Another rescue sucess:

I don't know how you say "Bubba" in any of the Slavic languages of the former SSR of Yugoslavia, but however you do, I rescued one that Bubba had messed with.

The OG was a (I want to cry) chopped German K98k stock. I could have gone repro K98k but I wanted to go with something Yugo and Liberty Tree had post-war full-length K98 stocks with Yugo markings so I grabbed one. They were obviously less than pristine, but a little steam, some 0000 steel wool to knock down any popped grain, and a few coats of hand-rubbed BLO got it looking a bit nicer. Upper guard is new and as close to color matched as I could get. Sling is repro as well. both bands, bayonet lug, and spring are all genuine that I bought along with the stock. Had surface rust, but electrolysis bath took care of that. I've got to say that I'm pretty darned happy overall with the result.

I present a before and after:

tallen702 said:

I don't know how you say "Bubba" in any of the Slavic languages of the former SSR of Yugoslavia, but however you do, I rescued one that Bubba had messed with.

The OG was a (I want to cry) chopped German K98k stock. I could have gone repro K98k but I wanted to go with something Yugo and Liberty Tree had post-war full-length K98 stocks with Yugo markings so I grabbed one. They were obviously less than pristine, but a little steam, some 0000 steel wool to knock down any popped grain, and a few coats of hand-rubbed BLO got it looking a bit nicer. Upper guard is new and as close to color matched as I could get. Sling is repro as well. both bands, bayonet lug, and spring are all genuine that I bought along with the stock. Had surface rust, but electrolysis bath took care of that. I've got to say that I'm pretty darned happy overall with the result.

I present a before and after:

Click to expand...

Indeed

Yours turned out great! Instead of making another thread, I'll post my restored M48 and K98 as well.

The K98 stock was interesting, it has Yugoslavian markings, but was modded for Israeli K98 hardware. Either a hack job, or maybe some interesting history. Who knows, but it works!

Before:

After:

JTH20 said:

Yours turned out great! Instead of making another thread, I'll post my restored M48 and K98 as well.

The K98 stock was interesting, it has Yugoslavian markings, but was modded for Israeli K98 hardware. Either a hack job, or maybe some interesting history. Who knows, but it works!

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Nice job on both! Where di you get the Yugo K98 stock? I grabbed my from Liberty Tree (not cheap, but correct).

tallen702 said:

Nice job on both! Where di you get the Yugo K98 stock? I grabbed my from Liberty Tree (not cheap, but correct).

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Thanks. Got it from a guy on Gunboards. It was cheap, but I had to do some work on it; a hairline crack that needed repairing and brass shims to keep the action from moving in the stock (probably the source of the crack).

Fun experience for sure, hopefully gonna take them to the range soon to see how they shoot.

Is swapping out a stock considered a "rescue?" I wonder how old the original Bubba work was. People have been sportering rifles since before 1900 - if you wanted a "custom" sporter style hunting rifle back then, you took a military rifle of some sort and either had a custom stock made, (expensive) or you cut down and modded the stock yourself - much less expensive.

Sometimes it would be really neat if these old guns could talk and tell their stories.

Looks good! Now you just need the cleaning rod! I have a Yugo dot Kar98k myself but it didn’t need any saving, other than maybe a barrel replacement since there’s basically no rifling left.

I also recently rebuilt a sporterized 1916 No.1 Mk.III*. Has a DP stock from libertytree so maybe have to strip it and refinish it.

trickg said:

Is swapping out a stock considered a "rescue?" I wonder how old the original Bubba work was. People have been sportering rifles since before 1900 - if you wanted a "custom" sporter style hunting rifle back then, you took a military rifle of some sort and either had a custom stock made, (expensive) or you cut down and modded the stock yourself - much less expensive.

Sometimes it would be really neat if these old guns could talk and tell their stories.

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Both rifles were probably used to put food on the table, and someone clearly spent time personalizing the stocks. The M48 stock had a bolt added to the reinforce the thinner grip and the K98 stock had some very intricate carvings. The metal/bore on the M48 is in great condition, which tells me the rifle was well cared for.

These rifles may have been bubba'd, but bubba sure had class.

trickg said:

Is swapping out a stock considered a "rescue?" I wonder how old the original Bubba work was. People have been sportering rifles since before 1900 - if you wanted a "custom" sporter style hunting rifle back then, you took a military rifle of some sort and either had a custom stock made, (expensive) or you cut down and modded the stock yourself - much less expensive.

Sometimes it would be really neat if these old guns could talk and tell their stories.

Click to expand...

In this case, it was more than just swapping out a stock. The metal was coated in shellac, the sight hood was gone, both barrel bands were gone, bayonet lug was gone, band spring was gone, and upper guard was gone as was the sling. On the sportered stock, the stock disk had been removed and filled, same with the sling holes. Cleaning rod channel was doweled, and a recoil lug as added to the rear of the stock in an attempt to prevent the now much thinner stock from shattering when fired. The butt had been cut down and some old rubber boot sole was fashioned into a recoil pad and nailed on with brass brads. While the carving was certainly quite good for an amateur job, the stock was in no condition for continued use as the toe was already badly chipped and further cutting would have shortened the LOP too much. Add in the refinishing needed for the replacement stock (which ain't cheap) the need to de-rust all the band pieces and remove the copious amounts of shellac from the action, barrel, and magazine and yeah, I'd say it was a rescue job. It was hardly a drop-in-and-done job.

