Shiny bore, shallow rifling in a 1912 .308 Mauser....

[WILCO]

I was checking this rifle out and was wondering if it was normal for the rifling to be shallow? The bore was shiny bright, no pitting. Wood was decent and they wanted around $300.00. If I go back, what else should I look for? I believe it was an Argentine.

[MtGun44]

The story I heard was that some of these were rebarreled with surplus US barrels, either
03 Springfield or US 1917 barrels. Not sure how much stock to put in it.

Bill

[Frank46]

The date sounds like one of the steyr 1912 98 mausers that was converted to 7.62 nato. Look on the left side rail and it should tell you who made it. Could be wrong but was made for colombia and should have a crest on thhe top of the front receiver ring. Frank

[WILCO]

Thanks for the info guys. What about the shallow rifling though?

[Larry Gibson]

Thanks for the info guys. What about the shallow rifling though?

Run a patch through it and make sure the rifling is really "shallow". I've seen pitting covered up with gunslick and such which gives a shallow rifling appearence.

Larry Gibson

[Dutchman]

The story I heard was that some of these were rebarreled with surplus US barrels, either
03 Springfield or US 1917 barrels. Not sure how much stock to put in it.

Bill

The Chilean Modelo 1912 rifles made in Austria were rebarreled with re-profiled 03A3 2 groove barrels. Not all but many. I have one. The fit of the barrel shoulder to the receiver is subpar.


Wood was decent and they wanted around $300.00

I bought one from Century Arms in Vermont via 03FFL 12-14 years ago for $18. Had no bolt but was otherwise complete and stock was "decent" and bore was bright and shiny. Complete rifles will certainly sell for more than $18 but if you are not familiar with military bolt action rifles I strongly suggest you DO NOT buy this one. It sounds overpriced. There are long rifle and short rifle versions of this model. Some of them are very nice and would be worth $300. But the stock would have to be more than just "decent".

Brazilian Model 1908 bolts will fit and function perfectly fine in the Chilean 1912 rifles. I had purchased a completely rusted Brazilian 1908 for $18 at the same time as the other. The only part that wasn't pitted severely was the bolt. I took the $18 Brazilian bolt and test fired it in the 1912 Chilean .308. The case stretched .002". I thought that to be acceptable considering the Argentine 1909 that stretched the fired case .020"... also a $18 u-fix-em from Century Arms.

This is what an $18 Argentine 1909 Mauser looks like. Complete with cleaning rod but it sure has seen better days. I have fired this with cast bullet loads in throw-away Berdan military brass. It keyholes .311" cast bullets so I'm going to try 314299 next time just for the what-the-heck factor. The bore is not all that bad. I believe these chrome rifles were Argentine navy.

http://images59.fotki.com/v222/photos/2/28344/157842/DSCF2973v-vi.jpg

[Multigunner]

I've cleaned out military rifle barrels that had so much metal fouling and hardened carbon fouling in the grooves that it looked like the lands were worn out, but after many hours of work, way more solvent than I'd wanted to use, and a dozen or so bronze brushes worn out in the process, the grooves turned out to be as deep as you'd want them to be.

[WILCO]

Thanks for the in depth report Dutchman. I appreciate the other answers as well. Very informative replies.

[Frank46]

Dutch, thanks for the correction regarding the chilean versus colombia marking on the receiver ring. Down here you don't get to see many nice condition bolt action military rifles. Pure dumb luck I found a excellent Persian 98/29 and a same condition M48BO both in 8mm. Most of the time what they have for sale is pitiful. Frank

[Frank46]

I have an 1898 Krag cut down and that barrel was a learning experience. I swore the lands and grooves got deeper each time I cleaned it. Eventually used a 8mm bore brush as the 30 cal one I used just wasn't getting it done. That's one reason for saving old bore brushes. When a 30 gets to small just the right size for smaller calibers like 7mm. Cheap I know but it works. Frank

[MtGun44]

Heck, I've had more than one old milsurp rifle that cleaning the barrel was like an
archeological dig. Layer after layer cleaned out of the barrel that looked pretty good to start
with. Try using a electroplating type of cleaner like a Foul-Out. Even that can take 4 or more
cleanings and changes of solutions with scrubbing in between to strike steel.

Bill

[303Guy]

I know what I would do - fire-lap that bore. Trouble is it would need some means of getting into the deepest corners of the groove and that requires something aggressive. One trick is to load up a fire-lapping load with the abrasive under the boolit.

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo327/303Guy/Fire-LappingPigGun017-1.jpg

I did a thread on this technique. It's less challenging than my brass fire-lapping slug but less effective.