new life for a 1909 Argie

[mdevlin53]

Back in my twenties I picked up this 1909 Argentine Mauser. The rifle had been sporterized but it was not a very fancy job. The chamber had been reworked to 30-06 and stamped so on the side of the receiver. Not being much for iron sights at the time I had a scope put on it, but the "expert" who did the job was real a hack and the first time I shot it at the range I could not hit the target. The range master said lets shoot at the 200 yard target and see where she hits. To my surprise she was about 10 feet low. I never shot it again until recently. I decided to give this gun a new life. For starters I slugged the bore and found out that .309 was a bit to small for this barrel. Then I decided to clean up the dark wood and get a scout scope for it. It took a mount from S&K and some windage adjustable scope mounts to make it work. The other day it took it to the range and at 25 yards it performed very well. Next time out we will see what she is up for at a 100 yards. While she still is no beauty this should be a very serviceable gun to have for any number of reasons.

7012270124
Before
7012370125
After
70127
Stock cleanup
70126

The Results: 185gn RN GC with 25 grains of RX7

[Uncle Grinch]

Looks like you found the "keeper" load with cast boolits!

There were quite a few '09 Argy's rechambered to 30-06 many years ago by an enterprising importer. As you found out with jacketed bullets, the don't group too well due to the 7.65 bore (.311 - .312) that these rifles came with.

That being said, the '09 Argentine is one of the most desirable actions to build a sporter on. You have a "keeper" in more ways than one!