Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles "Take a Mauser hunting" an important message from the Mauser Rescue Society

Bob the 450-H is badass, killed a 6x5 Bull Elk with it last Sunday 153 yrds DRT a Really fun gun to shoot, never have shot a critter twice with it.You did a great job putting it together for me, Good luck on you Elk hunt with James. Rio7

I will be carrying my newly acquired 7X57 Brno 22F opening day. Got it last week to go along with two other ones already claimed by my kids. This one is much better looking than either of the others and has the advantage of not having any modifications. Unfortunately, it is resisting my efforts at finding a tack driving load for it, 'tack driving' being subjective. These full stocked rifles usually give average accuracy at best. So far, the best I've been able to do with this one is about 1.75". That is perfectly acceptable for the distances I'll be hunting with it at, but I'd love to get it around MOA....just because!

Many other types of actions have some advantage or another that may be deemed to be better than a Mauser. But taken as a total package, the Mauser is still hard to beat!

That is a vision of loveliness. How long is the barrel?

If it fits your hunting style, I'd suggest starting with 160 grain cup and core bullets, Sierra and Speer flatbases are what I used mostly in my BRNO's, I used Win. brass (good internal capacity), and WLR primers, and 760/414 at 48 grains....way above reloading manual max. Brno may be metallurgically the best of Mausers, BRNO has a very long European throat, and the reloading books are written to accommodate the idiots who would use hot loads in 1893 actions and possibly some fool firing them in 1902 Remington Rolling blocks. At 48 gr I got 2600 fps and 1 moa 5 shot groups. I seated the bullets well out, don't worry about jamming the lands...you can't. Brass lasts indefinitely so pressures are sane.
Also, don't just jump to the folklore conclusion that full stocks are to blame for accuracy problems, that hasn't been my experience at all with 2 fullstocks and 1 halfstock, I'd say phooey.

I own 3 full stocks and the only one I had issues with was a Ruger RSI and once I relived a bit of metal along the nose cap where it was touching the barrel it has been fine. My Mannlicher Schoenauer 1905 and CZ550FS have both been very accurate. I second the phooey call.

I built my first full stocked rifle in the early eighties using a [bleep] 90% stock and a Mark X Whitworth barreled action. Following the advice of a knowledgeable buddy, I bedded it from 'appetite to azzhole'...full length bedding from the tang to the end of the barrel. It is a very accurate rifle and accounted for many whitetails until it slowly drifted to the back of the safe. Now I take it out once a year out of respect.

Since then, I've owned about a dozen or so full stocked rifles and found that average accuracy is about the best one can expect from them without a lot of work. The single exception is my CZ550FS in 6.5X55 which will go under MOA consistently. Between myself and friends, I've seen the results of shooting both M77 and No 1 RSIs and not a single one of them would shoot MOA without serious bedding work. Please understand that not a one of those FS rifles was unusable WRT accuracy (phooey or not), they just wouldn't produce 'wallet sized' groups. When carrying one, I just hunt places where shots won't exceed the rifle's capability.

flintlocke, you are absolutely correct about the excessive free bore in Brno, and other European, 7X57s. I got my first 22F 20 years ago and was checking it out while waiting for the scope rings to come in. I checked length to lands in it and found I could not seat a 139 gr Hornady out long enough to reach the rifling....by a lot! My thoughts were, "Oh well, at least it looks good". I was blown away when it shot acceptably despite the free bore. The second 22F is an 8X57 and did not have a free bore issue.

This 7X57 is like the first. Even tried a 175 gr Hornady RN and couldn't reach the lands with it. So far, I've tried 139s, two different 160s, and the 175s using 3 different powders. Groups are in the 2 to 3" range except for a H414/139 load. It measured 1.75". I still have a few more tricks to try, but if I don't find that 'magic' load, I'll take the best one and shoot some totally cold bore groups (one shot every day) and see if I can depend on the first shot going to the same place. If that's the case, I can certainly live with it. I have no interest in rebedding or altering this old classic so that it will shoot bragging size groups. It is a hunting rifle, not a bench rest rifle!

I'm glad that y'all are getting exception accuracy with your FSs. I wish mine would consistently turn out MOA and better groups but they don't. I've just found that the full length stocks add too many extra variables that affect accuracy. If I did a lot of extra work on them like the first FS stock I built, I have little doubt a big difference could be noted. These days, if I can get acceptable hunting accuracy, that is enough. Especially with the old classics that I don't want to modify. My first two 22Fs and my 1903 M-S do the job and won't be touched. This new one will do so too when I get it figured out.

I don't want to get pushy here...but I will reiterate, maybe the most important single thing about the accuracy load I quoted above, is the profile of the flat base 160 gr bullets seems to work with the BRNO chamber dimensions. I fooled with a great variety of 139 to 145 bullets, in a number of traditional powders, in a number of seating lengths....and never came even close to 1 moa. And, since I found this to be true in 2 BRNO's, widely separated by year of production, I'd venture that there is a clue there in regards to the 160 fb and BRNO chamber. By the way, I never had any joy with the 154 Hornady either, which is very strange, considering it is fairly close to the Sierra and Speer 160's.

My brother in law needed a gun for deer camp, and refused to borrow this one.

A friend dura coated the action and made it look a little nicer.

May not look great, but it is a shooter.

Sounds good to me. I actually put a box of Speer 160s in my Midway cart 2 days ago but haven't pushed the button yet because I'm waiting fora friend to add something to my order. That decision was based on the O'Connor article floating around here that states that is all Elenor ever used in her 7X57. That plus JB always seeming to lean toward 160s in that cartridge. Good to hear you've had success with them as well. The only 160s I have on hand are Accubonds and they didn't work.

I have used primarily 139 Hornady flat base bullets in all my 7X57s since building my Mark X with excellent results. They work well in my first Brno 7X57 as well, but who knows. Maybe the flat base 160s will be that 'magic load' for me. If you would share your load info with that bullet I'd love to try it. Put it in a pm if you don't want it on the forum. Thanks for the input.

I'd like to hear back if it works for you or not. Good luck. Like you, I could hunt the rest of life with a 3 moa rifle and never go short on meat...but there is something about 1 moa...maybe confidence, who knows?

BINGO!

I'll probably hunt with this cherry stocked 25-06 my father built. It shoots tiny groups.

Your dad did a good job....congrats on a nice one!

The 6.5x55 closed the deal in KY on the 2nd morning. 120 gr NBT

The K98 does the job!

Congratulations! I really like that little stutzen.