VSR kar98K Springer -Marushin & Dboyi Conversions

[Boshman]

Yes its yet another mauser 98k springer conversion! Ok so its nothing revolutionary but it does have a few features which AFAIK have not been seen before.

This is a project which I have been planning to do for a very long time now. Like many others, I wanted a practical and reliable Kar98 sniper rifle which was useable in all weathers which meant a custom springer conversion.

Right from the outset, I wanted to make it as visually close to an original Kar98k as I could. As I could not use a lot of the parts from a deactivated Kar98k due to the UK laws on deacts, the obvious choice was to convert an airsoft replica. I finally got my hands on a Marushin Kar98k Maxi at the War & peace show for a very reasonable £160.

For the springer donor, I chose to use a JG BAR-10 chinese VSR-10 clone. Although this is about £10 more expensive than the MP001, it has the advantage of being 100% TM VSR-10 compatible so all the aftermarket upgrades and mags can be used if required. In some respects it is even better than the TM original as there is no pin to drill out on the cylinder head and it shoots a very health 415fps stright out of the box! With a few mods and a replacement Nine-Ball hop rubber it is now shooting 475fps, still with the original spring! So no need for any expensive upgrade parts (pheew!)

The approach I took to the conversion was a little bit different to most in that instead of modifying a kar98 stock to accept a VRS reciever, I modified the VSR reciever to fit the kar98 stock (if that makes sense?) this meant extensive re-modelling of the VSR reciever which is some ways is actually easier that carving the stock. All the work was done with standard hand tools plus a drill and my trusty dremel. The tools I used more than any other was actually a set of large files. Also a good set of sharp chisels was invaluable.

Unlike most conversions, I used the bolt handle cutout in the stock rather than the rear stock screw as the reference point for the installation. This makes everything line up nicely and look "right" the only down-side is that the trigger is quite forward in the trigger guard but this is really not a problem and hardly noticable. I used a small section of the rear of the Marushin reciever to "extend" and retain the VSR reciver at the rear.

The bolt handle and complete bolt end and safety were taken from the marushin and modified to fit the VSR bolt. to further enhance the appearance On the left side of ther reciever I added the k98 bolt release lever and cut out the loading port and also the stripper clip slot in the top of the reciever.

The last unique feature which I am rather pleased with is the magazine retension system which uses the front screw on the trigger guard to engage a small slot cut in the rear of the vsr magazine. Simple, reliable and quite elegant I think.

I would like to say a big thank you to Sgt Heide for sharing the knowledge and experience gained doing his two conversions. it was a big help!

Anyway on to the pics: (like you didnt just ignore the waffle and go straight to them anyway)

Please ignore the still rather Flaggrantly Wrong scope and mounts, still a bit of work needed on them. maybe a bit more dry brushing too!

I will post some stripped down pics aswell when I get a chance.


Right side.


Left Side.


Close up on left side reciever, note bolt release lever and loading port cutout


Another close-up with stripper clip slot visible. (camera flash makes it look horrible!)


Underside.


Close up of mag well and retainer.


Right side close-up


Rear sight


Bolt.


Bolt disasembled.


Top-down without scope fitted


Left side again without scope.

[Jager.Drü]

Looks dang good!

[YankeeDiv26]

Very good looking.

[101steasykid]

Boshman, I don't want to be rude or anything, but can I take her out on a date? Haha, looks great, keep up the good work.

[Ersatzjack]

Wow - I am speechless. That is very nice. My new models, I plan on finishing two more are going to have the bolt stop piece on the left side of the receiver too but you have really improved on the concept. The work on the bolt, and the receiver, the great way you made the magazine catch and the way you centered the bolt handle are great visual improvements. It is going to make the Marushin the sought after gun for conversions. Assuming that those attempting the conversion have your skill. It sure gave me some ideas. I think I'll copy some of your improvements. But I don't know if I have the guts to do that grinding on a PDI receiver. Hmmm. I'll have to mull that over.

[ncthorn]

Kicks the living crap out of my old conversion that is for sure. I really like that you didn't use very many RS parts on it. Very very nice job!

[ukkolzi]

Whoa! That's a nice piece of hardware! I like the magazine retaining screw, very clever indeed. I made a springer-98k too from a broken Marushin POS, but used an APS2 SV instead of a VSR or a clone, but it's nowhere near as cool as your gun. Aside from the bolt handle and somewhat widened ejection port, the rear of the receiver is unmodified. For now!

