7x57 Mauser

[Civilian Sniper]

So my grandfather gave me an 1895 Chilean Mauser to turn into a hunting/target rifle. This will be my first build and I am on a budget. We are doing the Dave Ramsey thing with the agreement when we are done I can build my dream gun!!!!! So I am using this to learn the basics. What direction could you give me for a new stock and what barrel should I use. I want to stick with the 7x57 because I think it is a neat cartridge.

 

[newgun]

What will you be useing the gun for most?

 

[Civilian Sniper]

mostly target/Varmint cause that is what i spend most of my time doing only because i am not that great of a game hunter but i will be game hunting 1-2 times a year. most of the shooting i do is from a bench. although i have been shooting more prone lately. i am not going to be out to far in distance 500Max but mostly around 200

 

[newgun]

I just had G.A. Precision build a 260 for me and I went with a Mcmillan h.t.g . I didn't know what to put on it. I wanted sothing that could do it all and be good for huntting. The manners t5 and t50 are very hot right now. you can't go rong with these stocks I know the thumb hole stocks work great but not my thing so I chose the H.T.G.. I wanted the cheek rest. and you do see these used for everything.
Talk to everyone you can and when you know what you want get your order in they can be very backed up like 12- 30 weeks. And have FUN!!!!

 

[Russ]

I'd check on the thoat of the reamer you use. Most have a long throat which would not be good if you are shooting 140 grain bullets. Id' decide what bullet I want and then have the barrel throated for that bullet. My 40 + year old Ruger 77 has the long throat and shoots 160 + grain bullets into 1/2 inch or less but anything lighter in weight the gun won't shoot. I get patterns rather than groups with 140 grain bullets. LOL

 

[H2OBUG]

The M77 7 X 57 I had --I never could get it to shoot-- after seeing the prior post Ishould have tried some 160's best it would do with 140' & 120's is about 3" @ 100

 

[Russ]

162 grain Hornady A-max over ww760 gives 1/2 - 3/4 inch 3 shot groups at 200 yds and 2-21/2 inch groups at 400 yds. I used to use Federal 175 grain round nose loads till they quit loading them, then I found the 162 A-maxes and ww 760. Loads are only going 2450 but they do what I want. They hit where I aim and put deer on the ground.

 

[huffmanite]

Might think about a $80-90 A&B barrel blank from Midway for your 95 Chile action. Had a F54 heavy contour A&B put on a Ruger 77 tang safety action and had it chambered to 7x57, about a year ago. Dispite the low price of the barrel and perhaps I got lucky, but of my modest collection of 20 or so scoped rifles, LOL, its my most accurate rifle. There are thinner contour A&B makes for small ring mausers like your Chile 95 that are mauser threaded and short chambered in 7x57. But, based on my experience with them, accuracy OK for say deer hunting, but don't expect them to be the proverbial tack driver. By the way, Brownells has a line of short chambered mauser threaded barrels too in same price range as Midway, but have no personal experience with them.

 

[jonbearman]

One thing to be aware of is this 95 action is not as strong as the 98 action.You can build it,but dont shoot hot loads out of it. There are those who feel it is not true,but I wouldnt bet my life on trying to have fun.Go to stockys.com for reasonably priced stocks and brownells and midway for the other parts. The adams and bennett barrels shoot remarkably well. There is alot you can do with what you have. Timney makes a righteous trigger for less than 70.00. Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[2506]

If it were me with a 95 Mauser rifle that I wanted to mainly target and varmint shoot and maybe some day take on deer size game I would build it in 6.5X55 Swede with an 8" twist barrel. You have much better varmint bullets 85 to 100 gr and for deer size game 120 to 130 gr then you can go up to 140ish gr bullets for long range target and bigger game if you wish. You will not find anybody that is worth their salt that will tell you that the 6.5 Swede is not down right accurate. Like has been said the 95 Small Ring Mauser action is not made to handle the pressure of the Large Ring Mauser. Keep loads under 45,000 psi range for the 95 Mauser action and you will be fine. 6.5X55 Swede M -96 Mauser action with the long military 29" barrel will still get you 3000 fps with 120 gr bullets and 2800 fps with 140 gr bullets and stay under 45,000 psi. The 100 gr Sierra HP at 3200 fps pushed with a max charge of IMR 4064 to stay under 45,000 psi is an awesome sight to behold when it hits a ground hog. Red Mist City and parts flying. I have a M-96 Swede Mauser in 6.5X55 that I sported and hunt with often. VERY ACCURATE AND DEADLY.

 

[Bobthenailer]

As for a good stock go over to www.mausercentral.com and look up "Wrangler55" he is a stock maker and will spin out an excellent laminate stock that is inlet fo your small ring project. I have built on his stocks before and really like his work, my M96 swede chambered for 6.5x55 A.I. will print .250" groups with ease pushing those 123Grain MK's.

 

[MrMajestic]

I vote for Jon's recommendations on build and 2506's caliber choice for what you spec'd out.

 

[Larryh128]

What Jonbearman said. Don't build ANYTHING on that action that is going to produce over 45,000 PSI & certainly not a 25-06 as appealing as it might be. That is STRICKLY a low pressure action, 2 lugs not 3 on the bolt & the 3rd isn't called a safety lug for nothing.

 

[Larryh128]

Please don't take that post as anything but a word of caution. A guy on another forum build a rifle on an action that was not made for 60,000 PSI loads & part of the action/bolt went thru his head. I'm still trying to get the image out of my head. That's a fine action as long as it's not loaded hot. Stick to 7x57 or 6.5x55 loaded to original pressures. The M-96 is quite a bit better action.

