Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mauser disease

I've got a couple. They're a lot of fun and very useful around deer season.

Terry.

I have managed to pick up a couple of the argentines that are correct including the hand cartouche lovely rifles.
as to the kraig, i have a lyman 170 grain mould that i use wheelweights in for a reduced power kraig load, and they work fine.
one of the sorry things about the argentines is back when they were cheap they were often customized wrecking the history of the rifle. I do not have a 1909 yet but will some day.
as to the mausers, i have several that were commercial in design made between the two great wars. They are beautiful rifles. A couple that are .22's are especially nice. The first one i took it out after acquiring it and it had a nice peep on the back. I was wacking pop cans at about 75yards with it offhand.
jumping back to the argentines, one of their very strong points is the bluing, the deepness and richness of that would be very hard to duplicate today.

I started sporterizing 98s in 1959 when the first rush of surplus 98s showed up at around $40 at the Army surplus store.

Tens of thousands of dollars and dozens of rifles later I am just beginning to appreciate how advanced the 98 Mauser was, and is. The Springfield 03 and Win Models 54 and 70 were many years ahead of their time, as were the 7 x 57 and 8 x 57 cartridges.

No such thing as Mauser Insanity.

Wayne

I hate to tell you how many rifles you have to find to scratch the 1903, 1903A3 itch. They actually did make a number of variations with different stocks, etc.

one of the very first bolt actions i remember was somewhere around 9 years old that a friend of mine had in the mid 50's. It was a argentine 1909 that had been customized.
That shutzenfest rifle was made in 1938 and bears a man's innitials in a silver plate on the stock. It resemles a k98 but an odd caliber, from memory 8x46R. I don't think it has been shot since 1938. It was picked up in germany during WWII and brought back to this country, and the guy owning it before me never found any ammo for it. I have the brass, bullets, and dies, and haven't found to shoot it yet.
They were made under restrictions, for target shooting in a non military caliber, but easy to switch out the barrel. The bluing, wood, and precision of workmanship are excellent.
Germans always made good guns.
I have quite a few springfields, and while i like them, i thinkbasically they are inferior to the original mauser.

Ron,

I bet it was an 8.15 x 46R. Oberndorf produced those rifles too! They tend to be rare from that factory. An old classic scheutzen cartridge. I remember my adopted grandfather telling me a story of when he went to an old scheutzenfest in New Braunfels Tex. Probably back in the late 20's. He said this old German (maybe in his late 80's)stepped up to the "steps" for his turn to shoot. Rested his rifle on his step, aimed and fired. He turned to the other shooters and said proudly, "Das ist eine!!!!!"

I scored the little Interarms Mini-Mauser in .223 that came in the shop last Saturday, for my Christmas. It's close enuff to a Mauser to fit my needs!!!!!

peep..,

Gotta agree. Just a few years ago got a 7X57 and a 9.3X62. Dang they work. And well. MY 7X57 is a sporterized Mex Mau and is a .270 lite, now my deer hunting go to gun. In my, not so humble opinion, it's the ultimate infantry round and what our military is trying to reproduce with heavy bullets in the 223. The Germans figgered it out a 100 years ago.

Somehow I never had a 8X57 but it will happen.

O

You gotta ask yourself, if so many people have it, and so many others aspire to it, can you really call it a disease? IMHO, certainly not. Rather, I would say it is a healthy fascination with a great mechanical design.

It can only be considered pathological if it goes to the point where you are stealing the food from your children's mouths and breaking open their piggy banks to acquire another Mauser.

I kin fix your disease. Send me all your money. Thank me later.

Doc Dan

Which is why I sold my step-son into slavery as soon as he turned 18.

Well I'm gonna take the Husqvarna 9.3 x 62 to the woods this weekend and try again for a nilgai. That is, if one shows himself. (But I'm also taking my Boddington #1, Holland & Holland .30 Super). Several others are going down for deer and such too. Should be lots of fun. Think I'll take my DWM, P-08 Parabellum along as my official sidearm for the weekend. Hey it ain't as bad as the one of us who will be packing his C96 Broomhandle...... Yep a "different" strain of the disease....

Kaywoodie

I think I have a little case of the disease. Just for the sporters though.

I've ended up with a 35 Whelen, a .308 Norma and a .243 that way. A 1940 FN 98, An early 60's FN commercial and a 98 K respectively. They all came in wood stocks with tips and caps bolts bent, scope safeties, etc. I knocked the Monte carlos off them and changed out the recoil pads to get ones that didn't have the white lines and were softer than rocks.

They all have plastic stocks now as well.

A .270, an 8mm-06 AI and a 6.5 x55mm are likely out there someplace.

In fact it is a 8.15x46R. Which accounts for the reason why it probably was never fired.
it took me a while to get brass made in germany from rws, actually made by the nobel company, and if i remember right i got bullets from buffalo. I have yet to load it up and fire it altho i have the dies for it. I have often wondered how to get information from the innitials on the buttstock as to the guy who owned it in germany.
They are quite rare in this country as they were never imported.

There is a gross understatement on all accounts!


ddj

Got infected by the Mauser affliction right from the start with my first rifle. All matching numbered 1916 Steyr 98 that the Isreali's had converted to .308. A lot of miles on that one.

Saw it's twin at a gunshow a year or so back. Bought it for my son so as to have a matched set when he is ready.

Just added a all original matching numbered Swede in 95% condition.

Add the Bastard sibling, but stronger, Arisakas, have three.

And the ofspring Rugers and my limited resource collection has started to grow quite nicely.

It is kind of like Mannlicher stocks. About the time I thought about getting one, two have appeared in the safe.

Now to address the problem I need a DWM, Argentine, or Steyr 98 in mannlicher form, maybe in 7x57, 8mm, or 9.3.....hmmmm.....

Perfectly acceptable, JB. Now, if you had done so when he was 15, that would have been child slavery, which is just sick. :-D

Well I took the plunge tonite.

Went downstairs just before closing to see if there was anything bought I needed to take up to the shop for a look over before putting out on the shelf. And there it was!!!! Setting next to a pair of '94 Winchester rifles that had just come in. An awesome Interams "Whitworth Express Rifle" in .375 H & H!!!! Sporting a 1.5 x 5 Leupold "Dangerous Game" scope! I immediately grabbed it up! Took it upstairs, gave it a quick look over, and testfired it in the chamber. WOW!

It's currently laying across my lap as I write this missive. Trip to the range in th morning and I'll take it on the nilgai safari this weekend! Fought off the .375 bug as long as I could. But one look at the wood and I wasruined.. I'm as happy as a little girl!!!!

Kaywoodie

Springfield 03 Sporterized rifles would be a good start. That and a little more cow bell.

Mark X Whitworth 30-06

One of several mausers residing in safe. 2-6.5x55; 1-.45-70; 2-7x57 . . . yeah I'm sick!

Very Nice!!!!!!!!

K