Having just purchased a Beretta Jetfire I wasn't looking to buy anything else right away. But I spied a rifle that caught my eye. It was a 7mm-08 on a Mauser 1893 single lug action. It's in a walnut stock which for all the world looks like a 77 Ruger stock and it has a light contour barrel with timney trigger and two position timney safety. It's in excellent condition and only $300. I layed it away. But is it safe ?

I would never chamber one for that caliber. The action is designed for lower pressure calibers 40-50K. The 7-08 can have over 60K and still be in SAAMI spec.

Oh, heck no I wouldn't do that. 7-08 is fully modern in terms of pressure, while that 93 was developed for the 1890's vintage 7x57.
Never mind the advances in gas management from the 93 to the 98, plus steelmaking, etc etc.

I've been shooting an 1897 manufactured, 95 pattern Mauser since 1984, the previous owner having rebarreled it in 308 Win.

I load it down, 150g bullets around 2550fps from a 24" bbl.

I'd suggest you do the same. 140g about 2500-2600. I suspect the deer won't notice the pressures are lower!

Looks nice. And, you can get a 98 style bolt shroud for the gas handling feature, if you like. One of my Bobs is on a 95 Chilean Mauser and the 98 shroud dresses it up nicely. Cock on opening kits are available, too. As bobnob said, load it down a bit and enjoy.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/small_ring_mausers.htm

Good read.

It already cocks on opening. Must have one of those kits.

Excellent read. It makes me think this action can hande the 7-08. Or am I reaching the wrong conclusion?

My family has been shooting the '93-'95 guns all of my life in one form and caliber or another. They are safe when the nut behind the trigger is safe. They are not 280's or magnum actions. The 308, 243, 7mm-08, 260, 250Savage, 300Savage,etc. are all good shot to their intended range levels. A gun doesn't blow up just because you changed it to another cartridge. Load them to 46-52,000 and all will be well. This is the same kind of hog wash that got the "round nose bullet is a brush buster" crap started. powdr

A Mauser with one locking lug ? Never seen one.

Load it to old 7x57 levels and it will be fine.

The shop owner is a gunsmith and he specializes in antique militaria. He said it was single lug. Maybe I should've looked at that closer.

The Model 93 has two lugs on the front of the bolt. It doesn't have the third (or safety lug) in front of the bolt handle. The M93 is a great action for the 7X57 and similar cartridges at 45,000 psi, But I think only a foolish man would shoot it in 7mm08 with full pressure loads.

The Model 96 (Swedish) Mauser used higher grade steel and is considered safe for such chamberings (although I wouldn't feel comfortable). In fact, when I visited the Norma plant in Sweden 30 years ago, they used Model 96 actions in their pressure testing, many for high pressure loads - however, the pressure guns were covered and fired remotely.

All of the small bore military Mausers, 1892 and newer, have two locking lugs, but the pre-1898 styles don't have an auxiliary/safety lug. Do you know were it was made the action, as that, for me, is a deciding factor. If it was made in Spain, as many 1893s were, I would avoid it, but I am not a fan of Spanish-built Mausers. If it was made in Germany by Ludwig Lowe or DWM, it might be safe, but it is over 100 years old, so there is (IMO) a bit of risk involved.

If you want a 7mm-08 to shoot, CDNN still has some of the Marlin XS7s for $250. Doubtlessly not as attractive as the Mauser, but newer, stronger (maybe), and perhaps safer.

I have put together around 20 rifles on small ring military Mauser actions, pre-1898 styles, and have exclusively used Swedish actions, as I think that they are the best in all areas, materials, workmanship, and quality control. Those made by Husqvarna during the early 1940's are, again IMO, the best small ring pre-1898 style military Mausers that were ever made.

EDIT: IMO, the primary weakness of the pre-1898 small ring military Mausers isn't that they are "weak", it is that their gas handling in the event of a blown primer or case separation isn't as good as the 1898 style in both large and small ring styles. When I build on a Swedish Mauser action, I ALWAYS install a commercial style bolt shroud with a larger gas shield. I have built Swedish Mausers in 220 Swift, 22-250, 225, 243, 6mm, 257 Roberts, 260, 6.5x55, 7x57, 308, 8x57, and 358, maybe even a few more that I can't recall without looking in my rifle book. My Norwegian bachelor farmer friend owns all of them except the 257, that's mine, and he loads for all of them and, AFAIK, has never had a problem that was related to the strength of the action.

If it was really nice, I might be tempted, but I'd keep loads down to levels appropriate for the action- no factory stuff.

Scovill wrote an article some years ago about blowing up old lever guns. The gist was that damage to the actions happened over time, and eventually they let go after perhaps years of apparently problem-free use.

