I am not writing much for SurvivalBlog these days, since I am busy preparing for the worst. This is fortunately my lifestyle, and I am constantly prepping. Currently, I’ve been working squaring away three old Mauser rifles for long-range work. They all need scopes and I had to wait until I could afford to get that done. I am an aging man with many physical limitations. My income is less than $5,000 per year. I receive no regular check from any source and so I am forced to operate under austere conditions and a super tight budget. If I cannot buy stuff, and learn or do stuff that cost “nearly nothing” to get done, then I don’t make much progress. My situation has inspired plenty of improvisation.
I speak to those who are in a similar situation as many fellow senior citizens these days, or those who will be in the future. But I can report that we can still get it done if we are smart about it. I found problems with my rifles that needed to be fixed. These are three old Mauser bolt action rifles with good to excellent bores. All three will be glass bedded and Picatinny scope rails will be installed. One will be done by a professional, and the others I’ll do myself.
It is a good idea to go through our equipment now while we have access to a gunsmith if needed. I can do much of that work now and in a pinch later, but a good gunsmith is necessary at times when my tools and experience will not produce the best results. I could weld up a cracked bolt handle, but the result could be ugly. Some rifles deserve the best, and some of the rifles will have to tolerate my best efforts. Some of the defects that I found only after close inspection during deep cleanings of these rifles. Only because of my very careful method of inspection, I found a crack in a custom bolt handle, an inoperative safety, and a stripped-out scope mount hole. These are examples of the kinds of defects that one might find in older sporterized rifles.
The reason that I have so many rifles is that they are spares for my primary, alternate, and contingency plans. All stuff breaks, even sturdy Mausers. So I have spare parts and it happens many of the rifles have interchangeable parts. It is good that I have standardized on Mausers. As old as they are, they will never be truly obsolete. No one will complain that some of them are legally classified as “antique” rifles.
Continue reading“Prepping and Squaring Away Rifles – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit”