Mauser barrels

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mickri

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One of my projects down the road is to rebarrel a small ring 1895 mauser to 257 Roberts. I have recently come across a large ring mauser barrel in 257 Roberts for sale. My question is could I turn down the shank to .980 and thread it to fit my 1895 action. This would save me a lot of work. Large and small ring mauser actions have the same 12 tpi. Only difference is the shank size. 1.1" for large ring and .980" for a small ring.
 
Your chamber may not be the correct depth for your action. Pre-64 M-70s were great., but European military actions were not made to the high standards of American rifles. There was a lot of hand fitting. You may have to touch up the chamber or the barrel shoulder.

Grizzly sells gages and reamers, BTW
 
The barrel comes with a set of go/no go gauges and reloading dies. I realize that it would require fitting to my action including getting the headspace correct. But that is a lot less work than starting with a raw barrel blank. I am just exploring this as a possible option. The asking price is on the high side for a take off barrel. I doubt that it will sell quickly. But who knows. If I get serious about it I will ask about round count and who made the barrel. How old it is, etc.
Brownells has reamers also and I recently ran across a gunsmith who is retiring and selling off his chamber reamers at a good price.

No rush on this.
 
While the conversion is easily done,ask yourself ...is a 95 strong enough for a calibre like 257R?..........Since you dont mention a maker or year,I will assume the action is Spanish........with either Spanish or a pre 1900 ,the action is likely to be well worn,possibly worn thru the hardening on the lugs.....only about .004" thick on the early actions.....lug setback should be checked for...........if you need to face off the lugs and then have the lot rehardened,a 98 might be a cheaper option.
 
John, I don't want to be critical because I really appreciate everybody's knowledge that is so freely shared on this site. Instead of making an assumption why didn't you ask for more info? The action is a chilean 1895 made by Lowe Berlin which was originally chambered for 7x57 military ammo. I go by the Saami specs which lists a 257 Roberts at the same maximum pressure as a 7x57. I have several of these actions. One will definitely be a 257 Roberts. I haven't decided on the others. But whatever I choose will be within the specs for a 7x57.

Thanks for the heads up about the lug setback. I will check that out. The actions appear to be in good condition, operate smoothly and are not sloppy at all.
 
Ok,I can see you are set on using one of these.......bear in mind that a Ludwig Loewe action is pre 1896......when the name was changed to DWM....The early actions are quite soft,and have thin hardening.........Dont get me wrong,Im not criticing your choice,I do like the early Mauser actions .1893 and 1895 .without the thumb cutout.......very neat and lightweight actions with all machined parts.
 
Other than the pressure considerations, and the cautions about lug set-back, it can be easily done. Somewhere here is a whole post on my conversion of a 1909 Peruvian (large ring/small thread) I turned and re-threaded the tang of a LR Lothar-Walther Barrel to Small ring 0.980 x 12TPI. Get the head spacing correct and you're done.
 
I’m definitely not a Mauser expert but I’m sure the the 95 will handle the pressure of a 257R I wouldn’t be afraid to run it. So turning the the tenon down from 1.1 to .980 shouldn’t be a problem but the difference in tenon lengths and trying to hit the head spacing might be a challenge As far as re-reaming with a different reamer/set up approach might be an issue. I had a similar deal rechamberimg a 6.5x47 for a buddy (actually the guy that got me into “gunsmithing”)using my equipment and reamer (he sold his house stored his lathe and mill) he just wanted to clean up the throat and try to get a squeeze another thousand more rounds of life out of his barrel. We thought maybe we could cut .150-.200 off the tenon and clean up just the throat the only thing we could figure is I use a .0005 dial when I set up he used/uses a .001 for his set up (Gordy method). The reamer chattered like crazy in the camber (even using the wax paper trick). I ended up having to take nearly .600 off the tenon to get the chamber cleaned up as the 6.5x47 case doesn’t have a huge taper to it.
 
The barrel I referenced in my original post didn't sell on gunbroker and now it is listed on Ebay. Still at a price of more than double what I would pay for it. It was just a thought. Using a take off barrel is kind of like doing a major remodel on a house. It is often less hassle and more cost effective to just build a new home. My original plan is to buy a Green Mountain barrel. And I will most likely still do that. That way I will know what I have. This will be a hunting rifle. Not a bench rest rifle or even a long range rifle. Minute of deer at up to 250, maybe 300 yards, is all I am looking for.

I have read on other forums about people that use a take off barrel use a barrel nut like on a savage to set the head space. I might try that.

This project is way off in the future. Lots of other stuff to do before I get to this.
 
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