Author Topic: Old Mausers (Read 2104 times)

hornady · « **on:** September 26, 2012, 03:27:17 AM »

I bought a 95 Chilean 7X57 a couple years back, I have had Mausers in 8X57 and 308. This is the first in 7X57. I started casting and reloading for it soon after buying the first one, last week I picked up a 93 in the same caliber. You don’t hear much about the 7X57 much anymore, I was very surprised at the accuracy in both, I guess the Chilean army did not fire them much. I have been loading them with a Lyman cast bullet and Red dot. Nice light and easy load on the shoulder, Make you wonder why this round did not have more of a following.

tturner53 · « **Reply #1 on:** September 26, 2012, 07:59:00 PM »

I agree 100%.

Huffmanite · « **Reply #2 on:** October 03, 2012, 02:54:58 PM »

Jeeeeeez, the 7x57 mauser cartridge had its origins in the early 1890s. Too old to be any good. NOT!!!! Well, that is my opinion, FWIW. Happens to be one of my favorite cartridges to shoot and my most accurate rifle, a Ruger 77 tang safety I had rebarreled to 7x57, is my most accurate rifle. Been more than a few times, that I've read some post on a gun forum by someone who has stated the 7x57 is a fine round for hunting and etc. and that its one of their favorite cartridges to shoot. Also, the 6mm Remington and 257 Roberts, which are nothing more than necked down 7x57s, are cartridges that I enjoy shooting. May explain why I own around 10 rifles chambered in either the 7x57, 257R or 6mm Remington.

james · « **Reply #3 on:** October 03, 2012, 03:13:50 PM »

Some of us older folks remember Jack O'Connor touting the greatness of the 7x57 and it was only slightly behind the .270, in his opinion. I never had a 7x57 but Jack's loads in the .270 are right on for me.

1911crazy · « **Reply #4 on:** October 07, 2012, 04:07:09 AM »

The 7mm x 57mm is one of the flatest shooting rounds there is. Using a 125yd zero on the scope the bullets path from the muzzle to 125yds varies about 1/2" to 3/4" the whole distance. Our own 30-06 cartridge is copied from the 7x57 round because of its accuracy.
My first 7mm x 57mm chilean rifles was a 1895 with a 29" barrel. It had an 1" of dust on it in a local gun shop i passed by for 20 years on the way to and from work everyday and i finally stopped in. Bubba dribbled the poly on the stock but i soon blended it in and she's a real looker now as well as a shooter. The bolt doesn't match as most of them don't since the bolts were kept in one place and the rifles in another. I finally did find an all matching wood & metal chilean '95 which i gave up never thinking i would see one let alone own it. Lets face it in africa the 7x57 was used on hunting elephants for many years.

gcrank1 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 22, 2012, 03:38:15 PM »

I shot the old Spanish 7mm with cast bullets to good effect, but in a Remington 'Roller'. Neck dia. is larger and the headspace a bit short on commercial 7x57, but a handloader can make it all work. Ive never read anything about this cartridge difference in Spanish Mausers so maybe it was something from the Poncho Villa revolution?
The 7x57 is an under-rated cartridge here in the USA, though we do have the 270 and various 280s that are thought highly of. I expect 99% of game taken with those would have been bagged with the 7x 57 too.
As to my current project old Mauser, as far as I can decipher its a 1918 DWM, Berlin made Gew98/Kar98 pre WWII Weimar rework in 8X57 that the stock was Bubba-Sportered years ago. It is not going to get any rebuild, just fit it all up to wring any inherent accuracy left out of it and see what the old warhorse will do. Those mil sights are only good for 100yd. with my eyes, and 50 is probably more like it, but a whitetail at 100 has a generous heart/lung area so I hope I can get a max 4" groupability.
BTW, Im not up on Mausers at all, so this has been my first 'research' project on one. There is a plethora of info online, but hours, if not days to get through it on variations, numbers, codes, etc.
Wish I had picked up one of those South African/Boer War Mausers back when they were affordable (the pre 98 variations), just something about that history intrigues me.

gcrank1 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 23, 2012, 11:14:10 AM »

