1916 Spanish Mauser ???

[375rifleman]

Hello,
Does anyone have any experience, or knowledge, of the limitations of these rifles, and the possible, rechambering, rebarreling, and other gunsmithing techniques/methods. Thanks in advance for any thoughts, opinions, and answers.

Regards,
375rifleman

 

[Jud96]

It is a small ring Mauser and is limited to about 50k psi loads. They make for great European style sporting rifles with a nice stock and a rebarrel in 6.5x55 or in the original chambering, 7mm Mauser. You will need to have the bolt bent, the action drilled and tapped, and an aftermarket safety so it will work with a scope mounted. Not bad actions when used responsibly with safe loads and checked over to make sure everything is in working order.

 

[shortgrass]

The only time a military Mauser is a 'bargain', is if you can do much of the work to 'sporterize' it yourself. That said, the 1916 Spanish Mauser is useable with low pressure cartridges only. And as far as Mausers go, Spanish steel/case hardening has always been suspect. I'd not waste my time. If you're going to use a Mauser, at least use a model '98. A commercial '98 would be an even better choice.

 

[Waynzee]

I have a 7mm 1895 Chilean Mauser that was my Dad's and was customized by a gun smith back in the mid 50's. Since then I inherited it and am in the process of making some changes while keeping it as original as possible. This rifle will shoot a 1 inch group at 100 yards with my reloads so with a little work these old Mausers are pretty good shooters. If I had the time and space on this thread I could tell you a lot of stories about all the deer and bear that old rifle took in the PA. woods.

 

[RT2506]

I reworded a 7x57 Spanish Mauser for a friend. His father had the rifle sported back in the 1960s. The barrel was cut back to 22" and had Williams front ramp and rear sights installed, bolt bent down and all was hot blued really well. It was put in a nice after market wood stock. Long story short they came home one day and someone was coming out of their house with the rifle trying to steal it and threw it down and ran away. This broke the stock into at the wrist. It sat in a closet until the late 1990s. My friend found the rifle after his father died and wanted to start deer hunting and wanted to use this rifle. I got him a stock and cut the old bolt handle off and made a new one and welded it on so it would work with a scope. I drilled and tapped it for a Leupold base. I added a safety that worked with a scope then I reworked the two stage trigger making it a single stage adjustable trigger. This rifle had a bore that looked like new. I used some Hornady 154 gr interlock bullets that I had really good results on deer from other 7mm rifles and worked up a load using IMR 4350 that was a tack driver at 2500 fps that was according to the loading manuals just under 46000 CUP which is where the pressure for these rifles should be limited to. It made a great handling accurate deer harvester.