Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Mini Mauser choices

The little Grendel throws a 100gn NBT at 2960 to 3000fps depending on the local temperature. It is more akin to the 257 Roberts than the Savage. 8208 is my powder of choice.

That bullet, at those speeds gives a 1.5in high @ 100, 1.5in low @ 200. Just perfect for my kids to shoot with.

So far it has taken one pig at 72m, one shot - dead right there, grass still in it's mouth.

For the record, IMHO a cracking good cartridge for the action would be the 6.8mm SPC necked down to 6mm, fit a 1:11 barrel for up to 90gn monometal bullets. This would really be a pocket 243.

Woo hoo. I won another auction for a lefty Daly mini Mauser today on GB. That was lucky to find two just a couple weeks apart. One will become a 17 Remington and the other a 6x222. I'm psyched.

Mart

I bought a Remington 789 Mini Mauser in 222 Rem and had it converted to 6.8 SPC II. PACNOR did the rebarrel and bolt face opening work. It feeds with no sweat.

I thik the Daly Mini Mausers were made by Crvena Zastava too, just like all the minis from Interarms, Whitworth, and Remington. They may have been smoothed out and buffed up a bit as Zastava actions could be a little rough and the two lug design is given to binding a bit more than the others.

Mini Mausers are being imported again by a firm in NV.

1B

The 6.8 necked to 6mm with no other changes is the 6mm WOA (White Oak Arms), a popular cartridge for Highpower competition in AR match rifles. Lots of load data available and easy to form. An "improved" version is the 6mm PDK. Less body taper and the shoulder moved forward a bit, and shorter neck. I have one of these and it is scary accurate with 87's or 105 Amax's. There are several calibers in the PDK family that maximize the SPC case volume

Mart,

About a hundred years ago, I built a rifle on one of Sako's .223-length actions. The cartridge I came up with was a 6mm PPC necked up to .257 caliber. I designed it around the 100gr Nosler Partition, and that little beast would duplicate the .250 Savage from a 20" barrel. I called it the ".250 Carpathian". JGS built the reamer for me and RCBS the dies. Sure wish I still owned it.... :-(

Does anyone know if a Sako Riihimaki .222 magazine will accommodate .223's?

I looked at the whole class of cartridge in the 6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel, 6mm AR, and 6mm Hagar. They look like a real possibility. I guess I would lean toward the 6.8 SPC necked down to 6mm, the 6mm White Oak Arms. It seems that SPC brass is more widely available at least from my searches this morning. Any suggestions on whom to use to either fit and chamber the barrel or where to rent the reamer. The 6mm WOA sounds like an interesting option.

Mart

I have on of these built by Kevin Weaver, it isn't without a few issues. I've had to have the follower reworked and it still isn't perfect but at least it doesn't pop up through the bottom of the action after I opened the bolt after the last shot. The follower still pops up high enough and blocks the bolt from closing and the magazine only hold two down. So if I needed to run it a single shot in the field it could be a problem.

Lately the bolt stop broke and allowed the bolt just to pull out the rear of the action. Kevin removed metal from the rear of the receiver to make room for the longer cartridge, and had to grind down the bolt stop. That issue has been fixed and it was ready to go in time for my daughters OK whitetail hunt. I had bought this rifle for her to use originally but I didn't allow her to use it because of lack of trust in the rifle. I carried it for a couple of days but wasn't using it when I connected with my deer.

Kevin has been great about warranting the work he did on this rifle, but I think the issues he had with this build has made him not want to build anymore .250 Savages on the action. He had originally built this rifle for himself and I bought it about a year ago for my daughter. It shoots about every load I've tried in it around .5" at 100 yards so accuracy isn't any issue. It doesn't have the magazine space for longer than 100 grain bullets, nor is it throated for longer bullets.

I like the rifle but it will be awhile before I'm willing to let my daughter hunt with it, at least not without me there to back her up.

Mart,
The Hagar is based off the longer 25/30 Rem and really needs to be run long to get the benefit. AR guys are cutting the front of mags out to allow longer OAL. White Oak Armament would have the 6WOA reamer, but I don't know if John will work on a bolt rifle because he is swamped with AR work. Wouldn't hurt to ask. Probably a couple other reamers with other gunsmiths out there and check with the rental places.
Greg

If anyone finds a line on a follower and mag spring, I'd sure like to hear about it. I have a lefty Charles Daly version in .223. Shoots great but feeding is a little iffy, and parts are tough to come by.

Ella

No bullschit, I just spoke to shrapnel about this very thing.

They made different length mags for the appropriate cartridges so if you have .222 length mags they won't work. You need the more bigger mags.

This is per shrap, but he does know all things Sako.


Travis

What kind of follower and mag spring? Hornet, 222/223 or 7.62x39?

It's a 223....

Ella

I got a 799 in a hornet . always thought it would be cool to build a mini in a 5.7x28 maybe even necked to a .20 or .17

You would be better off going with 22 Spitfire on a Brno ZKW465, I have done a couple and they work a treat utilising the original Brno 22 Hornet barrel. Just rechamber, and recut the neck, then adjust the magazine.