Mauser SBT gun

[Frank Srebro]

A few months ago I picked up a little known Mauser SBT gun as a late winter project. These guns were a joint venture between Mauser and Gamba in Italy and were marketed in the US from 1969-73 by the Mauser Bauer Corp of Warren, Michigan. This one was proofed in 1969. Her barrel is 32" made of Bohler steel and with .042" choke. I'm not a regular Trap shooter but I like to shoot tightly choked SBT guns for sporting clays practice.

This gun was sidelined a long time ago when a shooter fell with it and cracked the stock through the web of its head. The stock was split from its head back to about 2" aft of the right wrist checker panel. It was crudely glued back together and I knew that when I bought the Mauser.

I was able to get the stock back apart and blew Brownell Acraglas into the entire length of the crack using my air compressor nozzle. Clamped it back together to set and then used 3/32" Brownell threaded stock repair pins also set in Acraglas to reinforce the split from ever coming apart and propagating. The pins are just short of going completely through the stock. Afterwards the bronze pins were milled slightly below the surface and I spot finished over them. You'll see the pins on the right side of the stock in these pics. Some day I'll do a tiny counterbore over each pin, cover with a flush walnut plug and then spot refinish again.

So I tested her today at Rock Mountain Sporting Clays with a variety of factory loads including heavy recoil 1-1/4 ounce "High Brass" shells. Everything works perfectly and she did 75 ex 80 before the rain started again. She comes up nice. Happy day! :)
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[Ken Hill]

I didn’t know Mauser ventured into shotgunning. Looks like a nice gun and a nice repair.

Ken

[Arthur Shaffer]

Nice gun. Gamba made high quality guns and went into business just a few years after Beretta. Around the time your gun was made the two brothers left separated into two different entities.

Just as a side note, I repair cracks in a manner very similar to the one you used. I have found over the years that I get a little better result by drilling a blind hole, inserting and marking the pin, cutting it slightly short then inserting it into epoxy and setting it with a very small pin punch. That sets it below the surface and allows the hole to be filled with a drop of epoxy colored to match the wood as closely as possible. It ends up with a smaller hole than can be achieved with drilling the top out and a much neater patch. They end up as very tiny patches and when color matched well are almost invisible. They are less noticeable than even small wood plugs because the different color and varied grain shows up more than the tiny pin hole. A black plug, depending on the grain and wood of the stock can look like a small knot.

[Frank Srebro]

Thanks everyone. I had questions on the Brownell stock repair pins. They are 3/32" diameter and have a very fine thread full length except for the end that you chuck into a power screw driver. Brownell suggests that you also dip the pin into acraglas before screwing into place. I used them on this repair because of the threaded feature for extra measure.

Once screwed into place the protruding end is easily snipped off almost flush using diagonal cutting pliers and then can be filed flush, or in my example I set up the stock on my milling machine and after locating each center, slightly counterbored with a 1/8" end mill. Art's reply got me to thinking; when I get time I may just recut/touch the counterbores, fill with color matched acraglas and see how that looks before doing matching walnut plugs.
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[Arthur Shaffer]

I use a smaller brazing rod to measure the correct depth then cut them to length. I drill the hole with a tight clearance bit. The grooves with the epoxy in them does all the gripping you need. You could cut the tip and screw them into a smaller hole.