Mauser Memories

randyc

Active User
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2015
Messages
662
I am no gunsmith but like many guys who own machine tools, the craft fascinates me and there are some procedures that most of us can implement with a little common sense. I hope that the historical details that I mention in this post are accurate. If not, I'm sure that the more knowledgeable members will correct me.

Although there were earlier variations, among the first successful production bolt-action rifles was the 7 millimeter Mauser introduced in 1893. A consequence of the Spanish-American War, fought in Cuba, was the realization by the U.S. Army that the Mauser rifle (with which Spanish forces were armed) was superior to the U.S. service rifle of the time. This led to the development of the Springfield 1903 rifle, which is more or less a shortened copy of the Model 93 Mauser.

I purchased one of these old Mausers in 1977. An unusual characteristic was that the removable parts of this particular rifle had the same serial number - not typical in old mass-produced firearms found today. An additional attraction to me was that all of the serial numbers on the '93 Mauser were 9993. The young Dutch man from whom I purchased the rifle had tinkered with it but fortunately made no permanent modifications.

Because early Mausers (models 1871 through 1898) had straight bolts, they could not accommodate telescopic sights. My young Dutch friend circumvented this shortcoming by mounting a long eye relief handgun 'scope directly above the folding rear sight of the rifle. When I say "mounting" that is a euphemism - what he actually did was to epoxy the 'scope to the sight mechanism. Visual examination of the bore seemed to indicate that the rifle was in excellent condition. (I don't think he used the rifle much - he had an original box of cartridges from which five were missing.)

I wanted to use the Mauser for informal club competition (a classification at the time was bolt-action military rifles with open sights) so I had to remove the pistol 'scope. Fortunately, the epoxy used was of the five-minute variety which is sensitive to heat. Judicious use of my wife's hair dryer and a putty knife gradually worked the 'scope loose from the receiver after which the receiver/barrel could be disassembled from the stock and upper forearm guard. Once the wood parts were removed, I could be more aggressive with heat and the residual bits of epoxy came off easily.

The rifle was in fine condition originally and once re-assembled looked like new, LOL. But, more to the point, the old beauty SHOT like new:

P1020398.jpg

Who knows where the rifle had been since 1893 but clearly it had been well cared-for and not many rounds had been cycled through it. The two groups above were shot from a sandbag rest at 100 yards using the iron sights. I brought five different load combinations to the range that day and the fact that two combinations produced 1.100 inch groups with open sights indicates that the rifle was very forgiving (especially considering the l-o-n-g length of wood under the barrel).

I should note that these groups were fired back “in the day" when I had good vision (and practiced regularly) … the day was a calm one, according to my notebook. Also according to my notebook, my wife shot comparable 100 yard groups on a different occasion with the same rifle and loads. (It was a standing joke at the range that she could outshoot me with anything we brought to the range on Friday. I maintained my personal dignity by switching to trap/skeet - she didn't like the idea of shooting four boxes of 12 or 20 gauge every Saturday morning, LOL.)

The length and mass of this rifle model made it extremely pleasant to shoot with the original 7 x 57 Mauser cartridge. This cartridge has probably been the basis for more variations than any other cartridge design and is still popular, especially in Europe. (I later built up a .257 Roberts from the 7 x 57 cartridge on a '95 Mauser action with a pre-chambered Douglas barrel and it was a good performer - a friend in Oregon still owns that rifle and regularly takes deer with it.)

When one thinks of big-bore rifles built on Mauser actions, the '98 always comes to mind. The '98 was a fine receiver and, more importantly, was produced in huge quantities compared to earlier models produced for a dozen countries in various calibers. Although it is generally acknowledged that '98 actions are stronger than other variations, some question the integrity of the actions produced during World War II (material quality may have diminished). I don't have any knowledge about that and have never owned a '98. I have owned two '93 models, two '95 models and the model shown below.

The rifle in the photo is based on a 1909 Mauser receiver (produced for the Argentine Army in that year). It was built up about forty years ago by a good friend who was a talented hobby gunsmith.

2011-03-05.jpg

I think that he intended this rifle to be a 1,000 yard shooter and he chambered it for .300 Winchester Magnum. Of course the rifle isn't up to modern bench-rest standards but it is definitely a beauty. The builder (who now works for Boeing in Seattle) made up the rifle, starting with the Argentine receiver. It has a Shilen benchrest barrel, glass-bedded on Belgian walnut, with some nice laminate work here and there, such as on the forearm and the grip cap (also note the small wood inlay on the bolt handle).

The rifle is scoped with an old Leupold variable zoom - a joy to use. I believe that the trigger is a Timney model, my memory has faded but it's definitely not the old two-stage Mauser trigger. The recoil pad was flawlessly fitted and the walnut is wearing a dozen hand-rubbed coats of Tung oil.

The friend who built this was Quality Assurance Manager for the company at which we both worked - his workmanship is consistent with his career in quality assurance !

2011-03-05-1.jpg

At the time that I photographed the rifle, I neglected to drop the magazine floorplate, which would have revealed a nice touch. When he chambered the barrel, my friend did so with the idea in mind that he wanted the match-grade bullets to just touch the rifling lands of the barrel when fully chambered. This necessitated modifying the magazine - it had to be extended about 1/4 inch to accommodate the longer loaded bullet lengths.