These weren't sporterized over here either, they were done in what was once Yugoslavia. Chances are they put some food on the table during hard times, but ultimately, these were German weapons of WWII that were either captured by Tito's partisans, or re-arsenaled as spoils of war. For me, the military history outweighs the unique aspect of someone's hunting rifle. I collect old shotguns to fill that need. In 20 years time, my correct Yugo M98/48 is certainly going to have much more value to other collectors than a Yugo "hunting rifle."

JTH20 said:

These rifles may have been bubba'd, but bubba sure had class.

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I’ve got a 1903A3 that’s “Bubba’d, but it’s a true classy custom rifle - custom hand-checkered stock beautifully finished, aftermarket trigger that beaks crisply at about 3 lbs, re-barreled to a custom caliber, and topped with a solid Redfield scope. I bought it that way, and in this case I’m ok with it, even if the military rifle was destroyed in the process. It’s just a really cool and nice hunting rifle.

I’ve also got a G98 Mauser in 25-06 my dad sportered that is just as sweet.

I can certainly appreciate what you did for that old gun though. There is something to be said for preserving the historical authenticity of those old guns.

ShockAndAwe said:

Looks good! Now you just need the cleaning rod! I have a Yugo dot Kar98k myself but it didn’t need any saving, other than maybe a barrel replacement since there’s basically no rifling left.

I also recently rebuilt a sporterized 1916 No.1 Mk.III*. Has a DP stock from libertytree so maybe have to strip it and refinish it.

Click to expand...

Just finished putting a refinished DP stock on a buddy's No.1 Mk.III the other week myself. Stripped it, cleaned it, hand-rubbed with about 5-6 coats of BLO over several weeks, it turned out really well. Working on his No.4 Mk.2 right now. Should be finished up and put into the Ishapore No.4 stock he bought for that purpose. Same thing, strip out the extra oil from cleaning, etc. over the years, steam for dents, 0000 steel wool to knock the grain back down, and then hand-rubbing in some BLO over time.

I just won a 1943 Savage No.4 Mk.1 at auction last week. Cut stock but metal is in good shape. I'll be re-stocking it with correct Savage marked stuff, but man is it going to get expensive. My buddy's two Enfields are mix-masters, but there's a good chance this Savage is unmolested outside of the fore-wood being messed with, so correct stock is a big thing for me.

trickg said:

I’ve got a 1903A3 that’s “Bubba’d, but it’s a true classy custom rifle - custom hand-checkered stock beautifully finished, aftermarket trigger that beaks crisply at about 3 lbs, re-barreled to a custom caliber, and topped with a solid Redfield scope. I bought it that way, and in this case I’m ok with it, even if the military rifle was destroyed in the process. It’s just a really cool a nice hunting rifle.

I’ve also got a G98 Mauser in 25-06 my dad sportered that is just as sweet.

I can certainly appreciate what you did for that old gun though. There is something to be said for preserving the historical authenticity of those old guns.

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Trust me, I believe that if you buy a gun, you can do whatever you want with it, and both of the ones you mention really do sound like sweet setups. I think once they've been re-chambered, trigger jobs have been done, etc. then it's definitely okay to leave them as sporting rifles. I just cringe at the guys who hack apart some things that are getting harder and harder to find these days just because they can. There's classy (like you describe) and then there's Bubba.

I've got a bunch of mixed Mosin parts waiting on a bolt. Once I have that and the money and time, I'm going to have the receiver polished up (it's a wartime round that had the bluing stripped by someone) and re-blued. I'll get a nice target barrel for it and put an aftermarket sight setup on it (prefer diopter or aperture to tangent) It'll go into a well made stock from Boyds and it will be used to put food on the table. Would a lot of folks on C&R pages call me Bubba for it? Sure. But I'll like it and cherish it, so who cares.

tallen702 said:

Just finished putting a refinished DP stock on a buddy's No.1 Mk.III the other week myself. Stripped it, cleaned it, hand-rubbed with about 5-6 coats of BLO over several weeks, it turned out really well. Working on his No.4 Mk.2 right now. Should be finished up and put into the Ishapore No.4 stock he bought for that purpose. Same thing, strip out the extra oil from cleaning, etc. over the years, steam for dents, 0000 steel wool to knock the grain back down, and then hand-rubbing in some BLO over time.

I just won a 1943 Savage No.4 Mk.1 at auction last week. Cut stock but metal is in good shape. I'll be re-stocking it with correct Savage marked stuff, but man is it going to get expensive. My buddy's two Enfields are mix-masters, but there's a good chance this Savage is unmolested outside of the fore-wood being messed with, so correct stock is a big thing for me.

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A couple of years ago, I bought a rusted out No.4 Mk.1 (not a * which was cool!) for $90 and had to completely refinish it. Replaced a few parts: one of the barrel bands, sight protector, rear sight, a bunch of screws, etc. Refinished the stock as well, but didn't know about steaming the wood at the time, came out well enough for my liking though. I used BLO as well, which help it turn it as well as it did. The bore is missing a rifling in a few spots but it still shoots well enough.

I'm surprised his No.4 Mk.2 needs to be refinished! Most of them are usually in such good shape compared to other variants. I didn't think Ishapore ever made a No.4?

Throw some pictures up once you finish the Savage!