Help identifying rifle?

[DonMountain]

I have what appears to be one of those old Spanish converted Mauser rifles that I don't know what it is. My guess is that it was a conversion from 7 mm Mauser to 7.62 NATO. The barrel looks new and the bluing looks new and perfect. On the forward barrel is the note "SAMCO MIA FL 308W". And the serial number is OT-3107 on the left side of the action. It has a bent down bolt and a short barrel apparently with the original bayonet mount and strap loops on the left side. The action and trigger guard and magazine base plate is all nicely blued but the sites mounted up on the barrel looks far older and not blued, graduated from 3 to 20. I tried a 308 boolet in a Lake City brass that I shoot in another 308 rifle and it didn't quite close the bolt handle. But I think I may have resized them a little long to fit in my other rifle. The 309 sized RCBS 30 caliber bore riding boolit will not slide into the end of the barrel. It is too tight. Any clues what I have?

[pworley1]

It is hard to know for sure without pictures, but are probably on the right track. If it a small ring mauser it is probably one of the 93's that were converted to 308 and imported by Samco. There is much written about whether they are safe to shoot with modern 7.62x51 ammo, I will leave that to the experts, mine shoot moderate cast loads very well and is great fun to shoot. Enjoy your rifle.

[DonMountain]

It is hard to know for sure without pictures, but are probably on the right track. If it a small ring mauser it is probably one of the 93's that were converted to 308 and imported by Samco. There is much written about whether they are safe to shoot with modern 7.62x51 ammo, I will leave that to the experts, mine shoot moderate cast loads very well and is great fun to shoot. Enjoy your rifle.

It looks like a small ring Mauser as it is smaller than my 8mm Mauser rifle, more the size of my 6.5 x 55 Swedish rifles. I plan to just shoot reduced load 180 grain cast boolets in it. But thought it might be good for a short range woods gun for deer.

[Dutchman]

http://masterton.us/Spanmauhome

Its one of those rifles perfectly suited for cast bullet shooting.

Dutch

[bouncer50]

FR-7 or a FR-8 One is the FR-7 is basic on the 93 Mauser,The other is the FR-8 on a 98 action. The FR-8 is fine for 308 higher pressure loads then the FR-7. 93 action. The FR-7 would be a good cast bullet shooter. These two different action were used to rebuild rifles to 308 nato ammo that i know of.

[bouncer50]

It easy to tell what you have a 93 Mauser has only two locking lugs on the bolt. The 98 Mauser has 3 locking lugs on the bolt. Hope this help you.

[Multigunner]

The third lug on the 98 bolt is a safety lug not a locking lug.

Be sure of the chambering before going any further.
Not sure if a .308 hull will chamber in a 7X57 chamber.
Also measuring at the muzzle can be misleading if the barrel has been counter bored at the muzzle.

Best to slug the bore in any case.

I'm not sure but I think some 93-95 action rifles were chambered for the 7.65x53 cartridge.

If rebarreled a proofed for the 7.62X51 I'd keep chamber pressures at or below 48,000 CUP. There are hot .308 and 7.62 loads that greatly exceed the working pressure of the standard 7.62 NATO M80 ball cartridges.

[justashooter]

I have what appears to be one of those old Spanish converted Mauser rifles that I don't know what it is. My guess is that it was a conversion from 7 mm Mauser to 7.62 NATO. The barrel looks new and the bluing looks new and perfect. On the forward barrel is the note "SAMCO MIA FL 308W". And the serial number is OT-3107 on the left side of the action. It has a bent down bolt and a short barrel apparently with the original bayonet mount and strap loops on the left side. The action and trigger guard and magazine base plate is all nicely blued but the sites mounted up on the barrel looks far older and not blued, graduated from 3 to 20. I tried a 308 boolet in a Lake City brass that I shoot in another 308 rifle and it didn't quite close the bolt handle. But I think I may have resized them a little long to fit in my other rifle. The 309 sized RCBS 30 caliber bore riding boolit will not slide into the end of the barrel. It is too tight. Any clues what I have?