The upcoming Chinese 98k, which is most probably a copy of the Marushin shell-ejecting abomination, could be perfect as a base for these kind of conversions. As a bonus, you don't have to slice up a real 98k.

With every new 98k-conversion, I wonder why the big manufacturers can't just make a skirmishable springer 98k using the APS2 or VSR internals. Instead they crank out nice looking but totally useless replicas (minus Tanaka 98k, but being a gas gun it has its disadvantages compared to springers). Same goes to Garand, except with the mechanics of the M14.

[2nd Bat]

looks outstandin. Great new approach to an existing theme.

[click]

Looks like a use has been found for the marushin k98 huh ? Looks OUTSTANDING!

Click

[Guinness]

Boshman,

Excellent work mate!

You sir, have earned the highest honor a WW2AA member can attain:

The Sticky! ;D

LoL! Thanks for sharing your work with us and please keep it up!

[Cpl. Hicks]

Very nice!

[hank]

Very cool! Time to trade in the Tanaka k98s. LOL!

[sniper98]

LOOKS REALLY GOOD!!! you did a good job.

[Boshman]

Thanks everyone for all the kind comments. needless to say I am very happy with the way the conversion went. Some of the features I had planned from the very outset, others like the magazine retainer were hit upon in those little Eureka! moments as I went along! I think the key with these conversions is to take your time. I tended to spend a lot of time looking, measuring, thinking, measuring again, thinking some more, etc etc. before actually doing the work and just did a little bit maybe one or two evenings each week.

Ersatz, praise from you is praise indeed as I know you are a past master of the K98 conversion. I am glad to have given you some new ideas

Believe me, I was also apprehensive about cutting up my receiver, I had it marked out for weeks before I finally got up the courage to attack it!
In the end it was pretty easy. for the side cut out I first cut a wedge with a hacksaw and and then used a file on the rear side and a dremel high-speed cutter bit to carefully shape the front curve. For the stripper clip slot, I marked it out and drilled 4 2mm holes along the back edge and then used dremel cut-off wheels to cut up to them in the left and right side. then broke out the centre piece and cleaned up with some small files.

Go for it mate! I think its well worth the effort ;D

ncthorn, Actually there are zero RS parts used, everything is either from the VSR or the Marushin. The only part which isnt is the little grey metal spacer/washer in the bolt assembly which is actually a piston head retaining block from a Marui AEG gearbox.

Guinness, thank you for the sticky, I am genuinely honored! ;D

[mischief]

Hands down the best!

[Guinness]

There is no 'best'

Anyone that undertakes a piece of custom Airsoft gunsmithing is a winner in my book-

Each are unique and represent the builders sweat-equity in time and effort.

Hats off to all our able gunsmiths and their work!

[Ersatzjack]

I'm not straddling the fence here, but I agree with both mischief and Guinness. ;D

[CharleyNovember]

There is a difference between doing it for yourself and doing it for profit I think. This is absolutley one of the best conversions I have seen hands down. However trying to make this for others and still make something for your time and effort would be hard to do. I make mine pretty cheap. They look good and work well and I even add customization depending on what people want to pay for. Ersatz does a bit more work and his cost a bit more as they should. This peice here is excellent and I wouldn't think it would be worth his while to do it for any less than 900.00 or so USD. As such it would be hard to sell them. The amount of pride he has in creating this one for himself though is probally more valuable than the money to him. Kudos Boshman hats off to you sir for an excellent replica.

[mischief]

I'm not saying I won't order one of yours, far from it. I like that fact that your rep's are very cheap(price) and have a good following. After looking at his,yours and a few others that have been built, I thought about trying to do it myself. But I don't have the tools needed to even attempt such an undertaking. Hell I keep telling the wife if I even had half of the tools I had when in the Navy I could build some great "toys" for us. I have a rough idea on a workable "tatermasher" that would be reusable, and a few other items like "bouncing betty's" and such. But like you said personal use vs. profit is a hugh difference. Maybe I should have said "inspiring".

[Guinness]

There ya go-

I'm just saying that each one is a masterpiece in it's own right and if we were to crown a 'winner' then that may discourage others (like yourself) to try their hand at it.

