"Restoring" an 1891 Argentine

[GoodSouthernBoy]

I have an 1891 Argentine (Long Version - Not Carbine) that has a great action, an excellent bore, and shoots well. Unfortunately, it has the all-to-common hacked stock fore-end. Not sure why anyone would have ever wanted to hack away at such a beautiful gun. But, I got a deal on the gun, so I'm not complaining.

There aren't any full length Argentine stocks available (unless, anybody knows of any place), and I would like to put this baby back into something resembling it's original configuration.

What about the possibility of using the fore-end off of a Turkish Mauser 38 Stock and joining the two underneath the barrel band? Is that a workable idea? I have both rifles, and Turk 38 stocks are fairly easy (and cheap) to come by. The barrel bands are in about the same spot, and the fore-ends are virtually identical.

I am not a woodworker, nor a gunsmith, by any stretch of the imagination - how hard would something like that be? What would you use to connect the separate pieces together? I don't plan on shooting the rifle much, but I would like any "restoration" to hold up under at least an occasional firing.

There seems to be a relatively high demand for full-length Argentine stocks - I'm amazed an enterprising businessman hasn't started making reproductions.

[mapsjanhere]

You're looking at a very tricky piece of woodworking. Matching grain and color will be difficult, even if you're hiding the joint beneath the barrel band. You also need to be very good with a miter saw to get the two pieces to line up, it's not like you're cutting a 2x4 where the angle always comes out perfect, you have two pieces of shaped wood that you're tying to align. You probably want to use 1/8th dowels to connect the pieces, so you need a jig to drill the holes.
None of this is impossible if you have the experience and the tools (like a drill press that allows you to feed from below through the plate, and a laser guided miter saw), but I'd seriously wonder if the effort will be matched by the looks of the final piece.

[Hardcase]

I've got one of those in the same sort of condition. I, too, gave some thought to a restoration, but because it seems to be next to impossible to locate an original stock, I've decided to go the other way and replace the bubba'd military stock with a nice sporting stock and turn the rifle into what the original "builder" had aimed for - a good sporting rifle.

Unfortunately, I have about a gazillion projects ahead of this one, so it's entirely possible that it won't be done until sometime in 2020.

[TRX]

I'd just keep an eye out on Gunbroker and the Mauser forums and just wait.