7mm Mauser: bullet choice for target shooting

[Lefty Trigger]

Getting my pre-war Mauser back up and going wanting to do some target shooting with it. It still has the original military barrel on it. In the past we have shot 140gr rounds for hunting but is there a better bullet for just shooting targets,... up to 300yds is our range.

 

[Kurz]

but is there a better bullet for just shooting targets,... up to 300yds is our range.

I suppose that this is esoteric enough to keep most responses away...

Given the assumption that since this is the original military barrel, the chamber would be original as well. This is an indication that the bullets selected should be on the heavier end of the scale as well as being longer to get close enough to the lands if possible. The originals were heavy round nose bullet but we can substitute the heavier more pointy bullets.

You need to establish the condition of the rifle and barrel first. For higher pressures, you need the German production actions and be very careful with the Spanish Mausers of questionable quality. The barrel should be clean.

I started with Hornady 162 gr. AMAX because I had them and they were relatively inexpensive by comparison. They also shot surprisingly well. Nosler makes a 168 grain Competition bullet which gave good groups also. The original Sierra 168 gr. MK was a good combination, with nice, round groups at moderate distances. Powder selection was in and around the 4350 flavors and those relative to that performance. Hodgdon Hybrid 100v is great powder, being moderate yet consistent burning, and in the range of the 4350 powders. Watch your pressure.

Enjoy the process!

 

[Laurie]

As Kurz says, the model is important, although for this sort of target shooting high pressures aren't necessary or even desirable. Another factor is the rifle's origin and its sights. Many of the later South American models based on the Mauser '98 action and fitted with tangent rearsights had their ammunition upgraded later in life to a 139gn FMJ at around 2,900 fps (in 29.3-inch barrel long rifles). Rearsight bases were reground much flatter as the new ammunition had a very much flatter trajectory than the original 173gn bullet round. Use with a heavy bullet at low velocities sees sights having to be set very high even for 300 yards shooting.

Conversely, most M1895 rifles with a leaf rearsight remained sighted for the original service 7X57 Mauser round, and also have a minimum sight setting of 400 metres (the battle sight notch with the leaf folded down, the lowest setting on the slider with the leaf raised being 500 metres). They are regulated for the original loading of a 173gn FMJRN at a mere 2,300 fps MV (in a 29.3-inch barrel). Use of lighter bullets and/or higher velocities sees them shoot very high at the lowest sight setting. Moreover, the battle sight notch which was shallow to start with is often worn down / damaged on these rifles being exposed to any abuse going in the normal (sight-leaf down) position. It is often desirable to be able to shoot with the leaf raised giving a deeper V notch and much improved sight picture. So ammunition with similar characteristics to the original Spanish M1893 load is preferred.

All of these rifles, irrespective of age / model come with huge amounts of freebore and therefore don't always shoot light bullets well making 150gn the preferred minimum weight, bullets seated as shallow as possible, and/or with nice rounded tangent ogives that accept lots of jump happily. With two Chilean long rifles, a DWM made M1895, and a Steyr made M1912 with sights set-ups as described above, I've come to the conclusion a 150gn match bullet at 2,700 fps plus MVs is probably the best compromise of ballistics that suit the modified sights on the later '98 based model with its modified tangent sight and I've yet to find anything that outshoots the 175gn Hornady RNSP deer bullet in handloads at 2,350 fps or so in the earlier model. My '95 actually likes PPU factory FMJ a lot - difficult to improve on it with handloads. It chronographs out at a shade over 2,300 fps too from the 29-inch barrels so the '95's sights are pretty well spot on.

IME 7x57 is a very easy cartridge to handload, at least at these modest performance levels and there are lots of combinations that work well. Given powder prices and availability in the UK, I prefer Viht grades if possible and use N150 for 150s and N160 for the heavier bullets.

 

[hoz53]

As Kurz says, the model is important, although for this sort of target shooting high pressures aren't necessary or even desirable. Another factor is the rifle's origin and its sights. Many of the later South American models based on the Mauser '98 action and fitted with tangent rearsights had their ammunition upgraded later in life to a 139gn FMJ at around 2,900 fps (in 29.3-inch barrel long rifles). Rearsight bases were reground much flatter as the new ammunition had a very much flatter trajectory than the original 173gn bullet round. Use with a heavy bullet at low velocities sees sights having to be set very high even for 300 yards shooting.

Conversely, most M1895 rifles with a leaf rearsight remained sighted for the original service 7X57 Mauser round, and also have a minimum sight setting of 400 metres (the battle sight notch with the leaf folded down, the lowest setting on the slider with the leaf raised being 500 metres). They are regulated for the original loading of a 173gn FMJRN at a mere 2,300 fps MV (in a 29.3-inch barrel). Use of lighter bullets and/or higher velocities sees them shoot very high at the lowest sight setting. Moreover, the battle sight notch which was shallow to start with is often worn down / damaged on these rifles being exposed to any abuse going in the normal (sight-leaf down) position. It is often desirable to be able to shoot with the leaf raised giving a deeper V notch and much improved sight picture. So ammunition with similar characteristics to the original Spanish M1893 load is preferred.

All of these rifles, irrespective of age / model come with huge amounts of freebore and therefore don't always shoot light bullets well making 150gn the preferred minimum weight, bullets seated as shallow as possible, and/or with nice rounded tangent ogives that accept lots of jump happily. With two Chilean long rifles, a DWM made M1895, and a Steyr made M1912 with sights set-ups as described above, I've come to the conclusion a 150gn match bullet at 2,700 fps plus MVs is probably the best compromise of ballistics that suit the modified sights on the later '98 based model with its modified tangent sight and I've yet to find anything that outshoots the 175gn Hornady RNSP deer bullet in handloads at 2,350 fps or so in the earlier model. My '95 actually likes PPU factory FMJ a lot - difficult to improve on it with handloads. It chronographs out at a shade over 2,300 fps too from the 29-inch barrels so the '95's sights are pretty well spot on.

