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I liked this when I read about it on Tuco's His classmates and teacher (at Trinidad College) said it couldn't be done, but Carl rose to the challenge. I'll let Carl describe it in his own words... "It started out as a $50 M96/11 rifle that had the stock cut down and poorly sanded, and was missing the extractor and magazine. I fitted it with a new Douglas barrel chambered in 7.5 Swiss and free-floated it. The stock is a brown laminate Wildcat model with rosewood fittings from Richards microfit, with extensive resculpting of the grip, cheekpiece and forearm cap to accomodate the unusual action. I also installed a Morgan adjustable pad, QD swivels, a B-square bipod and a cheap sling I had in a box of junk. The bolt handle is custom made and makes the action very quick to operate. The trigger and safety are original, except the trigger was shortened 1/4" to bring the floorplate up to the stock. The scope mount is a Paul Jaeger quick detach sidemount that positions the scope over boreline. It's a very heavy rifle(about 10-11) pounds, but it's very accurate and comortable to shoot and carries well with the bipod removed. I will also be adding a set of iron sights and a muzzlebrake at a later date to finish it up."
When I asked him about the Jaeger scope mount (I'd never heard of them) he had this to say. "I haven't been able to find out much about the Jaeger mount. I picked it up at a gunshow. It had never been used, but judging by the box its at least 30 years old and I don't even know if they're still in business. I've seen them show up on ebay from time to time. Its very similar to a Griffin + Howe, though from what I understand they're not as difficult to install. The rings are part of the base and the baseslides onto a rail attached to the gun. there is a button on the side to release the mount and a small lever on the side to tighten it. I understand G+H still makes them, but they sell for around $350 and I don't know who carries them. . . . It really is a nice mount, especially if you have iron sights as well as the scope." I then asked him what brought this rifle about. "I did most of the work on the gun, the exception being the stock was a semi inlet, though it was shaped to the dimensions of a mauser so I had to modify it quite a bit, and the barrel was already contoured, so I just had to cut the threads, fit and chamber it. The reason for its unusual appearance is that the first rifle we had to build in the gunsmithing program was a classic sporter on a 98 Mauser. For the advanced courses, I figured I'd learn more if I wasn't just repeating what I'd done the previous semester, so I decided to play around with some different things, such as the thumbhole laminate stock instead of a classic walnut and a reciever with square threads instead of V threads. That and the teacher said you couldn't make a nice sporter out of a Schmidt Rubin and I took it personally. The other students made a lot of jokes about it, but they all wanted to play with it when it was done:)" |
