I have a 1939 german mauser in 8x57. I traded an old tv for the rifle and a ww2 ammo pouch with a few rounds of ammo still left in it. The stock has been butchered but, all of the metal is in very good shape and has matching serial numbers. I acquired this rifle 2 years ago and have never fired it. I decided to purchase some remington 8mm mauser ammo to go shot the rifle the other day. I laid a round in front of the bolt and closed the action. Only problem was, the bolt would not close. I tried and tried and could not get teh bolt to close, 3/8" from closing. Now, when I chamber a military round that came with the rifle, the bolt closes no problem. I fired off a round to see if the rifle would fire, worked perfectly. Actually hit 1 moa high and 2 moa right from point of aim, iron sights and all. The stamp on the military ammo is 7.92 and something I cannot read. Is it the bullet design? The military ammo is a spitzer, long bullet that looks to be an aluminum fmj. The remington 8mm ammo I purchased is round nose. Any help would be appreciated to save a trip to a gun smith. I really do not know a good gunsmith that works on mausers in these parts.

You will have to put the rounds into the magazine first, not just lay them in front of the bolt.

The claw extractor can't fit between the case rim and the reciever. It was designed so that when fed from the magazine, the case would slip up to the boltface and be captured by the extractor.

Ah, gotcha. I will give this a try as soon as I get a chance. Thank you.

Then why did the military stuff he had work just fine?

My concern is his indication there's 3/8" gap from closing.. That ain't the extractor.. Unless he's off on his estimation..

Maybe a .318 bore???

Would a 1939 vintage military Mauser have a .318" bore barrel?

Jeff

Nope.

Must be wrong ammo.???? Can you measure the dimensions of the old ammo. vs. the new 8MM loads with a caliper???? Some of these old Mausers are strange.

Redneck, re-read the OP. He never had any milsurp ammo. Only a milsurp pouch.

FC363 is correct.

Umm...the OP DID have a few rounds of milsurp ammo and he says so in his post.
Even fired the milsurp ammo and commented on how it shot.

From the OP's post: "Now, when I chamber a military round that came with the rifle, the bolt closes no problem. "

Nah, the 8mm mauser modern round nose from remington just sucks in ww2 rifles. Try the golden Wolf and I believe Federal makes some as well that is pointed. You can buy the milsurp for about 3 cents each at shows but they sure require lots of barrel scrubbing afterwards. Get rid of the remington garbage, trade it off to someone who has a modern firearm for some of their pointed rounds.

I'm curious to find out if Spazz had inserted the military rounds from out of a stripper clip into the magazine, but had only dropped the loose commercial cartridge on top of the follower. No telling until he comes back with the verdict.

But out of curiosity, I have several original bring backs, and I have both original Nazi ammo as well as modern round nose commercial ammo. The closest rifle I have to his is a minty 1940 Mauser. It will feed the round nose commercial ammo slick as owl poop from out the magazine. Drop a loose cartridge on top and the bolt will hit at an initial stop approximately a 1/4 inch short before you can start to engage the lug recesses. Applying forward pressure of the extractor against the cartridge head, I can push it another 1/8th inch forward and just start to engage the lug recess before it stops cold. The extractor is mint original and it will not jump into the groove on its own. It looks like there is just enough room to force it to snap over if the tail section is squeezed at the mid-point, but I'm affraid to add any wear on the extractor due to the rifles excellent condition. But this is just speculation that it may apply to the OPs problem.

Give us an update Spazz.

Best:)

Second thought, the commercial ammo I used was Winchester and it does appear to be more pointed than the Remington. I could not find any Remington or any other bluntly round bullet ammo in my supply to confirm if that would be an issue. I thought for sure I had shot Remington out of one of the other Mausers, but I can't recall for certain.

he said "remington 8mm." did you mean 8mm mauser remington factory rounds? or 8mm rem magnum rounds?

Ok. I got to look at it last night. After thinking about what fc363 said, I remembered that I inserted the military ammo into the mag from a stripper clip. After inserting the 8mm mauser ammo I purchased into the mag, everything worked fine. First mauser I have ever fired and I am surprised at the accuracy of the military ammo. The remington ammo had a lot less recoil and did not shoot as well.

Thanks for all of the replies.

Did you clean the corrosive fouling from the military ammo? Windex on a cotton patch will dissolve the salts, otherwise your bore will rust.

Oh yeah. I cleaned it right away. Thanks for the tip on the windex though. Never thought about that before. I used butch's bore shine and ballistol. Windex would smell a lot better than that stuff.

I know you have fired it already but have you checked the headspace on this old rifle? You really ought to do that before you fire it again.

RH

I have not checked the headspace yet. That is certainly the next step. Then it is on to dies and working loads.

The old 8mm mauser makes great deer rounds. I have a very nice one that I use as a loaner to people who want to hunt with me but have no rifle. The rifles are accurate, durable, proven and have hard hitting rounds. It was the top of the line WW2 technology and they still go boom today.