Pawn Shop 30-06: Introduction

A few years ago I purchased a 30-06 rifle from a pawn shop. My intent at the time was to build a target rifle using the Mauser Action. Honestly my desire to do that had faded over time, I would much rather have a beater hunting rifle, that I didn’t mind scratching the stock, or using in the field. I bought the rifle over two years ago and haven’t fired a shot through it. Mainly because it did not have a rear sight, and the rear scope base was missing.

There are lots of “Pawn Shop” Mausers in the world, they usually sell from between $250 to $400 dollars and the condition varies quite wildly. I believe I purchased this one for $250.
The bluing is worn, rear sight base is missing, and there is no rear sight (likely from factory)

I think that these are the perfect firearms to learn to gunsmith on. For one, they are your own, so if you screw up, you’re not pissing someone else off. They are generally fairly simple in construction, the actions are robust, there are plenty of parts to be had, and there are plenty of resources out there to guide you how to do various things.

I have no idea how this rifle shoots, it could be a tack driver, or it could have a looser pattern then a open choke turkey gun. My plan to get the gun shooting at least 1.5 MOA reliably. In order to achieve this goal I need to first see where it is shooting currently. For that, I need to get a scope mounted.

One of the reason I bought this rifle was because I saw this stamp. An FN Receiver, I knew it would likely be a solid receiver.
The screws look like they were probably #8-40, they may be #8-32. This doesn’t look like a factory installation, but I could be wrong.

This is referred to as a Large ring Mauser, Characterized by the front of the receiver being larger in diameter then the rear of the receiver. There are Small Ring Mausers, I have one, that I’ll be using for an upcoming project. (It’s in pretty rough shape). I wanted to make use of the existing holes, rather then trying to drill and tap new holes.

This undrilled scope base will allow me to drill my own holes to match the receiver, it also won’t break the bank if I screw up. Brownell’s is usually my first stop when looking for tools and firearm parts.

As for the scope, I have a couple on hand to choose from. I have an old beater scope that I might mount to see if the scope is any good. I also have a Bushnell 3×9 that I may mount we will see when we get that far.

A J.C. Higgins Model 50, sold by Sears Roebuck, back when Sears didn’t suck. From what I have seen, these rifles have a good reputation. So I am hopeful it will be a shooter without much work.

Since the VZ-58 project is wrapping up, I wanted to figure out what other projects I could take on to continue the gun smithing series. This is one of two projects that I am rolling out, I’ll be posting an introduction to the second one which is sure to be more involved. For me, this is an exciting time, I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the projects as much as I enjoy writing about them!