IME 7x57 is a very easy cartridge to handload, at least at these modest performance levels and there are lots of combinations that work well. Given powder prices and availability in the UK, I prefer Viht grades if possible and use N150 for 150s and N160 for the heavier bullets.

Thanks for that info. My first high power rifle was a Chilean M95 (1973) I sporterized it back then and i still have it. Havent shot it in years but want to get it out and do that.

 

[jlmurphy]

I used a Chilean Model 1912 for a local silhouette match and found that the relatively slow rifling twist of 1/10" wouldn't stabilize the longer modern heavy match bullets.

 

[texasbilly]

Stay with heavier bullets. Avoid high pressure, high velocity loads.

 

[Laurie]

I used a Chilean Model 1912 for a local silhouette match and found that the relatively slow rifling twist of 1/10" wouldn't stabilize the longer modern heavy match bullets.

I believe you are mistaken there. I've never measured the twist rates of my Models 1895 and 1912, but all authorities on the subject of classic Mausers quote an 8.66" pitch for the European made 7X57mm models. Even today SAAMI quotes 8.75" as the standard twist rate for 7X57mm, the difference possibly arising from a rounding-off in the conversion from the metric European to Imperial units. The CIP (European equivalent to SAAMI) quotes one turn in 220mm or 8.66 inches as the correct rifling pitch rate for all European originating cartridges in the calibre.

More recent US practice has been to adopt slower 9.5 and 10-inch rates for those cartridges introduced since the 1960s by Remington and Winchester from 7mm-08 Rem up to the 7mm magnums. In practice, there are few bullets, only the super long, extra-pointy 175-195gn BT match bullets introduced in recent years by Berger, Hornady, Sierra and others that need a faster rifling twist than 10-inches.

My first load for my 1912 was the long, high-BC 180gn Sierra MK match bullet at a very low, under 2,200 fps, MV and it would put five bullets into less than two-inches at 100 yards off the bench, usually with three of the five under an inch. Considering the age of the rifle and my not inconsiderable difficulties in dealing with a partridge foresight in a modest size V-notch barrel-mounted rearsight with my nearly 70-year old eyes, I considered this simply stunning performance. It also performed reasonably well in Historic Arms competition to 500 yards, but needed the rearsight set at something like 800 or 900 metres to be on target with the slow heavy bullet, hence my intention to work up loads with the 150gn Sierra MK and Lapua Scenar at rather higher MVs in 2018.

So, if heavy bullets didn't stabilise in your rifle, I'd say the cause was something other than a too slow rifling twist rate in the M1912.

 

[jlmurphy]

You can test the actual twist with a cleaning rod and a tight patch. The heaviest Hornady A-Max bullets wouldn't stabilize, but the next weight down would. The rifle was almost unissued with perfect bore. I switched to the Model 96 Swedish Mauser and never looked back.

 

[hoz53]

I believe you are mistaken there. I've never measured the twist rates of my Models 1895 and 1912, but all authorities on the subject of classic Mausers quote an 8.66" pitch for the European made 7X57mm models. Even today SAAMI quotes 8.75" as the standard twist rate for 7X57mm, the difference possibly arising from a rounding-off in the conversion from the metric European to Imperial units. The CIP (European equivalent to SAAMI) quotes one turn in 220mm or 8.66 inches as the correct rifling pitch rate for all European originating cartridges in the calibre.

More recent US practice has been to adopt slower 9.5 and 10-inch rates for those cartridges introduced since the 1960s by Remington and Winchester from 7mm-08 Rem up to the 7mm magnums. In practice, there are few bullets, only the super long, extra-pointy 175-195gn BT match bullets introduced in recent years by Berger, Hornady, Sierra and others that need a faster rifling twist than 10-inches.

My first load for my 1912 was the long, high-BC 180gn Sierra MK match bullet at a very low, under 2,200 fps, MV and it would put five bullets into less than two-inches at 100 yards off the bench, usually with three of the five under an inch. Considering the age of the rifle and my not inconsiderable difficulties in dealing with a partridge foresight in a modest size V-notch barrel-mounted rearsight with my nearly 70-year old eyes, I considered this simply stunning performance. It also performed reasonably well in Historic Arms competition to 500 yards, but needed the rearsight set at something like 800 or 900 metres to be on target with the slow heavy bullet, hence my intention to work up loads with the 150gn Sierra MK and Lapua Scenar at rather higher MVs in 2018.

So, if heavy bullets didn't stabilise in your rifle, I'd say the cause was something other than a too slow rifling twist rate in the M1912.

i got my chilean M95 out tonite to try and determine the twist rate. It was made by lowe in berlin. I used the cleaning rod method and got 9" on 4 out of five tries. I looked in the Ludwick Olson book and it to says 8.66 twist so i suppose that is what mine is. I think i will try some 150 and 168 grain bullets. Ill use whatever is more accuraate and im hoping its the 150s but we will see. Thanks

 

[hoz53]

You can test the actual twist with a cleaning rod and a tight patch. The heaviest Hornady A-Max bullets wouldn't stabilize, but the next weight down would. The rifle was almost unissued with perfect bore. I switched to the Model 96 Swedish Mauser and never looked back.

that M96 is in 6.5x55 right? ive got one of those to and even though the barrel has been cut off to 18" and the job is less than professional that thing will shoot very well