you have a 1916 type oveido produced rifle that was made for the spanish civil guard in 7X57 on the 95 pattern action, and converted to 7.62 CETME cartridge in the 60's. these guns were issued into the 1970's in spain to reserve units with CETME ammo that is dimensionally identical to 7.62X51 NATO, but is loaded to 30-30 ballistics with a 130 grain bullet. there is considerable discussion over whether they should be shot with modern 308 or NATO 7.62 ammo (safety concern). some of them have receiver bolt lugs that are set back, due to soft receivers from inaccurate heat treatment.

you should try chambering an unprimed full length resized 308 or 7.62X51 case in the chamber. if this works, then try adding layers of clear scotch tape to the base of the case and trimming the edges back with a razor knife. if your bolt closes on more than 4 layers of tape discs you should have the gun looked at by a person with real headspacing guages, and they may advise to test for brinnel hardness. 4 layers of scotch is 6 thousandths of an inch. case head seperation on initial firing begins at around 8-12 thou and is 100% by 22 thou or so. on reloaded cases it can begin at 6 thou because the case webs can be already stretched.

if you wanna shoot 30-30 ballistic reloads in this gun set aside a group of new cases and on reloading neck size only. this level load is much more comfortable on your shoulder and ear than full power 308.

and yes, i bought one of these from SAMCO in 1988 or so. hated it.

[leadhead]

What you have is a model 1916 Spanish Mauser. It was originally chambered
in 7mm mauser then converted to 7.62 Nato (.308 Win). The OT in the serial
number verifies this as a converted 1916. They make a great cast bullet rifle.
Denny

[DonMountain]

What you have is a model 1916 Spanish Mauser. It was originally chambered
in 7mm mauser then converted to 7.62 Nato (.308 Win). The OT in the serial
number verifies this as a converted 1916. They make a great cast bullet rifle.
Denny

I forgot to mention that there is a block of steel that has been obviously added in front of the magazine and is tapered on the top into the chamber so the shorter length 308 cartridge (Shorter than the 7 mm Mauser) will slide forward on the top of the magazine follower and the boolet will slide up into the chamber. I also full-length resized some Lake City 7.62 NATO brass with the sizer all the way down against the shell-holder and tried them in the rifle and the bolt closes right up like it should. So this one has a shorter chamber than my 308 FR8 rifle.

[DonMountain]

I fully resized some LC-13 brass I have in 7.62 NATO. And loaded 17 test rounds with a Winchester WLR primer, 20.0 Grains of Hercules 2400 I got in a 5 pound round red metal can from my brother, and an RCBS 30-180-SP-GC boolet that I sized at .309" and applied some old blue LBT Lube that I bought 20 years ago. Do you all have any suggestions on this trial load before I go try them? Probably tomorrow afternoon? The Lyman 3rd Edition of the Cast Bullet Handbook lists loads of 16.4 to 23.6 grains of 2400. So I thought a middle of the road load of 20.0 grains would at least get a boolet in the target since the closest the sights go are 300 Meters. I have never used Hercules 2400 in a rifle round before as my usual powder for the 308 Winchester is IMR-4895. But I need to shoot up this 2400 powder so I can give the can back to my brother for display in his shop.

[leadhead]

20 grs of 2400 seems a little stiff to me... 16.5 grs will work just fine in that small
ring mauser.
Denny

[DonMountain]

20 grs of 2400 seems a little stiff to me... 16.5 grs will work just fine in that small
ring mauser.
Denny

I fired the 17 rounds loaded with the RCBS 30-180-SP-GC boolit over 20.0 grains of Hercules 2400 and a WLR primer. And they all fired but appeared to have slightly flattened primers. So the next bunch I am going back to the suggested 16.5 grains. I was just shooting offhand at 50 yards and got a pattern of about 6 or 7 inches. I was trying to make sure the rifle worked ok. The long tips on the RCBS boolits had a little trouble aligning with the barrel when pushing the bolt in, but otherwise they all loaded and fired just fine. If I put one cartridge in the rifle it aligned and loaded easily. So, now I will try the 16.5 grains and bench rest it at 100 yards and see what I can do with it. It might make a good woods gun for deer maybe with my usual IMR-4895 powder for the 308. But its fun to target shoot with these light loads of Hercules 2400.

[leadhead]

Try it at 50 yds also.... It's amazing how accurate some of these old military rifles shoot.
Denny