Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Strange results from The Mauser From Hell

I have a Mauser 8X57 mm sporter. It was a rather expensive conversion from military to sporter. The barrel was tuned to a new profile (still retaining the Nazi stampings), the bolt handle replaced with a nice turn-downed handle, all the metal beautifully polished and blued and, a highly figured stock fitted. Unless the guy was a gunsmith,it was a rather expensive conversion. BUT, it only shoots 3-4" groups.

I have only owned one 8x57..."supposedly" it was a battlefield pick up in Russia, which they, in turn cleaned it up and sold them. Mine was a K98 and it had Nazi markings. I had a taller front sight put on and I only shot Turkish surplus ammo. Some said it was machinegun ammo, I don't know but it was hot stuff! My point is that it was ( still is, I gave it to a young man in my church) a great shooter! I won't say how good as I don't want to be thought of as a liar...but it was/is, with that ammo, at "least" a 1 MOA rifle.
I say that as I believe any 8x57 is worthy of tricking out, investigating, trial and error, doing everything one can to get them to shoot acceptably. To "me", I'd want at least a 2 inch/100yd setup. I can't accept bigger than that "for myself". I have "put in my time" with a rifle like that ( my dad's old Mod 742) when I was a young man. We shot it iron sights and it would do about 5-6 inches with 150gr Corlokt ammo. It didn't much matter as I never killed game over 50-60 yds with the thing! ha I later got some of the new Federal "Red Box" factory loads that used the Sierra 165 SBT. It then shot a nice, rounded 4" group. Still didn't matter, I hunted int the heavy woods with it, everything I shot with that particular load was under 40 yds! ha. So, I'm glad some guys are still messing with the older Mausers, but they can be shooters. It is certainly a powerful round. A friend of mine shot his cow elk with his old Persian Carbine 8x57 and 200 Nosler. His little rifle is a real shooter too.
For a safety Shaman, I think you could find a Mod 70 type pretty reasonable. someone put a Wisner Mod 70 type on my 7x57 Classic. It needed a bit of work to smooth it out, but it is fine now. I never had an issue with the Remington thumb safety, I really like them in fact. Good luck to you Pard.

Look at the Dayton Traister Safety Kit over on Brownells Mr Shaman...$22+ I think it is only two position but it is a wing safety.

Deal sweetener? Maybe you should havve asked for some sweet-n-low.

I have an update for y'all on the Mauser From Hell.

I just came in from the range (well, it's the front porch), and the infamous Mauser From Hell just shot a 3-shot group with all 3 rounds touching. It was hot. I wasn't letting the barrel cool, and the 3 were perfectly stringed vertically. This makes it close to one of the best groups I've ever shot.

What made the difference? Back over the winter, I took a dowel and some 85 grit sandpaper and removed the old bedding from the forearm up to about 3 inches in front of the receiver. This was the first time I've had it out.

I also took the time before shooting to go out and mash down all the tall grass at the edge of the yard. Last year, if you remember that was one of the suspected causes of the flyers.

Thanks all for your help.

I've got 5 rounds left for the morning. I intend to see what it does on a cold barrel, in between shots with the 25-06 that I've got out to dial in.

I just wanted to give you one last update on The Mauser From Hell. I kept it out in the blind all week, determined to use it on a deer.

On Saturday, the MFH finally got successfully blooded. At just over an hour after sun-up, a well-fed 6-point whitetail buck came out of the bushes into the pasture we call "The Garden of Stone." He was approximately 140 yards from my blind. I think he saw me put down my coffee because he stopped and looked my way.

I still have work to do on the safety, and I did not want to spend more money on this project without proving it, so I had been keeping the chamber cold. I jacked a round into the chamber, 175 grain Speer RN's over H4895. As I nestled the forearm into the bag, he turned broadside.

The new Timney trigger surprised me. I may want to set it a bit higher to compensate for cold fingers. It broke perfectly as I settled on a high shoulder shot. The buck disappeared. For a moment I was sure he had run back into the bushes and was now thundering down the ravine on Left Leg Creek, but before I could cycle another round, I saw hooves come up through the tall grass.

I had dropped him on the spot. The shot had missed the heart but taken out both lungs.




Pics and more details are here:

Finally! Shaman Scores a Buck

Now *that's* a happy ending!

Hot damn, congrats shaman. My thumper just scored it's first victim as well.

Everybody thinks there's nothing better than building your own custom Mauser. On the way home, I started thinking about all I'd done to get to Saturday Morning:


Changed out the scope to a Bushnell Trophy 4-12X
Changed out the trigger to a Timney
Used Electrolysis to remove excessive copper from bore
Dyna-Tec Bore Coat
Attempted to install a Leupold STD mount to replace the busted one
Sent rifle off to gunsmith to have STD mount mounted and epoxy bedded.
Removed bedding from forearm-- free-floated barrel
3 bullets and two powders used in load development

. . . and all this for a rifle that weighs a pound more than my Ruger Hawkeye in 30-06.


The last remaining job is to install a safety that works properly with the scope in place.

Mike the bullets and see if they measure .322 .......