Old Mausers, old tales; and the plot thickens.......
I just discovered that my 'sporterized' Gew type stock has the Spanish 'MP8' flaming bomb cartouche, some say possible Spanish Civil War, others say most likely post SCW but undetermined and indefinate at this point. Germany did provide arms to the Spanish Nationalists which became mixed-forces weapons as the war continued. It is not for sure and for certain that my stock was not replaced at some point, but.....it is whats there and has, at least, some Spanish connection on an otherwise German 1918 receiver with the barrel converted to the 1934-35 'K' type rear sight. The barrel 'step' seems to be the rifle type and position, though it is at 'K' length now of 23.6" and ser. no. and font matches the receiver. Underside of barrel only has 59 (to match rec) and an 'eagle' with upstretched wings (Imperial?)
The official Kar.98k began 1935; this one is K'ed but few 'real' rifle cut-down conversions, pre-K, seem documented.
Probably a Spanish import Gew98 cut down by the importer? Or, a real K conversion with a Spanish stock thrown on it at some point? Or..........
I should have just started using it instead of all this 'research'!

One Eye · « **Reply #7 on:** November 30, 2012, 01:33:56 PM »

7x57 is an awesome cartridge and one that has taken all animals that walk the earth. Bell used the .275 Rigby (same caliber) on tons (literally and figuratively) of elephants. I have one in a Ruger #1 currently, and would love to find an old Mauser in the same caliber.

As metioned, our 30-06 was developed in direct response to the 7mm Mauser. You have a great piece of history there. Enjoy.

Victor3 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 01, 2012, 10:06:29 PM »

I have two unissued Chilean 95s made by Ludwig Lowe that my Dad bought in the 60s for IIRC $57 each. Both are in ~95% condition with perfect bores. Unfortunately, Dad added a Lyman receiver sight to one of them.

Looking at the beautiful machining, fit and finish of these rifles, obviously produced by highly skilled craftsmen, it's hard to imagine them just being handed out to grunts. I have many milsurps (including later Mausers), but these 1895s are only upstaged by my 1889 Schmidt Rubin as works of art in the form of battle rifles go.

mannyrock · « **Reply #9 on:** December 03, 2012, 05:27:53 AM »

That's the problem with all of the great old military mausers. Though they are marvels of engineering, they have almost zero utility as a practical hunting or target rifle unless you start filing, drilling, tapping and otherwise cutting on them. And then, you have ruined them.

Mannyrock

gcrank1 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 03, 2012, 06:19:50 AM »

Fortunately for here, with the mixed woods forest and field edges I have to hunt, an open sight mil-surp is as good as the venerated Win. '94, with a lot more beans in the can for the mil-surps. My Dad's old 'K'ed Gew'98 in 8mm or the as orig.'98 Krag rifle in 30-40 will still do the job, in the hunt or in a 'mil-surp rifle match'. FWIW, I even scored well against some custom made 'buffalo guns' in a local BPCR shoot using my Mex. Rev. era Remington 'Roller' in 7mm with leads bullets and the mil sights

.
But I do agree about the 'messing about in a permanent way' on the old rifles and ruining them. The best bet, if you have a nice un-messed with one is to buy a poorly done sporter version at the next gun show and continue to improve that one.

prairiedog555 · « **Reply #11 on:** December 03, 2012, 06:53:36 AM »

Is there some safety issues with the Mod. 95 Mausers as to strength of the actions?

I thought I read of problems with the 91 Argentine Mausers as well.

Are both considered "small ring" Mausers?

mannyrock · « **Reply #12 on:** December 03, 2012, 07:37:58 AM »

Prarie,

The 95 Mausers were extremely well built and well designed, and far more than adeqate to shoot the standard 7mm Mauser round for which they were intended. No, they weren't "as strong" as the later 98 Mausers, but then many modern hunting rifles are not as strong as the 98s either.

Problem is, that a bunch of idiots bought up a lot of the 95s a few years ago, and "converted" them to the "ever popular 7.62 Nato round" (which will also close on and fire the more powerful commercial variant, the .308 Winchester, generating 66,000 psi!). Then jerks like the guy who owns the Sportsmans Guide catalogue, sold these through the mail for about $150 each, the key selling point being that no federal paperwork was required to buy them since they were manufactured prior to 1898.

In my opinion, which is shared by others, the Model 95 was not designed for and is not safe to handle the higher pressure 7.62 Nato or the .308 Winchester. You are playing Russian roulette with your face and eyes, based on a rifle designed for a different cartridge, manufactured more than 110 years ago!

Hope this helps.

