Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Spanish Mauser Rockwell numbers?

Butch,

I saw some pictures that you posted on another site of small ring Mauser...did you do your own stock work?

Yes

The Spanish SRs in 7.62x51 are intended to shoot lower pressure CETME ammo. Having all of the information and understanding the context is kind of important too, wouldn't you agree?

This is your project and your $$, so you should probably build it to meet your expectations.

I quite agree that context is always needed to evaluate things correctly.
I have a CETME rifle and so have done a little research on them, and from what I read I was under the impression that the driving force for the development of lower power CETME 7.62x51 ammunition was the introduction of early versions of the CETME auto loading rifle. As the Spanish did not yet have sufficient inventory to equip and train all of their troops they elected to rebarrel the Mausers they still had in inventory to the same caliber and issue them to auxiliaries.

I do realize that I can get a little lost when I go down one of these rabbit holes. That's why I reach out to folks like you and the others that were kind enough to respond to my post. Helps to keep from getting into too much trouble.

Just like when building a house you want to start with a good foundation, a good ROT to avoid trouble when building a rifle is to start with a good action.

But it's your $$, your build, so you should do it your way.

I do most of the metal work, but no woodwork or bluing.

If you don't mind me asking; Who did? And are they still making stocks?

OT. As I recall the CETME round fired a 144gr FMJ at around 23-2400fps. I always thought with the weight of the M-14, it would be fully controllable on full auto with that round.

I had an Oviedo Mauser that had been converted to 7.62X51.
E R Shaw rebarreled it to .243 for me. While I didn't hot-rod my loads, I never had a problem with middle of the road type ammunition.
I'd still be using that little rifle, except some a-hole stole it out of my feed truck. It was very accurate.

You don't happen to remember what year was stamped on it, do you?

Back in the early 90's a buddy re-barreled a Spanish 93 to .308 Winchester. All went well until one day he was shooting up a batch of European NATO 7.62 surplus ammo, and he experienced a pierced primer. The gases that spit back in his face could've blinded him had he not been wearing safety glasses. Points to the fact that M93's had poor gas handling characteristics compared to later Mauser designs and most subsequent commercial designs.

I often read of that in journals and around the internet, and always have to agree, based on admittedly a sample of one personal experience. Still and all...

I noted a hole on the left side of the front of the receiver that looks like someone drilled two holes close to each other and then filed them into a single opening.

I initially thought that this was a modification that the gunsmith who sporterized the rifle had done to accommodate just such an eventuality.

Now, after looking through a lot of pictures, and seeing the identically shaped and placed hole on several Spanish rifles, I suspect that it was actually done using a single jig at a Spanish armory.

I have used James Kobe, Evan Koch, James Anderson, and Dean Zollinger.

IMO, the pre-1898 style SR Mauser actions biggest design fault is the way that it channels escaping gas from a pierced primer or separated case back toward the shooter. That is why when I build a rifle on a Swedish military or Husqvarna commercial SR pre-1898 style Mauser action, I install a commercial style bolt shroud from Brownells with a larger gas shield.

This isn't my project and I've said my bit, so que sera sera.

Wiki says that CETME ammo was loaded with a 113 grain plastic core bullet at 2,600 fps with the objective being low recoil and controllable full-auto fire.

Go with someone experienced if you must. The numbers don't tell the story on case hardened receivers. Typically receivers that were case hardened were low carbon steel that could not be hardened by heat treating. Case hardening allowed carbon from charcoal or leather to sink into the red hot steel but it only will go a maximum of .020 inch. Most case hardening will be less than .010 inch. This gave a receiver that would resist cracking through or breaking because the core was soft but resisted wear and corrosion to some degree with a super hard skin. If you case harden modern receivers you will have to draw or soften the hardness because they will harden through and be brittle. Since 50,000 of pressure will be 6 inches in front of your eye maybe you should look for a modern receiver and enjoy the old Mauser on the wall

Sorry, I don't. It was the model with the squared bolt bottom, but it was stolen ~ 13 years ago.

Wiki is likely right. I saw the above discribed ammo for sale at Sportsmans Guide some years. It was listed as CETME/.308. Maybe it was one of the experimental rounds the Spanish produced during that time.

Look to your left, and throw your wallet into that rubbish bin, it will be a better use of your coin.

Comments like that always make me wonder: what is it about us that we can so casually dismiss the wants and ambitions of other out of hand? I suspect that were we all to subscribe to the same sensibilities the world would be a safer, quieter place, and terribly dull.

I want to build a thing a certain way, not for acceptance or admiration by others, but because it appeals to my sense of aesthetic, and the idea of it being pleases me. No other justification is needed, or for the enthusiast, needed.