The good old 7.92 x 57 Mauser

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Quality over quantity.

for me personally It works best with two , currently a .270 and a .375 it makes it easy to chose if I’m not comfortable with the .270 then it gets .375

 

[BeeMaa]

for me personally It works best with two , currently a .270 and a .375 it makes it easy to chose if I’m not comfortable with the .270 then it gets .375

That covers a broad range of game.

We only own 2 rifles...call it his & hers because we both hunt.
But they are Blaser R8's and we have 4 calibers to choose from.
22lr, 300WM, 375H&H and 416RM.
Mrs BeeMaa put Buffalo on her wish list so it became "necessary" for me to have a 416.
You know...for back up.
Otherwise I'd only have up to the 375 and call it good.

Apologies to the OP for the hijack.

 

[ZG47]

Slug the barrel is the only certain way, though sometimes one will find “S / IS“ for.323 clearly marked.

US manufacturers loaded 8mm Mauser ammo (all of it .323) at very low pressure because of the age and condition of many Mausers, sporters and military, brought home from the wars, and because few on this side of the Atlantic knew the difference between a J or S bore. Modern European loads are built to higher pressures. I would never shove a .323 down a .318 if hoping to achieve full potential from a 8mm Mauser.

.318‘s we’re not often built after about 1933. It is, however, why one has to be careful with the lovely old pre-war German sporters one sees for sale in this country.

On a very old rifle you need to do a chamber cast as well. Contrary to the nonsense reiterated by too many gun writers, the change to the deeper ‘Z’ rifling (in military rifles) occurred in 1896. Rifles fitted with the ‘Z’ barrels received a Z mark on the receiver. This was due to pressure and jacket separation issues with the 7.92x57 I ammunition. The bullet jacket proved to be too thin and was substantially thickened for the 7.92x57 IS bullets. When the new cartridge was introduced there was a programme to rechamber the barrels in issued rifles, provided that they had been originally rifled to Z specification. Those rifles were then marked with the letter ‘S’, i.e. the same as new production rifles.
So .. S refers to a rifling and chamber combination. I have posted this information several times on this forum BUT it bears repeating. Safety is more important than occasional boredom.

 

[sestoppelman]

Tend to agree with that gentleman, find the handful of rifles that truly fit you and you shoot the best, then call it a day. Sometimes, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, it takes going through quite a few rifles to find that handful

Exactly! Take me and the 7x57. I love the round but frankly have not had the best luck finding one that shoots as I want it to, meaning at least MOA and preferably under that, with consistency. Been thru several Rugers, Mausers, Winchesters and others. Then a few months ago I picked up a Nosler M48 so chambered, feeling this would be the one. Long story short, I believe it is "the one", but it took some doing at the loading bench. Now I look forward to each range trip because it shoots better every time almost. Only thing I did to the rifle was open up the barrel channel after having many uncalled flyers, which have now largely vanished thankfully. It was floated from build but clearance was not generous.

As to only having a couple or a few rifles? Well, that is just not on at all!

 

[Vashper]

My Mauser was made in Oberndorf in the last year of peace, in 1938, before the Second World war. It must have been at war, was taken as a trophy, and ended up in huge arsenals, where it lay, periodically inspected, waiting for the moment when it was needed. That moment never came, and 20 years ago I bought it for $ 120. The numbers on the parts did not match, there was no ramrod and counter screws, but it was a working machine, and so it remains today. A friend of mine, a military historian, gave me a bayonet dug up on the battlefields, and I bought a modern belt at the market.. A few years ago, I invited a group of people interested in military history to shoot with authentic Mosin and Mauser rifles. One of them (dressed in the full uniform of an Alpine shooters) tried a Mauser at a 300-meter distance. He holed a 6x14-inch tin box with all 5 rounds, firing this rifle for the first time, and with the iron sight.
The 8x57 cartridge (or 7,92x57) is almost identical to its contemporaries, like the 30-06 or Russian 7,62x54r. The main thing about these cartridges is that they were supposed to be effective against cavalry attacks, and therefore they are still good for hunting medium-sized game. In our reality, it was used (of course, less than Mosin) against all game, include such as large as wild boars (in Russia up to 550 kg), Kamchatka bears and moose, walruses.
I was going to try it on the hunt, but there are some obstacles. It is difficult to install an optical sight, until 1943 the box was strengthened by cementation and not every master will take up the installation of the bracket. Second, the law requires that weapons be discharged when moving from round - up to round-up. This is quite inconvenient, especially when the snow is knee-deep, if you drop the cartridges - you will not find them. They say there are kits for using the magazine, without changing the design, but I did not come across them.
I was offered to replace the military teak stock with a modern, civilian, walnut one. But for what?

 

[ZG47]

@Vashper When moving from hunting area to hunting area, put your hat on the ground, hold the rifle just above the hat, tilt it to the right, work the action and eject the rounds into your hat. No lost rounds, no cleaning off of snow, mud, dirt or water.