mauser project- which caliber?

[mjbgalt]

i have a mauser project going and i was wondering what you guys would do for a caliber?

i would like something i could shoot often and enjoy it. i do not like .223 or .30-06, and in Ohio you cannot use a rifle for deer.  I have a .243 already...

i was thinking of something like a .25-06 or .25-08 Souper or maybe even .22-243 Middlestead. or maybe something more "normal" like a .308 or .270...

i will be buying a barrel soon and having it blued and screwed on...and i want this to be a "special" project i can be proud of and have it be interesting at the same time.

-Matt

[BloomGrad]

My recommendations are for calibers that would not need to have the bolt face opened up. 

Take a look at the .257 Roberts or .257 Roberts Ackley Improved along with their parent cartridge the 7x57 Mauser.  Nice, light recoil and with the proper barrel twists very accurate.

.260 Remington or 7-08 remington are both really fine for accuracy.

.308 Win might be best if you just want to punch paper.  Lots and lots of the finest match ammo is for this cartridge.  Also some of the most reasonable factory surplus ammo for plinking.

I'm a classics type of guy so if you want a smaller bore then the .257 Roberts.  You can have it rechambered later to .257 Ackley Improved if you want to play with wildcats.

My 2 cents. 

 

[R.W.Dale]

 I plan on taking my LONG action savage 110 and have a 22-250 barrel fitted for it that features a 1 in 9 twist rate and a nice long throat so I can take advantage of the longer magazine with long heavy bullets

[RaySendero]

For under .30 Caliber - Go with the 260 Rem if you reload.  If not, 7-08.

.30 Caliber - Go with the 308 Win

For over .30 Caliber - I'm going to try the 9.3x62.  This one is reload only.

All of the above will fit the bolt face.

[mjbgalt]

i do reload. i saw the .260 as a great idea, but for some reason a lot of people don't. less powder and length than a .270 yet the same power and trajectory. brilliant.

would a Remington barrel mate up with a Mauser? or could it be made to?

-Matt

[sgtt]

Waisting a lot of action if you go with a short round.

[myarmor]

What exactly will you be using this rifle for Matt? If we had a better Idea then you would open the floor for more opionions..
-Aaron

[Coyote Hunter]

Since you cannot use it on deer without traveling out of state, just what are you going to do with it? 

[jvs]

.257 Roberts

or

.25-06

or

6.5mm Mag

or

the hard hitting 8mm

[mjbgalt]

going to be shooting it at the range, and hunting coyotes and groundhogs and such.

so, something i can use for varmints at long ranges but still be capable of deer hunting, when i do get the chance to take a trip.

-Matt

[Coyote Hunter]

going to be shooting it at the range, and hunting coyotes and groundhogs and such.

so, something i can use for varmints at long ranges but still be capable of deer hunting, when i do get the chance to take a trip.

-Matt

With that usage my vote goes to a .25-06.  75g V-Max for the varmints and 120g A-Frames or Partitions or for the deer.

[BloomGrad]

If had better luck with brass life in a .257 Roberts than my friend had in his .25-06.  Lots of case stretch he reported.  But there are Lots of .25-06's out there so it may have been just his.

On reading these posts another thought could be the 6.5x55 Swedish.  Could be loaded to be the same or better than the .260 Rem.  As it is the same bore siize.  Small for coyotes and has been reported to drop elephants in the old days with long heavy bullets.  It is very popular in Finland for moose.  They think of it like we think of our .30-06.  And it would make better use of the magazine length.

Plus it's an old time classic.

My 2 cents.  Again.

[The Sodbuster]

Matt, given the following two comments:

i would like something i could shoot often and enjoy it. i do not like .223 or .30-06, and in Ohio you cannot use a rifle for deer.  I have a .243 already...

and,

going to be shooting it at the range, and hunting coyotes and groundhogs and such.  so, [sic] something i can use for varmints at long ranges but still be capable of deer hunting, when i do get the chance to take a trip.

I'd suggest if you're going to shoot it a lot recreationally and want something for varmints and maybe deer, I'd go with something lighter than a .25-06.  It burns around 48-55 grains of powder depending on the load.  That's a lot of recoil if you're going to be burning up 50 rounds at the range.  A smaller case will also save some money by using less powder each time you squeeze the trigger.  Since this is a custom project and you're not limited to factory chamberings, what about some of the smaller cased 6mm cartridges, such as 6XC, 6mmBR and 6mmPPC?  If going for something more conventional, I'd suggest .257 Roberts or .25 Souper.  Don't know much about the Souper, though I suspect it probably duplicates the .257 Bob, in a slightly shorter package.

[mjbgalt]

the souper actually outdoes the Roberts but it's basically a .243 with heavier bullets. if i wanted to shoot that, i could just load 105 grain bullets in my .243...

the 6mm and other benrest cartridges all burn quite a bit of powder too, don't they?

how about a .25 acley improved? has that been done?

i also like the .22-243...intriguing idea...

-Matt

[Sigma]

I'd go with the .260 or 6.5x55 for that project. Sounds pretty cool to me.

