I had a 7X57mm Boer (OVS - Orange Free State) Mauser M1895 service rifle many years ago, a German (DWM) made copy of the original mass-produced 7X57, the Spanish M1893 rifle. It was this rifle and cartridge, the M1893 / 95 and carbine versions that gave the US so much trouble in the Spanish-American War, and us in the South African War. These wars and the souvenir rifles brought back from them - which mine almost certainly was originally - created a lot of interest in Mauser system rifles and 7mm cartridges in both the USA and British Empire. Hence the US M1903 Springfield even if you guys went for a .30 cartridge, and the British Pattern 1913 that used a high performance 7mm based on the .280 Ross and that almost certainly would have been adopted here to replace the .303" Lee-Enfield if WW1 hadn't got in the way. (The P'13 went into production of course as the P'14 .303" and M1917 in .30-06 both made under contract / licence by Remington and Winchester.)
Although a scruffy looking beast, my M1895 was very accurate despite being hampered by simple, crude sights. The only service rifles I owned over many years that grouped as tightly were a 6.5mm M1895 Swedish Mauser, and a Swiss Schmidt IG1911 7.5X55mm long rifle.
The original 7X57mm loading used a very long flat-base 173gn round-nose bullet in either FMJ or SP form depending on purpose. Loads were modest by today's standards somewhere around 2,295 fps MV - and that only in long rifles with their 29.3" barrels. Ex service examples became a near standard farmer's rifle in parts of Southern Africa and took every form of plains game going and many leopards and lions too. The cartridge was a real killer despite the low MVs, or more likely because of them as bullets held together well. With their high SDs they penetrated enormous distances - valuable with the size and toughness of many African species. Col. Craig Boddington, a man who never knowingly goes anywhere undergunned, is a fan which tells you a lot.
In the early 20th century, there was a lot of interest in the 7X57mm in the USA and Britain. John Rigby & Son adopted it under their company name as the .275 Rigby and loaded it with 150 (Spitzer) and 173gn (RN) bullets. You could still get Eley-Kynoch 173gn "7mm Mauser" sporting cartridges in the UK as late as the 1960s or 70s in the company's red/yellow 10-round cartons. Canadian Industries Limited loaded Dominion brand 7X57mm also with 173gn RNSP bullets until even later, probably the 1980s. This was my first ammo and source of cases for my Boer Mauser - it was loaded much hotter than the European norm and had quite a nasty kick in the DWM rifle with its straight shotgun style buttstock.
You see the occasional very German looking pre-WW2 7mm sporter in Britain built on Mauser 98 or more often small ring actions and with skimpy wood. Some will have been bought from European firms by wealthy British shooters or imported by immigrants, but I imagine 90% + were confiscated from German civilians at the end of WW2 when the country was occupied and the rifles then 'liberated' and sneaked home by enterprising Allied soldiers. In more recent times, Ruger briefly chambered it in the early 77 and for quite a while in its No. 1 single shot rifle. A friend has one of the latter and has taken all sorts of European and North american game with it including a large Canadian black bear. Remington made at least a few 700s in it - I imagine its one-year limited production 'Classic' model - I've seen one of those too in regular use.
There was a small surge of ineterest in the 1960s-80s in the USA thanks to the large number of South American military contract Mausers that were sold cheap. The best and most common was the Brazilian model (M1907?) based on the '98 action. The Brazilians had upped their service load considerably for the stronger action and moved to a 139gn FMJ Spitzer at around 2,800 fps. We never saw any of these rifles in the UK which was a shame as they looked very good.
However, by the end of the last century, the cartridge had been largely forgotten outside of continental Europe or amongst historic arms shooters. It is a very effective deer number. You often hear it said that it gives light recoil, but that depends on the rifle weight and the load - a full-house load in a deer rifle kicks a lot harder than a .308. Loading manual data is usually very weak as it's limited to around 45,000 psi PMax in M1893 era rifles, but can run at the same pressures as any modern cartridge in a good modern action. It needs a long action and lost out in the USA to .30-06 and its necked down versions - .270W and .280R that are larger cased and higher performers in the heyday of long action rifles. The final nail in the coffin in the USA was the 7mm-08R that gives the same factory ammo performance in a short action with 139-150gn bullets - but 7mm-08 won't match 7X57mm loaded up with heavy bullets in a properly (long-throated) chamber.
I've seen it used in AI form in long-range competition - but why use this? .284 Win or 6.5-284 in long actions and properly chambered barrels give better ballistics, as does 6.5X55mm for long-range shooting.
None of this detracts from the merits of the cartridge, only says that it doesn't make much sense to have one specially built other than as a deer rifle. if you find an original rifle in good condition it's a great cartridge and should be used as such.
Laurie,
York, England
