gunnut is absolutely correct in saying that a mistake during your barrel install could get expensive very quickly. If you are going to install a high dollar barrel, you would probably be better off having a gunsmith do it. However, if you really would like to install a barrel yourself, I can think of a couple of good places to start. First, I would recommend buying or borrowing one or both of the following books: "Mauser M98 and M96: How to Build Your Favorite Custom Rifle", by R. A. Walsh and "The Mauser Bolt Actions: M91 through M98, A Shop Manual", by Jerry Kuhnhausen. Both books will give a good overview of what is involved in installing a barrel. Both books were very helpful to me and helped make the experience much less intimidating. However, I haven't used expensive barrels in any of my installs, which kept my monetary risk to a minimum. You can rent chamber reamers and headspace gauges from
www.4-dproducts.com. In selecting your barrel, keep in mind that there are two types of pre-threaded and chambered barrels available-- short chambered and long chambered. A short chambered barrel has the chamber cut shallow by a few thousandths of an inch. You can then use a finish reamer to cut to the correct depth to achieve proper headspace for your rifle. This method can be accomplished satisfactorily with hand tools, but if you cut your chamber too deep, you will have to have a machinist remove material from the breechface of the barrel and set back the forward shoulder on the barrel to compensate. A long chambered barrel comes from the factory cut deeper than necessary to headspace. Proper headspace is achieved by removing material from the breechface of the barrel, which is best done using a lathe. I have had a barell installed by a professional gunsmith and I have installed both a short chambered and a long chambered barrel. In all three cases, I have had good results. I got more satisfaction from the ones that I did myself and both shoot just as well as the one done by a gunsmith. I learned a lot and enjoyed the learning process. I would be very interested in hearing what approach you decide to take. If you decide to install and headspace the barrel yourself, I hope that you will let us know how it turns out. Good luck on your project!
