Starting work on the matching 1893 Erfurt Kar88: RANGE REPORT.

majspud

majspud

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Kar88 came yesterday. Tough shape. Rusted pitted barrel, and the crack is all the way through the stock. Part of the nose piece fell off, and neither the stub of the band pin or the cross bolt disc would move. Barrel jacket will not move. Very dry metal with scattered surface rust. I glued the nose piece on last night.

Got a lot of work to do. Tonight I worked on the broken band spring. I took several finishing nails and cut a couple down to one inch and using a pair of lock pliers, gently began tapping the head onto the pin. Turned out to be a rusty mess, causing the pin to bond with the wood and snap in half. It was like playing a game of operation. I knew something was wrong when the wood began to bulge on the spring side - I gently tapped that back with the butt of a screwdriver. I had removed the pin head, but saw part of the pin still inside. In trying to reverse punch, a large chip fell of the other side of the stock.

In trying to fit the new band spring, I found it was too tight. I had to ream the end of the slot for it to fit. Now I had to deal with the triple size pin hole on the other side. I filled the hole with glue and the broken piece of pin and part of a nail to support the new pin. I carefully glued the broken chip back, and then made a paste of the glue and the sawdust and using a wooden splint I filled the remaining gaps. A touch of sanding and Minwax gun-stock stain will finish this part off.

When my friend's band gets here, I'll send it off with the original to have the sling bar laser welded and restored by Pullman Arms in Worcester.

The next step is to somehow remove the crossbolt and begin to work on the crack that looks like an H, but missing the upper left and lower right tips. I have the Acra-glass waiting.

Thanks for the look and or sympathy.

T









 
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My first two tries on the crossbolt failed. It's been soaking in PB blaster for a day. I started by visiting a welder and asking him if he could fabricate a spanner for me. He wasn't very helpful or interested. I came up with a couple of ideas.

I used lock pliers with 4-40 machine screws and lock pliers. I also used small needed nose pliers in the lock pliers; both failed.

Gotta find stronger pins...4-40 fit perfectly.



T
 
Do you need to transfer crossbolt to another stock? I only ask as I have had little success removing most crossbolts with out stripping....and in your case with that stock you may damage the stock even worse.

crossbolt tool at Brownells

Also the wood tend to shrink tight as sheeeet around old crossbolts when removing its almost impossible to not damage the wood ......well for me. I have buttered or scratched up a few to many to finally leave them alone unless absolute need to remove. I just tighten them now.

As for finding anyone to help you these days such as welders, machinest, woodworkers for project guns its getting extremely hard. I just lost local machine shop. They moved to Texas.....the whole shop and every worker. Those guys would get all giddy for the challenge of makeing a part. They loved it. Owner was great.
His prices generally based on how many minutes it would take out of his lunch break.....gone now
 
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I may just have to work around the crossbolt; I wanted better access to the cracks. I did buy a syringe to inject the Acra-glass into the cracks, and may just have to do it with the cross bolt in as best I can.

T
 
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A have had decent results with snap ring pliers. Then much like you did use needle nose vise grips to hold tip of snap ring pliers. You can try just the replacement tips for the snapring pliers that have replacement tips.
 
Gave up on removing the crossbolt. Moving on the the Acra-Glass, I made up a sample according to the directions and found the syringe I had wouldn't draw it up - it couldn't even draw up wood glue. Necessity is a mother - the gel is setting. I took a small wooden splint and pressed the gel into the cracks, wiping off the excess. Moving to the basement, I clamped the stock into the vice wrapped in rags and cut open the top of the rag bundle. I used a mop handle to put pressure on the nose to push the top of the crack up and close it. Also noticed at the time the matching serial number in the stock.

Inspiration struck at this time. Remembering the staple repair I did on the nose of my M17, I gouged a small channel across the crack with a screw flat head driver and shot a staple gun into it. I knocked the staple in with a nail punch and covered the results with more Acra-Glass. After the pics I shot another staple further right just to be sure. I will sand it smooth when dry. This might still work out OK after all. Waiting on the band, and I need to get some vinegar to start electrolysis on the barrel, but I don't have much hope for it.

Thanks for the look,

T









 
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How bad is the bore? Is there rifleing left?. I like the electro bore cleaner set up works pretty good. Although I had 2 nasty bores that needed a good cleaning before even trying the electro. I always start remembering things when I'm working on the guns...my dad used to get rusty black powder bores very clean useing arm and hammer washing soda or sodium carbonate.
This got a very neglected boltaction shotgun clean insidexand out. I also just did a old black powder rifle which bore was nastier. I also picked up some of that brass/bronze steel wool and wrap it around a loose bore mop. I was surprised how well this worked. Both came out very good and then I hit the bores with some flits metal polish and surprise....looks pretty good.
Now I don't recommend this but I use jasco prime and prep. Its a phosphate based metal prep/ rust converter. It will darken your bore but seems to really get rid of the rust. I guess you can call it a poor man parkerize job. I'm actually going to use it on a front sight tool....I will post that little project later.
 
The Acra-Glass was dry enough to sand. The cracks are aligned and sealed. I treated the stock with a little black walnut stain to hide the resin and to fill in chips and dings, then some Howard's Feed and Wax. I went after the bore with a bore foam for 30 minutes, dry patches, .45cal brass brush on an electric drill, then several CLP patches, then two passes with a bore snake. Here's what we got; weak rifling and heavy pitting.

The Gew88 clip is bent and won't hold rounds or fall out; need to get a couple. Maybe it will shoot a little better, but not much, I'm thinking. Still can't get the barrel cover off. As soon as my friend's band gets here, it's off to be fixed.

T





 
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If its any help my kx98 dark bore project looked a bit worse. After electro bore clean and a flitz polish job. It improved a lot and shot well. I then recrownd it with the 11' hand recrowning tool from midway. Night and day falls well with in service rifle accuracy and shoots better than I can deliver. Nice little project.
 
Hit the barrel tonight with three 10 minute rounds of electrolysis up to 18V. The first was a primer at 9V that loosened things up, followed by brass brush, CLP patches, and bore snake. The second at 18V produced an incredible amount of smut, followed by the same cleaning. The third round brought up nearly nothing, and the patches were a light gray. I would upgrade the bore from sewer to poor/fair. There is rifling left, the there are still 3mm of brass showing with the bullet test. I also stripped and cleaned the bolt; not bad, just a lot of black oil.

Got a new clip in the mail today and the carbine cycles and drops the clip perfectly. Hope to get a range test in this weekend before I send the band off.

T
 
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Looks good.....I do about 3 voltsxon the electrobore clean. 30 min. Its crazy how much crud comes out.
I think that bore looks like it will shoot!. Looking forward.

Like I mentioned I have used the jasco metal prime and prep as a poormans parkerize and also to get into those pits to remove/stop rust in the bores. Proceed at own risk I dontclaim this to be best or even correct approach but works for me. Your bore will appear darker if you use this stuff.
 
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Awesome project!!

You should be able to get about one minute of barn out of that rifle now that the electrolysis has been done. For a gun that old, it really doesn't owe anyone anything batter than that.
 
It will be better than mob! Shoot her of a decent rest supported on the rear and close to the mageell with at least sand bags.
Give it a few warm up fouling shots. Don't let nasty looking bores scare you. I have axmosin and a k98 that you would not think. They could shoot a group let alone sub 3"
 
Range report. 80 degrees and scattered heavy showers. Ammo: 20 rounds of Hot Shot 139gr soft points and 15 rounds '53 Yugo 196gr boat tail surplus that my friend had reduced the loads from between 40-45gr down to 30 each. 35 rounds total.

Right target is 25M, 5 rounds of each type. Carbine functioned flawlessly, all repairs held, and all 10 on paper. Carbine shoots high and responds better to the heavier bullet it was designed for: .318/200gr round nose. The three bulls-eyes were my last 3 rounds of Yugo aimed at the bottom of the paper; 13 of 15 Yugo rounds needed a double tap. When this carbine was updated to the .323 150gr spitzer the sights were not changed. The flat down sight is about 300, then a flip up notch to 400, then the ladder starts at 500-1200M.

At 100M the hotter 139gr rounds shot 3 feet high, and the slower 196gr rounds were two feet high. Most of my shots went over the target until my friend spotted for me. The two left and two right hits were 196gr, and the center one 139gr. There were also eight hits one to two inches below the paper, strung the same distance left to right as the ones that hit. So windage is great, elevation needs a custom reloaded round. My friend will make them for me; I need to find some 200gr FMJ Sierras or 175gr SP - probably the latter as he already has a load dialed in for his Gew88s.

Couldn't get a great pic, but the bore shot out a little cleaner. Band goes out for laser welding Tuesday.

T



 
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Ok so this rifle was rebarreled to shoot 8mm Mauser? A taller front sight would do axlot more than trying to dial in a load to bring point of inpact lower. I sent pm on some bullets. My dark warn bore of my 8mm Mauser liked these a lot.

http://www.brownells.com/rifle-parts/sights/front-sights/mauser-front-sight-blank-prod341.aspx this should fit also if your trying to get this gun shooting more to poa/poi with standard loads or even light loads. If you are going to reload try some reloads useing trailboss. nice and light and should do well with your current sights ? So much fun to be had!!!
 
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The barrel cover finally gave up its rusted fight. As expected, it's a NM Krupp barrel. Cleaned and oiled the barrel and cover and put it back together.



T
 
And done. The band arrived back today. Worth the wait. Except for the color difference it's hardly noticeable. The build of of the base is particularily well done.

Crummy indoor flash pics.

T









 
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