Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles ? for those of you who prefer the 7mmMauser to the 7/08

I own 7x57's because it just seems right in a Mauser action, particularly my Swede based rifle. About the ideal action for one it seems.

For me,it's kind of hard to pick up a 7mm Mauser and not think of Jack and Eleanor O'Connor,W.D.M. Bell and Ingwe.

Ah, yes, the 7x57: Giant Dall rams, big ivory and leopard-print thongs....

John, you were doing great with the rams & ivory but then came the bleach in the eyes....

The first CF rifle I ever shot was a 7x57. When we were about 10 my cousin & I grabbed the old Spanish Mauser my uncle had borrowed from one of his friends and what were undoubtedly some 175 gr factory loads and headed off to the river. I raised the rifle to my shoulder, aimed at some mark on the bluffs on the other side and with a great deal of trepidation squeezed the trigger. Wow! Lots of noise and instant airborne dirt 100 yds away - unlike the .22s I usually shot. I remember being shocked that it really didn't kick much. COOL!

Practicality and Magnumitus got hold of me over the next few decades, but I never forgot the sheer joy of touching off that old Mauser and so finally a few years ago I progressed back to the 7x57. These days my .308's stay at home and I don't miss those practical rifles a bit.

Undoubtedly a 7-08 would do all I've needed so far, but I have a new SIL who likes to hunt elk, so who knows...

The first two images are what I was thinking,the third . Think Ingwe wears leopard-print thongs only when he uses a .223 AI.

Quite a while ago, John Jobson (I think) wrote an article about the .270 versus the .280. His conclusion was that if you have one -either one- it didn't make any sense to sell it in order to get the other one. I think that's the answer in this case.

I see references to the 7x57 being capable of running somewhat faster than the 7-08, which is logical - a bit more case capacity.

Any thoughts why Ken Waters, in three articles in Pet Loads, couldn't get the 7x57 quite up to 7-08 velocities? He even stated that primer pockets got loose when he used heavy charges attempting to reach 7-08 velocities.

Probably the brass he used. Waters never had a really accurate method for testing pressures.

As somebody else already pointed out, the Nosler data lists 7x57 velocities as almost matching 7mm-08 velocities, even though their test barrel for the 7x57 is 22" long and the 7-08 test barrel 26" long.

I dunno what Ken Waters did, but I hit 7mm Rem. Mag velocities on a hot day with 140 partitions and Win. 760 in my little 1A Ruger once upon a time! Scary part is, extraction, brass, and primers were all fine! So of course, you have to chrony a couple more to believe what you're seeing!!!

I've had 3 7x57's. 2 '95's and the #1. One '95 was just shot with old surplus ball at rocks, dirt clods, cans, etc. The other was a really nice DWM that someone had put a California Syle Fajen Stock on. I didn't care for the stock or the 29" barrel, but it would put 3 Winchester 175's in an inch at 100 yards.

The little #1A is a sweetheart with a 2-7x32 Monarch on top. When I read Mule Deer's article a few years back where he opened his up to .280AI, I thought about it; then sat down, closed my eyes for a minute, and thought about it no further.

I will say I passed up a killer deal on a push feed Featherweight Model 70 about 15 years ago. It still haunts me....

760 will do that on a hot day!

I wouldn't have rechambered my No. 1A 7x57 except I'd just about decided to sell it anyway. It shot fine, and I've always liked the 7x57 1A. (My first No. 1 of any kind was one.) But I already had a custom Serengeti that was exactly the bolt-action 7x57 I'd always wanted, and when Nosler came out with the .280 AI I needed to experiment with one. Instead of buying or building another rifle, I had the local gunsmithing shop do the conversion, using several Nosler cases to get the chamber right.

It worked out very well in every way. Not only did Nosler ammo shoot well, but standard .280 brass fire-formed perfectly in the new chamber. I handloaded and hunted with the rifle for a while, and when I knew what needed to be known about the .280 AI sold the rifle. But I still had my perfect 7x57, and still do.

Yes, I've seen the Serengeti in some of your articles. Drooled on the pics a time or two too!

To tell the truth though. There are two people responsible for me having a 1A 7 Mauser.

The first would be Ross Seyfried. When I was in High School I read an article he wrote on the 7x57 and I decided right then I'd have to have me a ".275 Rigby" someday. I swear, I think Seyfried could have wrote an article about hunting with a ball bat and it would have made me lust for a ball bat! Unfortunately, I'm sure it would have been a ball bat out of my price range!

The second would be you! When I started earning a little bit of money not long after I got out of college, I was reading an article in "Rifle" or "Handloader" you had written. There was a picture of a 1A 7mm leaned up against a little daypack. Seemed like it might have had a little Burris mounted on it. That pic just kinda spoke to me.....had to have one.

That was probably my first 1A 7x57. Got it used sometime in the 80's and it took a while to get it shooting right, since it had a VERY long throat. But read one of Ross's articles and had a gunsmith install a screw on the end of the forend hanger, and after that it shot real well with bullets that could be seated out to the lands.

Killed a pronghorn at almost 400 yards with it one year, the hunt where the daypack photo came from. That was back before laser rangefinders, and like a dummy I shot OVER the first antelope at about 300 yards, because everybody knows the 7x57 doesn't shoot very flat. But held right on the second one....

I remember that article. It seems like it was in September of 1997. How I remember that I have no idea. And perhaps I am wrong on the date.

:)The M98 mauser action was designed for the 8x57 ,which is the same case as the 7x57. So it is no problem about having a short case as you would have with 708 it's family. The 257 roberts is based on the 7x57 case. Again no problem.

You'll never be able to hunt in France with the 7x57...

Agreed on the "logic" of going to a 280 over the 7x57 in the LA... most cartridges run best near max and some of us are tiring of recoil. I prefer stuff that runs under 50 grains of powder anymore, and I'd gladly run a 257 Rob on a LA.

It's interesting that tiring of recoil keeps coming up in many of the forum posts. Several ammo companies are now offering "Managed Recoil" or "Lite" loads in the more popular calibers. It seems rather ironic to see a "Managed Recoil" load in a .300 Win Mag, but Remington certainly sells enough boxes to keep the load on the market.

I think too, as many have pointed out, with advances in bullet design, small calibers and lighter loads are proving to be very efficient.

I understand the argument that X cartridge can always be loaded-down. However, the machismo/bravado/testosterone in me wants to have each cartridge performing to its (safe) potential. I'd rather have a 7x57 sending 160's at 2600-ish, than a 7mag doing the same thing.

You're right-on about the bullets being better, though. I can get almost 3K with a 130 TSX from a .300 Savage, with very little recoil or muzzle blast. I'm guessing I'd have to find some awfully heavy/tough critters to see where that load would start becoming inadequate.

FC

I load my 7mm-08 to just a hair over 2700 fps with 145 gr. Speer bullets and that has been a wonderful load for deer hunting. You can easily do the same load in a 7x57