Thread: Walnut and blued steel,

Originally Posted by stug

.222, closest I could get to a .223 for the K95. Fingers crossed it is a 1:12 twist. Hoping to use 60-63gr projectiles. The rimmed .224 cartridges are too much of a hassle to get components in NZ.

Cool. Bring it next time you come up and we will take it for a hunt.

9.5x57 Mannlicher-Schoenauer model 1910 take-down rifle, in a custom stock. (In English its called the .375 Rimless Nitro Express.)

Essentially this is an 8x57 case blown out to hold a .375 bullet of 270 grains at around 2200 fps. It recoils about like a .30/06 with 180 grain bullets.
The cartridge is sort of known as an ""African cartridge" but it's not really: it is a version of the earlier .375 flanged Nitro express 2.5 inch, which was a straight wall cartridge with the same ballistics chambered in double rifles and was a favourite for hunting red stags and boar in the UK and Europe at the turn of the 19th century. The 9.5x57 MS was an attempt to adopt the same cartridge performance into a repeating magazine rifle: the Mannlicher and the Mauser which were the new darlings of the sporting world. (The 9.3x62 was born the same way - an update of the older 9.3x74 to fit into a Mauser action.)
Of course English and German people took it to the colonies and shot African lions and things and to India to shoot sambar and tigers, as one does, but the Austrians intended it for shooting red stags in the Austro-Hungarian empire.
So that is what it is again, I will use it for stags in the roar.

The stock is custom, and all credit to Nakihunter who is a member on here and made the whole thing from a blank - and bearing in mind that this is a take down rifle and totally different from a normal stock. (There are no action screws!) The figure in the walnut looks better in real life than in these poor photos. The rifle retailed from CB Vaughan in London and has the 100 year old case. It seems that it spent it's life in Ceylon on a tea plantation before coming to NZ.

The stock is ready to be checkered once I source some more tools, which are hard to get nowadays. The pattern will be a standard Mannlicher Schoenauer pattern from the period, and done in flat top checkering, because it seems right and because that's how I roll.

You can borrow my checkering tools if you wish. Just pay post and you can use them free.

Originally Posted by garyp

You can borrow my checkering tools if you wish. Just pay post and you can use them free.

Hi Gary, I really appreciate that. Have sent you a pm

Checkering will transform that rifle

Such a variety of great classics cropping up on this thread. Never ceases to amaze me what treasures have been acquired over the decades in this wee country. But now it’s time to drop the standard a bit with my old beater. A BSA P14 action and stock, P17 bolt, Timney trigger and a 24” Hawkins barrel chambered in 7x57 with 1:11 twist. Topped off with the old steel tube Weaver K4w scope on Winchester Mod70 dovetail mounts and rings. Can’t get more of a mongrel than that. Now that it’s in shootable condition, it’ll get its first outing as soon as I can get to the big smoke for some ammo and have it sighted in, then it off down the paddocks for a wander.

Originally Posted by Sidetrack

Such a variety of great classics cropping up on this thread. Never ceases to amaze me what treasures have been acquired over the decades in this wee country. But now it’s time to drop the standard a bit with my old beater. A BSA P14 action and stock, P17 bolt, Timney trigger and a 24” Hawkins barrel chambered in 7x57 with 1:11 twist. Topped off with the old steel tube Weaver K4w scope on Winchester Mod70 dovetail mounts and rings. Can’t get more of a mongrel than that. Now that it’s in shootable condition, it’ll get its first outing as soon as I can get to the big smoke for some ammo and have it sighted in, then it off down the paddocks for a wander.

Attachment 252128

Thats the nicest one of those Ive seen.I guess its a P15.5?

Since we're dropping the standard, I'll lower it even more with the bush pig. I only have shooters, no safe queens. If they're too pretty to go bush, they're too pretty for me.
Parker Hale safari super chambered in .270. in amazing condition and shiny bore

.375 Mannlicher again. Some minor adjustments made to some curves; lost the recoil pad even though I liked it because the length of pull was 15.5 inches, now down to a more standard 14.5 (for the period) inches ( With open sights a longer length of pull that today was more common. For me its now fine.) I could have cut the stock back and refitted the recoil pad, but I did not want to lose any of the walnut figure in the butt...an aesthetic decision. The rifle does not recoil anywhere near as much as my 9.3x62 so I can live without a pad.

Replaced the recoil pad with a temporary butt plate until I can fit the original trap buttplate. Marked out checkering pattern to see how it looks. The foreend will be a wraparound panel.

I suppose I should find out whether she shoots properly. I have fitted a replacement rear sight, so now that I have settled on a suitable load I have to go to the range and start filing judiciously and shooting carefully...

the wood on that butt is stunning

Martini Henry 577/450

Still delivering bad news after 173 years.

CZ527 American in 22 Hornet + Leupold VX3 3.5-10x40

Bought it for a very, very good price. Beautiful walnut. Annoying protruding magazine but I was willing to accept that.
Only downside is the bolt throw is so high that it keeps scraping the side of the scope when pulling the bolt back. Sitting in medium height factory Tikka T3 rings. Bolt handle is apparently the "newer" version, so already less pronounced than the older CZ527's. Leupold VX3's are as skinny of a scope as it gets.

Remington 700, Winchester M70, Ruger M77, Howa 1500, etc, all have 90 degree bolt throw just like the CZ527, but for some reason, the CZ's just seem to have less clearance!

Not sure how to fix it apart from changing to high rings, but then that ends up with a massive gap between the barrel and the objective bell.

Overall a very nice deal. Shame it can't be used on Doc land. Can imagine it being a decent wallaby and fallow rig.

Looks like there is plenty of room for that bolt handle to be reshaped to clear the scope

That's a beautiful gun synthetic, and I reckon it would be great on Wally's.... If a doc ranger happened upon you, do you think they would look close enough to deem it not appropriate? Genuine question, I have never broken any rules but at times I do wonder, when some of them seem so silly.

wouldn't be worth loosing a nice rifle like that to find out...