Sportered Argentine Mauser

[boom boom]

Thanks Mustang. Have two 1895 Lowe Chilean Mausers in the original 7mm--one is a short rifle and the other is the long 29 inch barrels. These get cast bullets in light loads only due to their age.

However, for regular shooting, I would prefer a large ring receiver in 7mm which is why I asked. Many Thanks also for posting some of the additional beautiful Mausers that you have.

 

[Mustang51]

Boom boom, the Chilean 1895 Mausers were some of the finest built. Some believe finer than the Swedish Mausers. If your '95's are in good shape, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot them with full power commercial loads. I've got a couple of them and they are fine shooters.

The 7 x 57 is a relatively low pressure cartridge and doesn't stress the small ring Mauser action at all. Of course, the 1912 action is stronger and designed to handle ruptured cases better.

One thing you might notice on your 95's is that the bolt handle slips into a notch cut in the receiver rail that acts as a third "safety lug". Of course, it isn't really as stout as the third lug on a large ring Mauser, but it does provide a safety margin that no other small ring Mauser offers.

Some of the 1895's were converted to 7.62 Nato, using a chamber insert and a rebored barrel. Those I would give a wide berth. 7.62 Nato conversions of the 1912 actions are fairly common and those are imminently safe.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Very nice. It just reminded me of an unfinished '90s project (I have lots of recent unfinished projects too . . .)

I picked up an Argentine back in the 90s before a move and it got packed up and forgotten. It was cheap because of a Bubba Dremel job on the feed lips that went way too far. I was thinking of cleaning up the top edge of the feed lips and using a center-feed aftermarket mag.

What mags are available now?

Mike

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Thanks Mustang. Have two 1895 Lowe Chilean Mausers in the original 7mm--one is a short rifle and the other is the long 29 inch barrels. These get cast bullets in light loads only due to their age.

However, for regular shooting, I would prefer a large ring receiver in 7mm which is why I asked. Many Thanks also for posting some of the additional beautiful Mausers that you have.

I had two of those. Their history of mine was they were re-hardened and converted to .308 for the Chilean police back in the '50s. I sporterized them back down in pressure, since I think they are marginal for .308 even with the heat treatment redone. I had one converted to cock on open and barrelled in .257 Roberts Ackley Improved--still have it. 7/8" x 3/8" @100yd groups after floating--never finished pillar bedding it. The other one was rebareled in 7mm Mauser for a buddy. There has been a 20+ year standing offer to buy it back if he ever wanted to get rid of it. Last year someone kicked his front door in, re-closed the door as best they could, opened his garage which is on a quiet side alley from the inside, backed in a truck of some kind, and tipped the smaller of the two huge safes into the back of a truck. Looks like they tried unsuccessfully to move the larger of the safes. The 1895 (as well as a transferable full size UZI plus an original UZI silencer) was one of 17 rifles lost His two all steel DIASes and Ruger 556 were in the other safe!

That 19th Century craftsmanship is stunning. The actions are so smooth. I'm glad I still have one.

Mike

PS. Even in the 90s, I preferred to sporterize Mausers that had already been modified. My Swede is untouched except for a drop-in peep site (and I've kept the original rear site parts).

 

[Mustang51]

The craftsmanship found in those old Mausers are stunning.

 

[Sloppy joes]

That thing sure looks nice.

 

[tark]

I have an unissued Chilean 1895 that is about 99%....with a mismatched bolt. Oh, well. It is a fine shooter, anyway. It loves the Remington 175 grain ammo that I feed it.

1909 Argentine's are the finest 98s ever built in IMHO. The one I had years ago would shoot M.O.A. all day long at 100 YRDS. With issue sights. Great rifles.

 

[Mustang51]

Thanks, guys.

1909 Argentine's are the finest 98s ever built in IMHO. The one I had years ago would shoot M.O.A. all day long at 100 YRDS. With issue sights. Great rifles.

Agree, with the Persian 98/29 a close second.

 

[Mustang51]

I used this Mauser at the vintage military rifle silhouette match (vintage sporter class) last weekend. It did OK, but i think it can do better. I started some load testing and got to the range to test my efforts. I'm using 175 gr Nosler custom competitions with CCI 200 primers and IMR 4064 (one of my favorite powders)

The Argentine seemed to like the hotter loads. Most of the groups hovered between 1.25 to 2.0 MOA, except for the 42.6 load, which was an honest .8 MOA.

Anyone have any .308/ 175 gr loads?

(@ 100 yards)