He modified the well of the magazine by silver-soldering part of a short section of 12 gauge shotgun barrel (a scrap that he happened to save) to the front of the well, then re-blued the entire assembly. It's one of those nice touches - invisible but it feels good to know that details weren't overlooked by the builder.

Although I had intended to compete (200 yard "running deer" range) with this rifle, it didn't work out that way. Around this time I was introduced to skeet and I lost interest in rifle and handgun target shooting. There's just something about popping doubles with a twenty O/U that's so more satisfying than punching paper to me, LOL. (Unhappily I can't do any of these things now because of arthritis in my various joints and a tremor in my hands that has developed over the past few years.)

Below is my original '93 Mauser, the one that shoots one inch groups at 100 yards with iron sights. Under it is a similar '93 with unmatched serial numbers, picked up for $65 some fifteen years ago for a father-son rifle project. My boy was in junior high school at the time and hadn't reached his current height of 6' 2" (I am 5' 6", BTW).

I thought the old '93 could be cut down quite a bit without having too much recoil if we maintained the 7 x 57 mm cartridge, which would also save the cost of a new barrel. (Unfortunately, we didn't have a digital camera in 2001 so the project was undocumented.)

P1010941.jpg

We cut back the original barrel four inches and re-crowned it, trimming back the wood forearm accordingly and plugging the cleaning rod hole. I wanted to ditch the iron sights but for some reason my boy liked that sliding rear sight calibrated to 1,000 meters and insisted on keeping it. So we had to modify and re-solder the original front sight on the barrel, which wasn't very much fun !

A friend gave us a nice old Weaver scope and mounting it almost gave me a heart attack. The receivers of Mausers (like most rifles) are hardened. In the process of tapping the holes for the 'scope, naturally I broke off the tap in the final hole.

I tried the few tricks that I know to remove broken taps without success and finally - from desperation - tried a last resort technique that was suggested on the PM Gunsmith Forum. With the smallest tip installed on my O/A torch and with a tightly-focused flame, I heated the tap cherry red and then rotated the oxygen knob on the mixing chamber about 1/2 turn.

Bingo ! The tap vaporized without damaging the hole or the receiver !!! What remained of the tap could be picked out with a steel scribe followed by running a new tap carefully through the hole again. It was a miracle and I'll probably never get that lucky again. Next time something like that happens, I'll ship the thing off to someone with a sinker EDM!

Had to cut off the bolt handle and re-weld it at an angle to clear the 'scope, of course. Oh yes, we also had to make a set of sling swivels - for some reason the originals had been removed from the old Mauser before we obtained it. All told, there's probably less than ten hours into the project, including refinishing the stock. It's a pleasant-shooting rifle and my boy has had some fun re-loading for it. The small parts that we made were torch-heated and dumped them into a can of used motor oil - the finish is attractive and fairly wear-resistant.

Because of the shorter barrel, the "new" rifle doesn't care for the loads that the full-length '93 likes best. In fact, my "original" '93 - even over open sights - groups better than this one with the Weaver 'scope. Doubtless this is due to the thousands of rounds that have passed through the bore of the $65 relic. We didn't want to expend $$$ on this project since it was mainly a "training exercise" to familiarize the boy with machine tools.
 
Last edited:
My first bolt action rifle was a heavily bubba'ed small ring cock on close Mauser of uncertain vintage. It was rechambered in 308Win and unsafe, as the mismatched firing pin was too long and protruded plenty enough to cause a open bolt discharge while unloading one day.

My second was a 1908 DWM-Berlin Brazillian that I kinda wish I had kept. It had a military stepped barrel and a well executed shortened military stock, and was rechambered in 280Rem. It was a nice shooter...sporterized for sure, but it had character. Fun memories...

I need to find another...it would be a fun project to build a rifle using a milsurp action.
 
Yep, shoulda' kept the '08. .280 Rem is a nice one, I always admired it but never ended up with one for some reason or other. Never owned a .270 either. Guess I thought that I had that area covered between .25-06, 7 mm and the thirties. But you can never have too many calibers, right ?

My first bolt action rifle was a heavily bubba'ed small ring cock on close Mauser of uncertain vintage. It was rechambered in 308Win and unsafe, as the mismatched firing pin was too long and protruded plenty enough to cause a open bolt discharge while unloading one day.

My second was a 1908 DWM-Berlin Brazillian that I kinda wish I had kept. It had a military stepped barrel and a well executed shortened military stock, and was rechambered in 280Rem. It was a nice shooter...sporterized for sure, but it had character. Fun memories...

I need to find another...it would be a fun project to build a rifle using a milsurp action.

I haven't been to the range in a while but when I used to bring the old rifles, everyone had to have a look at them, even if they were sort of hacked-up like my boy's 7 x 57. Mausers and Springfields used to be SO common at any range but the only thing I see now are Moisin-Nagants.

Have we really run out of the surplus high quality actions ?
 
Pricing on the high quality milsurps any more is more than a basic Remchester for a donor action...
 
Pricing on the high quality milsurps any more is more than a basic Remchester for a donor action...

Dang, I've obviously been out of things for a while. Guess I better hang on to what I've got, huh ?
 
Back
Top