[mjbgalt]

decided on .22-250. i have one now but am planning on selling it anyway.

that should more than pay for the barrel and gunsmith work on the mauser.

if anyone is interested in a stainless vanguard in .22-250, PM me.

-Matt

[rvtrav]

   mjb,

   you mentioned this would be used for coyotes and targets. I haven't seen the 6mm remington mentioned yet. A good coyote caliber that is a necked down 7mm mauser so it would work easily, I know I've built one with a heavy barrel on the '98 action, with a laminate stock.

  on the other end of the caliber spectrum along with the 9.3x62 you may want to consider the .35 whelen. if you ever go out of state hunting for something "big."

[Harold50]

Why not leave it an 8x57? It'll shoot 150 grain SPTs at 2900 with IMR-3031. There is 200 grain Nosler Partition available. At 2350 - 2400 fps the NPT would hit like the Hammer of He**. It's a .323 caliber!

We could call it the .323-06 Short or the.323 Roberts (sorry Ned)? With a great name it is bound to hit even harder. How about calling it the 323 Hornady, after all, Federal has named the 338/08 the 338 Federal and there is a lot of talk that it will be accurate and hit hard.

For a handloader the 323/06 Short (8x57) is a cartridge to have some fun with.

Seriously,the 8x57, all by itself, handloaded, is big medicine.
I have two.

Harold

[Don Fischer]

I don't know if I'd do the 6.5x55 were I you. Need to know if the bolt face would need opening. I did one on a mauser action and had to do just that. Worked fine but, you could go to the 6.5x57 and not have to fool with it. My thought on building a rifle, why build something you can buy across the counter unless it's a match rifle? Another thought might be the 5.6x57 or 22-6mm rem, pretty much the same thing. Ah, maybe a 6mmx06.

[Brithunter]

With the 6.5x55 just use American made brass as it's undersize at the head  the bolt face being 0.473" would fit.

    I have often wondered why the American ammo companies cannot makes cartridges cases to the specs. 6.5x55 has the same head size as the .308 on US brass.

     .303 British is undersized at the web    Winchester 30-30 brass, one of their own designs, the rim is undrsized 

Now if they made 6.5x54MS brass I woinder what they could do to that?

[edwennink]

With the .243, you already seem to have most of your existing shooting covered...

As you pointed out previously, if you wanted to shoot 100grs, you could do that with the .243, which also covers all the bullet weights down to 55grs!

Therefore, seems to me , as you have a full-length M98 action to play with, you should start looking at cartridges with 57mm or 63mm cases, and that start about where the 6mms leave off in bullet weight. To me, that disqualifies the .25s, as not offering enough advance over the .243!

I think good options begin with the 6.5/06 (and AI) and .270Win...

Then the 7x57 (and AI), .280 (and AI) and finally the 30/06(and AI).

Considering the likelihood of you using it, other than on targets, the .338/06 and 35 Whelen are probably not going to do much for you.

The only other I'd suggest, if you want an Elk rifle, is running a 30/06 reamer into the existing 8mm barrel, if you still have it, for an 8mm/06...this would be your quickest and cheapest option too, of course!

Good luck with it,

Ed

[GeoW]

On reading these posts another thought could be the 6.5x55 Swedish.  Could be loaded to be the same or better than the .260 Rem.  As it is the same bore siize.  Small for coyotes and has been reported to drop elephants in the old days with long heavy bullets.  It is very popular in Finland for moose.  They think of it like we think of our .30-06.  And it would make better use of the magazine length.

Plus it's an old time classic.

My 2 cents.  Again.

And another .02. 6.5x55 is one sweeeet caliber.

[Coyote Hunter]

mjbgalt –

The .25 Souper is based on the smaller .308 Win case.  It outdoes the .257 Roberts in the standard SAAMI pressure range, but the +P loadings for the .257 Roberts pretty well eliminate – if not actually overcome – any deficiencies in velocity.  Loaded to the same pressure as a .308 Win, not something I would do in an older Mauser but something I have no problem with in my Ruger, the larger case of the .257 easily bests the Souper in the velocity department.

A .25-06 Ackley has indeed been done and is generally considered one of the better Ackley cartridges.

The 6mm Benchrest burns about 5g less powder than a .22-250 when comparing either light- or heavy-for-caliber bullets and maximum loads.

[mjbgalt]

i think i may leave the other calibers for later, or even for another project...

this one looks so nice in the stock i bought, with the military barrel that i might leave it that way....i could shoot cheapo gun-show rounds in it for fun and then handload a hunting load for it should i get the chance to go to PA for deer like i planned.

i would like to post a pic here of how it turned out but it looks like rocket science since i don't have a place to post it on the net.

-Matt

[Don Fischer]

If you do do it, you reload,why not do something really different? How about a 6mm-06? Or maybe a 22-257 Roberts? Most of those other ideas while good ideas, you can buy across the counter!

[mjbgalt]

if i do a wildcat it will be a .22-243. I love both the .22-250 and .243 and the benefits of 5,000 fps, while small, makes me grin.

-Matt