Cheesehead
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2017
- Messages
- 1,046
Hi Hunt Talkers.
If you are a ‘does it work?’ hunter, this thread is not for you.
TL/DR: I own an FN Mauser 98 that I need to rebarrel/rechamber, and it needs to be peep sighted for sentimental reasons, but still useful for hunting. What to do?
Long version:
One of my favorite hunting books is American Hunting Rifles by Craig Boddington. In fact, I think it is the definitive (if now a bit dated) tome on the subject. At one point he mentioned that many hunters have ‘using rifles and looking rifles’ (ie stainless / synthetic vs blued / walnut), and disavowed the distinction. I mostly agree. It’s important then to anchor the discussion in the sense that this should be a gun that crosses both categories.
I grew up in a non-hunting family but my best friend was very into it and his dad was an extremely gifted gunsmith, at one point being the go-to American ‘checkering guy’ for Rigby rifles (he was even mentioned as a highly regarded gunsmith by Elmer Keith in, if I recall correctly, Guns & Ammo). Their family had a German bent, with a heavy emphasis that only Mauser 98s and (grudgingly) pre-64 Model 70s were permissible hunting rifles. The family shotgun was a Drilling, with twin 16s over an 8x57, and family lore included a story from Iowa in which a rooster was missed twice with the 16s and then knocked out of the sky with the 8mm (these were the 80s...everything was legal, I presume...even I was conceived halfway through the decade).
Fast forward to high school. I spent a ton of time with my friend and his dad, constantly talking about guns. We went to gun shows and scoffed at wood to metal fit and lines per inch, we critiqued guns displayed on this new thing called the Internet...it was a lot of fun. And tough for an impoverished youth (me) with high taste friends.
Side note—it took me decades to realize that gun nuts and hunters aren’t necessarily the same. I loved hunting and loved guns and assumed everyone did. I eventually realized that many (most?) gun nuts are too uninterested &/or poor to be hard core big game hunters.
So again, high school. I have a few guns now. And tinnitus because no one told me to wear ear plugs as I was ‘only’ regularly target shooting an 18” 243 Remington model 788. What’d you say???
Word came around that a nice FN 98 (Fabrique Nationale to the uninitiated...even more helpful, a Belgian made, decent quality Mauser 98) was for sale from my buddy’s dad’s friend. A 308 Norma Magnum...not common but very European and sexy. I borrow the last fifty bucks from my folks, and tell the man I’ll buy it.
It has a quirk... (See part 2)
If you are a ‘does it work?’ hunter, this thread is not for you.
TL/DR: I own an FN Mauser 98 that I need to rebarrel/rechamber, and it needs to be peep sighted for sentimental reasons, but still useful for hunting. What to do?
Long version:
One of my favorite hunting books is American Hunting Rifles by Craig Boddington. In fact, I think it is the definitive (if now a bit dated) tome on the subject. At one point he mentioned that many hunters have ‘using rifles and looking rifles’ (ie stainless / synthetic vs blued / walnut), and disavowed the distinction. I mostly agree. It’s important then to anchor the discussion in the sense that this should be a gun that crosses both categories.
I grew up in a non-hunting family but my best friend was very into it and his dad was an extremely gifted gunsmith, at one point being the go-to American ‘checkering guy’ for Rigby rifles (he was even mentioned as a highly regarded gunsmith by Elmer Keith in, if I recall correctly, Guns & Ammo). Their family had a German bent, with a heavy emphasis that only Mauser 98s and (grudgingly) pre-64 Model 70s were permissible hunting rifles. The family shotgun was a Drilling, with twin 16s over an 8x57, and family lore included a story from Iowa in which a rooster was missed twice with the 16s and then knocked out of the sky with the 8mm (these were the 80s...everything was legal, I presume...even I was conceived halfway through the decade).
Fast forward to high school. I spent a ton of time with my friend and his dad, constantly talking about guns. We went to gun shows and scoffed at wood to metal fit and lines per inch, we critiqued guns displayed on this new thing called the Internet...it was a lot of fun. And tough for an impoverished youth (me) with high taste friends.
Side note—it took me decades to realize that gun nuts and hunters aren’t necessarily the same. I loved hunting and loved guns and assumed everyone did. I eventually realized that many (most?) gun nuts are too uninterested &/or poor to be hard core big game hunters.
So again, high school. I have a few guns now. And tinnitus because no one told me to wear ear plugs as I was ‘only’ regularly target shooting an 18” 243 Remington model 788. What’d you say???
Word came around that a nice FN 98 (Fabrique Nationale to the uninitiated...even more helpful, a Belgian made, decent quality Mauser 98) was for sale from my buddy’s dad’s friend. A 308 Norma Magnum...not common but very European and sexy. I borrow the last fifty bucks from my folks, and tell the man I’ll buy it.
It has a quirk... (See part 2)
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