Mauser barrels

I have buddies that run the green mountain barrels with a lot of success. I’d definitely give one a try on “budget” build. Why would you want to run a barrel nut if you didn’t have to? I noticed you said it would save you a lot of time. chambering a rifle is a fairly easy process compared to a lot of stuff I see guys doing here. Will you be chambering through the head stock or using a steady rest? I’ve never chambered using a steady rest or threaded on centers. I have seen most my buddies do it this way and it seems pretty easy.
 
After reading the pros and cons of chambering through the headstock verses between centers I decided that chambering between centers made the most sense to me. Gunsmith Rod Hendricks who goes by speerchucker on most forums provided a good tutorial on chambering between centers using a steady rest. https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...een-centres-230343/?highlight=between+centers.

No need to rekindle that debate here. My craftsman 12x36 lathe only has a 3/4" spindle bore and no way that I can see to attach a spider to the outboard end of the spindle. As such threading between centers and using a steady rest to chamber is my only option.

I referenced using a barrel nut only when using a take off barrel that has already been chambered and where you can turn down the existing shank for the new threads. If you have to shorten the shank to cut the new threads then using a barrel nut just adds more work.

I hope to do my first barrel sometime next year. My first project will be on a carcano action. Why am I using this ill thought of action? Because I didn't pay squat for it and this will be a learning experience. If I totally make a "mell of a hess" of it (my high school shop teacher's description of most of my projects), no big deal. It will be a 35 remington. Why 35 remington? Because a 35 remington is within the same pressure limits of the original chambering and the case head is the same size as the original. No need to modify the bolt. The thread I posted a link to above on destructive testing of small ring mauser actions includes destructive testing of carcano actions. Turns out the carcano is one tough action with excellent gas retention. Loads that blew a small ring mauser apart did not destroy the carcano. I have a new found respect for the carcano. I might even use it for other builds.
 
Sounds like you got her all fingered out my friend look forward to seeing your progress
 
I wouldn't say that I have it all figured out. I have a plan and am slowly accumulating the stuff that I think I need to make it happen. Still have a long ways to go.
 
mickri said:
I wouldn't say that I have it all figured out. I have a plan and am slowly accumulating the stuff that I think I need to make it happen. Still have a long ways to go.
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There’s not much to chambering or threading a tenon. you have the action(s) picked out, you know what barrel you wanna use, the caliber you wanna run and you have the chambering method you wanna use picked out (only one available to you). I’m going with you got her figured out my friend.
 
You are right that I have my plan figured out. I am at the stage in learning how to machine like a person just starting to learn to drive a car. They have read about how to drive and figured out which is the best car for them. They have a plan. But they have only driven around the block twice on clear, dry, sunny days. They have a lot to learn before they will really know how to drive. That's where I am at with learning how to run a lathe and mill. I have been doing little projects. Some come out good. Some ok. And some are just down right ugly. I have a lot to learn. At some point in the future when I think that I have gained enough knowledge I will do my first barrel. For my first trial run I plan to get a piece of 1 1/4 x 12" or so 4140 round bar. I will then go through each step of the process of fitting this to one of my receivers. Depending on how I do will determine whether I do another practice run or move on to a real barrel. Then I will strap the barreled receiver to my shooting bench and fire off a couple of rounds using a string to pull the trigger while I hide behind the granite boulders that are behind my shooting bench. I have a 50 yard range on my property.

So yes I have a plan. Just need to gain the knowledge and practical hands on experience to execute the plan.
 
If you can thread it will be a piece of cake. I practiced on some aluminum I had laying around and went straight to a 400 buck barrel no issues. I’m on a few gunsmithing forums and those guys say practice on pvc pipe wish I would have seen that before wasting aluminum. You might visit with a local gunsmith and see if he has some old barrels laying around to practice on (that wasn’t really an option for me). I find the most important part is the crown I have a super small super sharp carbide boring bar that I use the only time I use it is on crowning and opening up bolt faces. I’m sure you have or will do your research on that. My other piece of advice is to take as deep of a cut as you can while threading a bunch of light cuts seem to leave me with really ugly looking threads. The last barrel I did (last week) was done in 6 passes 3 cuts and three spring passes. I went from taking an hour to set up, an hour to thread and an hour to chamber to maybe an hour to an hour and a half to do all 3 steps. But I’ve done some stuff to to really increase my speed. I made a micro switch threading stop for my lathe and also installed a DRO. Turning on centers should make threading simple I’d be willing to bet you should be able to turn your tenon and thread in 20 minutes or so.
 
Thanks for the suggestion about taking deeper cuts when threading. I currently take light cuts and my threads look ugly. They seem to work ok. I started threading by practicing on PVC pipe. I went through several feet of pvc. I've got threading down now. Still make mistakes now and then. My current project making an ER32 chuck requires metric threads. Have not done any metric threads yet. I should get some pvc chucked up to practice on. There are a couple of threads on here about metric threading through a qcgb on a craftsman lathe. I have my lathe setup so I can cut the common metric threads by just moving one gear to the inner position. Gear in outer position I cut imperial threads. Gear in inner position I cut metric threads.

I know there must be some gunsmiths in my area. I just don't know any. I'll check around.
 
I used to do this professionally,fitting barrels to surplus 98 actions in the good old days when surplus was cheap.....Anyhoo,we would cut the tenon in as few passes as possible,never more than six,leaving the the thread somewhat rough and oversize.........then the thread was chased with a hand held chaser to an exact fit...........this left a very fine shiny surface on the thread,and there was zero possibility of an undersize .....Not saying this was the right way,just the way we did it.................trying to take fine cuts with a little lathe end up with a big cut that tears the metal........
 
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