have bothered me one bit. Damned, war is hell!! I passed on it. i kind of wish I'd have got it. Today I could probably connect with the solders family and at least give them the ID pics and such, probably less the detail about the ear. Some family probably never got closure. It might have gave then some.

1911ly,

You did a great job on fixing up that rifle! Thank you for sharing.

Cate

The Boyds stock came in. A test fit brings forth a few issues. I figured the Redfield sight was going to require some modifications on the stock for clearance.

Here is the boy and the new stock:


I put some painters tape on the area where the Redfield sight will rest and scribe some rough lines. I also notice the front barrel channel need some more clearance on the right side, tape and mark....



The bottom plate required some work be done to the stock as well. The bottom cover has a radius near the bottom mag cover release. The plate would not lay flat.



I put a slight radius on the wood, and it fit fine:


More to come...

I probably should have Taken more pictures of the next part. I whittled and filed until I could get the base of the sight to clear the stock. It was such an ugly process that I figured I might make it ugly. But it came out fine. The base clears everything and the stock looks pretty good. I had to remove a big chunk!


Even on the inside:


The next issue was fun. While the sight base clears just fine, the Elevation tang that adjust up and down hits the stock. NP, just put a bevel on the side and try to blend it in so it doesn't look butt ugly. I spend quite a bit of time with a curved file. I had to put the actin and and take it out a few dozen times until the tag clears the stock the width of a piece of paper:



More to come...

One of the many things I like about the Boyd's stocks are the finish goes all the way threw the wood. You can cut, file, sand and polish it all out!



more to come...

After all the fitting I put the action back in the stock. I think it looks pretty good:



It's totally shootable at this moment. I've loaded up some test rounds for it. Hopefully before the weekend is over I will get it to the range for a test fire. I am fighting a bad cold so we will see how i feel tomorrow. I still have a lot to do to it. The metal finish needs addressed and the rear sight needs a complete disassembly and thorough cleaning & lube. I want to replace the trigger. Probably a Timney. While I am at it the bottom cover is still covered in cosmoline and it will need a finish too.

It's been a fun project. I will post more when I have made farther progress.

remarkable .... I am really enjoying following your project .... looking forward to reading your range reports on the finished product

JEBar wrote:remarkable .... I am really enjoying following your project .... looking forward to reading your range reports on the finished product

I am having a lot of fun working on it. The goal for the moment is to get it shooting. Then work on the eye appeal.

I really want to get it to the range this weekend. But I have managed to get a hell of a cold. It's really kicking my butt right now. Hopefully I will get some test rounds threw it by the weekend. will post progress and target reports no matter how embarrassing they might be.