Mannyrock

gcrank1 · « **Reply #13 on:** December 03, 2012, 09:52:02 AM »

Though with prudent handloading they will be just fine and perform very well. If anyone has one just use starting load data, not top end loads. It is not unlike the old 30-40 Krag round, some used to hot-rod it a fair bit, but now (Ive heard) most manuals have backed off their previous recommended loads and the data is more like a top 30-30 load. Still a good performer, yes? Even in my '98 the load is a mid-data load for the Sierra 150gr. JSP; just a nice load but well short of top data.
Ive heard that the Swedish made Mausers, whether made in Sweden or Germany, are the ones to lust after, and give one of those on a table or one of the many other pre-98 variants, and comparable condition, get the Swede.

wtroger · « **Reply #14 on:** December 03, 2012, 05:30:51 PM »

I have several 1908 Brazilan Mausers all in 7x57. They all shoot extremely well and kill deer bang flop. These where all built by Dwm Berlin. The actions are slick and feed and cycle flawlessly. You can load the 7x57 to 270 levels in 98 actions or modern actions. I load toward the upper end with 140 gr nosler bt shoots like a frozen rope.

tomtomz · « **Reply #15 on:** December 20, 2012, 10:16:26 AM »

My 7x57 is a great shooter, with many bullets available!

But don't load it too hot - high pressures may be dangerous.

eastbank · « **Reply #16 on:** December 24, 2012, 12:21:12 AM »

my late fathers 98 mauser custom 7x5, built of a very smooth first ww-1 action. shoots 154 gr sp hornady bullets at 2600fps into 1-1.5 groups, it may do better with a different load. but my dad liked the porformance of the 154 hornady,s. eastbank.

Freezer · « **Reply #17 on:** December 25, 2012, 04:11:05 PM »

Now that's a neat ol rifle!

gcrank1 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 26, 2012, 04:38:35 AM »

Very classic!

Huffmanite · « **Reply #19 on:** December 28, 2012, 03:29:44 AM »

Indeed, its a nicely done sporterized Mauser. Own several 7x57 military mausers and one Ruger 77 tang safety thats been rebarreled to 7x57. Nice cartridge, enjoy shooting it as I do its necked down versions, the 6mm Remington and the 257 Roberts. Guess I have around ten rifles chambered in them.

RevGeo · « **Reply #20 on:** December 28, 2012, 05:28:13 AM »

I've always been a Mauser freak. The 7x57 is probably my favorite Mauser cartridge. Back in the 70s my old man sporterized (definitely not Bubba'd) several and got me into it. Nowadays changing any of them is considered bad due to their historical value, but back then you could have a classic sporting rifle for not too many bucks, and if you had the skill and took the time you ended up with a great gun, as eastbank's photos bear out.
My current favorite is a sporterized Haenel-Lawrence single shot '98 originally chambered for 8.15x46R, but rechambered to 30-40x.315 Krag Ackley Improved - the bore diameter is .315 so I form my own bullets from .323 (8mm) bullets by swaging them down.
My other fave is a sporterized Swede '96 carbine in 6.5x55. Fine rifle. Love them Mausers!

LaDano · « **Reply #21 on:** January 01, 2013, 04:12:11 PM »

I just sporterized my 95. Rebarreled to original 7x57 so far it like the 139gr hornady a, I just loaded Noslers accubond & ballistic tips along with Sierras 140gr. Very nice shooting gun so far. I've had several 98s in 8mm and this outshoots them all. I'm gonna build one in 257 Roberts next.

gcrank1 · « **Reply #22 on:** January 02, 2013, 05:03:07 AM »

Ive had two 'Bobs' but would opt for the 6.5x55 first now; way better bullet weight options between .264s and our .257 'quarterbores'. Big plus is that Mausers in it are still available without building something (Im more fond of shooting rifles now than making them).

S.S. · « **Reply #23 on:** January 03, 2013, 04:10:10 PM »

7x57 Mauser, Best medium bore cartridge ever designed..

charles p · « **Reply #24 on:** January 04, 2013, 10:38:22 AM »

I think Teddy Roosevelt got a bad taste of the 7X57 in Cuba, while his army was armed with the shorter ranged 45-70. The success of the 7X57 was probably responsible for the Springfield cartridges our army needed.

gcrank1 · « **Reply #25 on:** January 04, 2013, 02:37:09 PM »

IIRC, Volunteers typically got the SF trapdoors as well as Black Jack Pershing's troops, the Regulars the Krag rifle, but The Rough Riders got the Krag carbine even though they were 'volunteers'.
The Spanish had the advantage on the San Juan Heights until Roosevelt's troops took Kettle Hill and could direct enfilade fire down their line.
Even so, your point is well taken and the experience in the S.A. War underscored that better battle cartridges were needed by the USA.