And if that happens....

We all lose

[Ersatzjack]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

An upgrade that I plan on incorporating in the future for the remaining models and maybe I'll retro-fit some that have been already sold. At the very least, I'll supply the bolt stop part for a couple of good customers.

I really like how it "fixes" the looks on the left side of the receiver. Thanks again Boshman.




The slot for the stripper clip doesn't show up too well on scoped rifles but it will look dandy on Ersatzjack2's.

[Boshman]

Looks great Ersatz, definitly enhances the look! I really like your scope btw, pitty they are so damn expensive!


To Mischief; I am flattered by you comments on my conversion but I have to agree with Guinness and Charley, there is no "best" and I applaude anyone who attempts this or any other custom guns. I think we all feed off of each others knowledge and ideas, I know reading about and looking at others conversions helped and inspired me with mine.

Dont be discouraged, you should give it a go! as for tools, I used nothing special to do mine, honestly I used the following and nothing else:
various Screwdrivers
various Allen keys
Hack-saw
Large file set (flat, round, curved)
Needle file set
Set of chisels
Cordless drill ( and drill bits obviously)
Dremel (mainly used cut off wheels and highspeed cutter bit)
Sandpaper, wet'n'dry, wire wool
Araldite Epoxy resin glue.
Mat black spray paint
silver paint (for dry brushing effects)
pencil
Ruler
masking tape

And thats it! Plus a bit of blood sweat and tears of course;)

[mischief]

Thanks I've been thinking more about the FG42 I was thinking of building out of an M-14. I believe it is very possible! Just need to get the M-14 and a few other items to get going. And of course some nice "quiet" time at home...

Also if that Chinese version of the Marushin K98 comes out at a cheap enough price, that would be a good enough donor for the conversion mentioned here.

[KRaddatz]

must.. get ..k98

they look so great, i might just want a german impression for one of those!

-Kyle

[gliderrider]

Boshman, is that why you could sell me the Marushin shells?

Mischief, I know myself and at leas one other of the Guys that were at the UK players that were at the Hurtgen forrest game yesterday are planning on doing that. The only problem now is that you have to be carefull how you do it in the UK.

[Boshman]

After skirmishing with my VSR98K at the Varsity game, I decided that the magazine catch which I devised, whilst being effective at retaining the mag, was a bit too fiddly to use whilst in the field as it required a key to turn the screw and release the magazine. So I decided that the only way to go was to install the original VSR10 mag catch. Well, let me tell you it was a total S.O.B to do and took me the best part of 4 hours of fettling and fine tuning to get it just right, the tolerances are very,very small and there is not much room to work or get the right tools in. Anyway its done and works absolutely perfectly, exactly like a normal VSR10 infact!

[Ersatzjack]

You are correct, that the tolerances are unforgiving in that department. I like how you made the front thumb recess for the button release. That solves the problem of the button being too recessed to work easily. Nice. Especially in a wood stock. But it looks real good. I hope it holds up. I saw a conversion this past weekend that used a Turkish Mauser stock and a D-Boys rifle and the builder fashioned his own magazine catch and since I'm not proud when it comes to making a gun better I intend to copy it. I will post pictures when done. It is planned for a Mosin Nagant conversion but the magazine is our old friend the VSR-10.

[xLaichzeiTx]

what did use to get the screws to stay in the holes on the receiver? Washers/Necks, tap, what? I know this thread is old, but I just got mine and I'd like to do the same. Also, how did you line it up? Including the rails.

[Boshman]

Oct 4, 2008 14:10:51 GMT -5 @xLaichzeiTx said:

what did use to get the screws to stay in the holes on the receiver? Washers/Necks, tap, what? I know this thread is old, but I just got mine and I'd like to do the same. Also, how did you line it up? Including the rails.

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking there mate
the screws scew into the threaded holes in the receiver. the rear screw goes into the rearmost part on the Marushin receiver which is cut and shaped to dovetail over the VSR reviever to hold it in place. the front two screws fit the VSR receiver as per normal.

I aligned it using the bolt handle cutout as the index point.

Hope that answers all your questions fella.

[xLaichzeiTx]

oh, I got the DBoys one so my receiver doesn't have the screw holes already on there. I was under the impression that they were made by the OP. Thanks anyway!