95 mauser conversion

[cosmoline one]

Has anyone done this?
Is conversion to 7.62x39 as simple as installing a new barrel?
It seems like cartridges fit/feed from mag & cases fit bolt face ok

[LAGS]

I did a 93 years ago.
You had to have a filler block in the magazine for the shorter cartridges.
The rounds fit loose on the bolt face and sometimes ejection was spotty even though with the extractor being slightly modified the extraction out of the chamber worked.
I would do another one, but it is more than just swapping out the barrel.

[map55b]

I agree with LAGS. I've done two, one had no issue with extraction with other the claw didn't fit as well. Unless your doing a conversion with something that is of the same parent case there is always some "adjusting and fitting," but it can be done and I'd do it again too.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Attachment 204973Attachment 204974


I still have mine, but it doesn't see much use anymore because I got a Mk X Mini-Mauser in 7.62x39mm. The magazine box can be shortened by putting a spacer in the rear. Here a piece of light weight channel iron was tack welded to the rear of the box. The most difficult part of the conversion is the follower. The one shown is actually plastic and came from GP Corp. and is powered by a pair of coil springs rather than the conventional "Z" spring. It's a fun conversion to make and shoot, but the bolt cycle is long because it still has to travel the original distance across the spacer block to pick up the shorter 7.62x39mm cartridge. I didn't have any trouble with the extraction, but that seems to be an individual problem that could be solved with some fitting. One could try several different extractors before they started grinding. The flat bottom of the '93 bolt seemed like a natural to help with feeding, and I never tried the round later production bolt face.

[cosmoline one]

What about to 30-30?

[Texas by God]

What about to 30-30?

Doable. And works better than the 7.62x39 I did on a 98 years ago. I reworked the same barrel to fit this 1916 Spaniard (93 Mauser) and chambered to 30-30 Win.

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[405grain]

I did a 7.62x39 conversion on a 1894 Brazilian a couple of years ago and it works great. There is some fitting and tweeking that needs to be done, but the conversion is do-able. I'm doing another 7.62x39 conversion on a '93 Spanish action for my younger brother, and I anticipate that it will have the same teething pains as the project progresses. On the whole, this is a fun conversion, and the rifles in this caliber are really handy. An alteration that I've found really useful when converting a small ring Mauser to 7.62x39 is to modify the ejector box assembly from a type 99 Arisaka to fit the receiver. This improves the ejection and slightly shortens the bolt throw.
That small ring conversion to 30-30 by Texas by God looks very interesting. I've got a couple of 1895 Chilean actions sitting in a box in the cabinet, and a 30 caliber barrel blank, and was wondering what I could do with them. I have been fiddling with the notion of cutting the head off of a '93 bolt (the '95 bolts are getting a little scarce) and attaching the magnum bolt head from a Savage 110 to it. Then I could use this to do a conversion on the Mauser to 30-40 Krag. I'd have to grind out the guide rib in the receiver, and figure out an angled magazine box, but with time and perspiration it's a conversion that could work. (the 303 British would work with that bolt head & action too)
But with all that fevered thinking and planning you've gone and shown me a 30-30 Mauser, and now the gears in my head are spinning too fast! I'm intrigued about this gun. Can you show or tell us some more about it? Aside from opening up the bolt face, what other modifications did you have to do? Did you reconfigure the claw on the extractor so that it looks like the ones on Siamese Mausers & P14 Enfields? Did you fabricate an angled magazine box, or make inserts to go inside the existing mag box? Is it single or double stack? What modifications did you make to the follower? Details please.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Nice looking rifle Tex! I'd like to hear more about it also.

[Texas by God]

It's still a thread on "The Barrel Works" under the title Barrel nut on an SR Mauser. But the pics are gone. I will re-post what I can ASAP. It has become one of my favorite rifles because it is so accurate and fun. I'm considering getting an unmodified follower so I can get a little more OAL on cartridges loaded with 150 gr J-word spitzers.
Thomas

[Texas by God]

I came up with this to keep the rims from falling off the rear edge of the follower. Somone had previously beveled the top rear edge to allow the bolt to ride over.
More to come.

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[405grain]

I read through the thread in the barrel works. That's a great build, with lots of good ideas. What did you use to open up the bolt face? I opened a bolt face in the lathe once with carbide tooling, and that bolt was hard as a diamond! I'm astonished that a 30-30 will feed from the magazine without working on the feed rails, but that's really encouraging news. I hadn't really thought about using a barrel nut on a small ring Mauser, but doing so will allow using the 1" diameter barrel blanks from Green Mountain, and that will save a lot of cash.

[Texas by God]

The 93 bolt face had to be opened slightly and the extractor modified for the 30-30 rim. I polished the feed ramp till it fed blunt nose boolits. Of course the rims must be stacked or a jam will result and you can't load more than three in the mag without problems. Luckily it has a hinged floorplate in case I mess up loading it.
The barrel is the same 7.62x39 Numrich I bought years ago for the 98 project. Cutting off the LR threads and rethreading and rechambering went smoothly. My beta test load was factory Rem 150 CoreLokt because it MUST work with factory loads in case I loan it to family. It is still controlled feed.

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[Texas by God]

I used a rotary file in a drill press with the bolt held in the drill press vise. The Spanish bolt isn't overly hard. The other work was good old needle files and dremel tool bits. The barrel nut idea was abandoned early as un-needed in this case. Mapp 55b has built some cool rifles along this path as well as others I bounced ideas off of. Good luck with your project and post your progress!
Best, Thomas.

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[hpdrifter]

Hey TbG, rifle looks a lot better with the old military barrel gone!!

[Texas by God]

Thanks, hpdrifter! You kinda set this in motion and your stockwork draws compliments. Do you still have old "W"- the .270?

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[MaLar]

How did you breach the barrel? One of the bolt lugs is longer that the other, longer than the the rim is deep.
Did you chamber to headspace on the shoulder. Maybe I missed this in your in your posts.

[kens]

would it not be easier to barrel a mauser to .35remington than the rimmed 30-30?

[Texas by God]

MaLar- I used standard rimmed headspace gauges. The barrel/bolt interface is set by the barrel shoulder - there is no stop ring as in the 98 Mauser.
kens- yes it would but I already had the .30 cal barrel. Midway and others used to sell SR .35 Rem barrels but I don't know if they still do. Rimless rounds normally accepted to be suitable for the SR Mauser are the .250 Sav, .257 Roberts, 6.5 x55, 7x57, .300 Sav, and the .35 Rem. Several people state the .308 and 8x57 are ok as well but I don't know.

[MaLar]

I guess you didn't understand my question. Did you leave a ring around the chamber opening for the cartridge rim to rest on and clear the longer bolt lug? I have a project like this on an Enfield P14 in 30-40 krag and was planning on leaving a ring around the chamber opening for the rim to rest on. But turned so the longer bolt lug would clear the rim. Was wondering if this is what you did and how it is working for you?

Thanks LaMar

[Texas by God]

Perhaps a picture will help. The old 7x57mm barrel with a chambered case shows how the relationship works on a SR mauser. The extractor and the left lug just kiss the end of the barrel.
I had a P14 rebarreled to .450 Marlin and it is a different animal-it does have a semi-coned breech as you are discovering.
Thomas

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