 

[huffmanite]

One of my 257Roberts rifles is built on a 95 Chile action, another A&B barrel and a nice shooter. But stay with regular 257R loads with it. I treat it like my 257R built on a 91 Argentine action......don't use the so called 257R + load data. Now my 257R built on a 98 Mauser action, different story, I can and do load my ammo hotter for it.

 

[MrMajestic]

What Jonbearman said. Don't build ANYTHING on that action that is going to produce over 45,000 PSI & certainly not a 25-06 as appealing as it might be. That is STRICKLY a low pressure action, 2 lugs not 3 on the bolt & the 3rd isn't called a safety lug for nothing.

Larryh128, Please re-read my post. I stated 2506's caliber choice which was 6.5X55. I was only agreeing with Jon's and 2506 posts prior to mine.

 

[Larryh128]

My apologies, that's what I get for reading faster than the brain will comprehend. Looks like we're all on the same path. Still can't get that image out of my head.

 

[normmatzen]

I am almost done with my 7X57 Mauser rifle that I am going to use for all California hunting I will do.
Check out Boyd stocks, good value. I'm using a micro-fit and contrary to complaints on this forum, mine fit perfect and it was a bargain! It is a laminated monte carlo. I have an original Mauser barrel I bought on GunBroker. I test fired it after the gunsmith head spaced it and cut it to 24". In the bare stock before finishing or bedding it shot slightly over 1 MOA at 100 yd. Good enough for hunting in California!

Mine is a VZ24 M98 design, but don't believe all the info about what a weak action the small ring is! I did my due diligence research on cartridge pressure and found the 7X57 isn't the wimp folks in the US think it is. The European load specs are stronger than those called out in American loading manuals. You can safely load the 7X57 to 7-08 performance levels. I would recommend you do your own research on European and American load recommendations as well as technical articles on converting CUP pressure levels to PSI levels and compare pressure limits in the US to those in Europe. We are hampered in the US by lawyers and old wives tales about the "weak" small ring action. Don't forget, folks will load Swedish Mausers heavier than '93 or '95, but they are all small ring actions. Just pay attention to the cartridge specs.

 

[mosin46]

if it's all matched excellent,hacking it for a sporter would be an abomination. sell it to a collector and use the cash. 95 action is not as good for that purpose anyway,being of rather less strength. if you must use a mauser for a build,there are many yugoslav rearsenals-excellent,not esp collectible and cheap or russian capture 98Ks to sacrifice. exc matched 95s go 3-400,museum quality examples 800 or more.

 

[PJGunner]

If the M95 Mauser was so weak, why did Kimber stick a bunch of them chambered to the .308 Win. in Ramline stocks and sell them as low budget sporters? Because Kimber had them pressure tested to see if they were safe. They were.
The original guns were IIRC, in 7x57 and were rebarreled to the 7.62 CETME cartridge which has the exact same dimensions as the 7.62 NATO/.308Win. The CETME assault rifle had problems with full power NATO rounds so was loaded to a lower pressure level. The 95 Mausers were made as back up guns to the CETME. Spain got the pressure problems fixed in the rifle and threw the 95's on the market. Kimber bought them up tested them and cut the barrels to sporter length and put them in Ramline stocks for a very reasonable price.
The 93 Mauser has no extra locking lug and poor handling of escaping gas. The M52 uses the bolt handle as sort of an extra lug but still handles escaping gas poorly.
I have never used an M95 Mauser chambered to anything but did have a beautiful little sporter in 7x57 based on the M93 Mauser. It was built in some small British shop at some time and resembled the famed .275 Rigby of Karamojo Bell fame. To this day I'm sorry I ever sold it. It had the standard long throat for 175 gr. bullets but shot 140 gr. Sierras into nice tight groups. Back them (1973/4) I did keep loads to factory levels due to their reputation of being weak. While these days I'm not so sure, I don't think I'd push the limits in one today. I load for three rifles in 7x57 and the more I shoot the round, the better I like it. All my rifles have the long throat for 175 gr. bullets and they do shoot that weight the best but one rifle will day in and day out put 140 gr. Nosler Ballistic tips into .75" when I do my part. Another will put three 175 gr. Hornady round nose bullets into a half inch.
I would think that if the bore in your rifle is in good shape,the long throat may not make an awful lot of difference with most bullets. Any decent 150 gr. bullet should shoot just fine.
One thing is for sure. Put the gun into decent lightweight stock, have a gunsmith cut and crown the barrel to around 22 to 24" (I like 23"), put a scope friendly bolt handle and drill and tap for a scope and scope the gun and I'm thinking you'll have a sweet lightweight Mountain Rifle.
Granted, factory ammo is not loaded to the rounds full potention, nor do I recommend loading that hot. However, the Winchester 145 gr. Powerpoint factory load has been extremely accurate in all three of my rifles, the worst still holding at one inch.
The 7x57 has killed well ever since 1892, even in it's downloaded state.
Stay away from Federal 175 gr. ammo. It does not come anywhere near advertised velocities. I chronographed the load at 2010 FPS. Gun writer John Barsness also commented that when he clocked some of that ammo, he too only got 2010, give or take a few FPS. back i 1973, that was the only ammo I could find and sad to say it cost me a very nice Mule Deer. I don't believe the bullet as going fast enough to open up.
If your going to reload for the cartridge, my choices run to Winchester first when you can find it (Darned seasonal basis baloney) then Remington. I don't much care fore Federal brass as it is usually softer then the first two and primer pockets loosen up quickly.
Case in point; I was given 1,100 rounds of once fired Federal Gold Medal Match .308 Win. brass. Ammo was fired in police sniper rifles. One of my LEO buddies snagged it for me. 8) I picked 20 at randon, tumbled them, resized and primed the cases. Every one had a somewhat loose primer pocket. Let's just say it was looser than I'm comfortable with. I'll save them for my cast bullet shooting.
Paul B.