Drakejake
Member
Today I shot the 7 by 57 Mauser out at Cheatham Wildlife Management Area near Ashland City, TN. I had only fired a couple of rounds through it since I became interested in firearms several years ago (I had owned the Mauser carbine and the Mauser rifle since childhood, if you can believe that. A great uncle had bought them back from the war in Cuba.) Today I first fired the gun with the bolt that came with it. I fired several shots from the hip to guard against eye and face damage if there was a problem. There wasn't. I then replaced the bolt with one from the 1893 Mauser rifle (longer version of the gun) I have. When I pulled the trigger, nothing happened. I cannot see the firing pin at the front of the bolt, so I think it is either broken, missing, or being held back by something. The safety on this bolt doesn't work, so that may have something to do with it.
I was pleased to see that there was NO backing out of the primer with this S&B ammo as there had been with the old Peters ammo that came with it. A gun friend told me that the backing out was probably caused by a "headspace" problem. But he said that the problem was too minor to create any danger. So the slight backing out that occurred with the Peters seems to be related to the ammo and not to the rifle. That is very good.
I would like to take the alternate bolt apart and see what the problem is, but one of the steps of disassembly is to put the safety on and I cannot do this.
Firing the Mauser carbine is very unpleasant. The recoil actually causes the rifle to hit the shoulder in a painful way. The trigger guard also hits the middle finger. I fired only ten rounds; that was enough. The recoil is at least twice as much as with the Saiga .308. Because the two rounds are comparable, I think the reason for this difference is that the cycling of a semi-auto rifle absorbs a good bit of the recoil. But all of the recoil in a bolt action rifle is transmitted to the shooter's body.
Drakejake
I was pleased to see that there was NO backing out of the primer with this S&B ammo as there had been with the old Peters ammo that came with it. A gun friend told me that the backing out was probably caused by a "headspace" problem. But he said that the problem was too minor to create any danger. So the slight backing out that occurred with the Peters seems to be related to the ammo and not to the rifle. That is very good.
I would like to take the alternate bolt apart and see what the problem is, but one of the steps of disassembly is to put the safety on and I cannot do this.
Firing the Mauser carbine is very unpleasant. The recoil actually causes the rifle to hit the shoulder in a painful way. The trigger guard also hits the middle finger. I fired only ten rounds; that was enough. The recoil is at least twice as much as with the Saiga .308. Because the two rounds are comparable, I think the reason for this difference is that the cycling of a semi-auto rifle absorbs a good bit of the recoil. But all of the recoil in a bolt action rifle is transmitted to the shooter's body.
Drakejake
As for shooting from the hip?? Manly sounding yes, but I value my various bits of junk a little too much to shoot anything untested from the hip!!! 