I've also read about the small-ring actions that were converted to 7.62 Nato being dangerous to fire with .308 Win ammunition because it's supposedly loaded to higher pressures.

Gotta wonder why someone took a perfectly good 7x57 that would be safe with factory ammo and made it into a problematic 7-08. Does it have the original barrel set back and rechambered or is it the original?

No, it's not the original barrel. It's a thin, whippy barrel which makes it a light contour, I suppose.

I'd have to remove the scope base to see where it was made.

Loading down is fine, but what happens to the next guy who owns it and doesn't know any better?

This

That occurred to me as well, but the OP didn't build it or offer it for sale, he's just buying it. If it were mine and I was going to sell it, I'd probably have the barrel stamped with "40,000 CUP" or something of the sort.

The Chuckhawks article referenced above had a good idea: make it into a .35 Remington or .300 Savage. It's not exactly in keeping with the cheap rifle theme, but maybe worth doing if the "donor" is as nice as it appears. Surely a '93 is as strong as a Remington Model 81!

for starters the 93 action is not a single lug action , secondly for many years there has been so called custom smiths who have rebarreled these soft actions to .243,.308 and other nonsense. They are low pressure capable only and doing such is playing with a live grenade. Oh and yes I have about 40 years building Mauser actioned rifles.

I think the shop owner was trying to tell me the 93 bolt has one less lug than a 98 action and he just misspoke and said it was single lug. This is the oldest shop in Hickory NC and they specialize in old military stuff.

Doing a little research I discovered the Spanish rechambered a bunch of 1893's to 7.62 Nato!

I believe those were intended for the 7.62 CETME round, which was loaded to a lower pressure.

Yes 93/95s were rebarreled to a number of other calibres after the countries that held them in war reserve sold them off.

I don't know how old you are, but from the 1950s to the 1970s, bolt action military surplus rifles were selling dirt cheap. Lots of businesses made money selling sporterized versions of the Mausers, Lee Enfields, MNs, Arisakas, etc.

Every once in a while we joked about buying milsurps out of a barrel at the gunshop for $10 to $15. I doubt we'll see those days again.

WRT rechambering the 93/95s to 7.62 NATO, that was a transitory step for many countries that could not afford state of the art military hardware, so they often bought someone else's war reserve cast offs or converted their own. That and the 7.62 CETME.

I remember being at the S.S. Kresge store, the chain that morphed into K-Mart, in Claremont, NH, in 1962/63 and getting cosmoline from a barrel full of 1894 Swedish Mauser carbines on my hands and then wiping them on my winter coat. Boy, was my Mother PISSED! I don't think that she ever got the cosmoline off that jacket and you can be sure that she dredged the memory up for several years after it happened. I don't think that she ever took me with her to the Kresge store again.

The only small ring military Mausers that I've seen converted to 7.62x51 are the Spanish 1893 that are commonly called the "1916 Guardia Civil" rifles. I believe that these were made at the Oviedo arsenal and have the Guardia Civil crest and the date of manufacture stamped on the top of the receiver ring.

Personally, you couldn't give me a 93/95 Mauser that was re-barreled to .308. Whoever converted the one in question here did a Bubba job on the bolt handle. Bolt handles are things of subtle elegance when done right, and shouldn't end up looking like the tail of a Dachshund...

There's really no reason to have rebarreled a 93 to 7-08. Kind of a "why?" kind of conversion. 7x57 is the ballistic twin and just as easy if not easier to get.
I rebarreled a Husky M46 in 257 Roberts. I toyed with the idea of 300 Savage or 7.65 Belgian/Aregentine which would both be fine to do if I wanted a 30 caliber bore.
Really, the only advantage to a small ring Mauser is coolness factor. It's easier, safer, and usually cheaper to buy a modern short action for the 260/7-08/308/358 family of cartridges i.e. Axis, Ruger American, etc.

There isn't much reason to convert old war surplus rifles these days. It was big business years ago, but with the advert of inexpensive Savages, RARs, etc, the allure has faded.

I would rather buy an Axis in 7mm-08, rather than convert an old Mauser. That said, there are people like me that enjoy reworking milsurp castoffs. Chacun à son goût!

Steve,
Like you I've rebarreled and converted a bunch of already "sporterized" Mausers because I can and I enjoy it. I agree that if you have to pay anyone for anything, just buy a new gun. People still want to do it, but it is neither practical nor economical unless you can do all of it yourself.

Even though this rifle could do more, it might be a cool cast bullet shooter.

I guess I could ream ît to 7x57 right?

The 7x57 case has a lot more taper than the 7mm08, I'm sure the reamer wouldn't clean up the chamber without setting the barrel way back.

Best advice I think is to shoot it with 7x57 pressure loads.

Ok. Thanks.