Spanish Mauser

[94Doug]

My local shop has what I think is a Spanish Mauser, it has been "sported", or something...

It has a price tag of $100. And there is 3 brand new boxes of Rem ammo that comes with.

Can I go wrong? Or is this type of rifle just not worth the money.


Doug

[Uncle Grinch]

Do you know if it's a 1916 7.62 NATO or is it 7x57?

I have both and only shoot cast in the 1916 model. Both are 93 Mausers, and in my opinion, I'd prefer the 7x57 if you are shooting factory ammo.

Depending on the condition and how good of a "sporterizing" it has been subjected to, $100 is close to realistic. It's hard to tell without more specific info or pictures.

Good Luck!

[atr]

the price is about right especially with 3 boxes of ammo...the receiver usually has a crest and a date mark with the year of Manuf. Without a picture I would GUESS that this is probably a Model 93, with two locking lugs at the front of the bolt....
the one I have (7x57) has a very long throat. When I got it,,it took forever to get the barrel clean and when I did I could see alot of pitting.
its a gamble

[old turtle]

For $100 how can you go wrong unless it has been used to open packing crates. Shooting cast boolits it has all kinds of possibilities. Sounds like a good project.

[94Doug]

I know it had a crest, and the date of either 28' or 26'...it is for sure 7mm mauser, or at least that is what the Rem Ammo is. The bbl did seem pretty dirty, nice spirals. I too thought that my long held belief that if I can buy something that goes bang for $100, I should buy it. The 3 boxes of ammo make it more tempting.

Doug

[mooman76]

That's what I thought too. I bought one a couple years ago for $100 and it's the worst shooting rifle I have ever got. Can't hardly hit paper at 25y. That's with jacketed too. Has a really large bore. I'm not trying to discourage you but there are allot of different Spanish Mausers out there, some are ok and some are just bad shooters. Best of luck if you deside to get it, but I didn't get 3 boxes of ammo with mine either.

[JIMinPHX]

I paid $100 for a beat to death Spanish Mauser a while back & still didn't think that I got taken. You can get a variety of very good quality replacement barrels from Midway for reasonable prices They just need final reaming to set head-space.

The Spanish Mausers have a few idiosyncrasies that set them apart from the rest of the crowd. They are cock on closing type, which some people like & others don't. There was some detail about some combination of bolt actions that could supposedly cause an unsafe condition, but I don't remember the details of it. They are sometimes reported to have been made out of softer steel than other Mausers & there are reports of some actions being stretched. Other people report that to be hogwash.

The older versions of them lack the "safety vent" that prevents hot gas from coming back at the shooter in the event of a case failure. I experienced this with a low pressure hand load that did not expand the brass far enough to seal the grossly oversize chamber in the one that I fooled with. Safety glasses prevented me from suffering anything worse than a bit of a sting on the face. Oversize chambers & barrels are something to watch out for on the more heavily used mil-surps, regardless of their pedigree.

The Spanish Mausers are the "small ring" type & as such, your choice of calibers that you can re-barrel to is somewhat limited. Most people recommend against using a .308 barrel on a true small ring. The small ring .308 barrels are supposed to be only for the Turks, which are actually a large ring action with a small ring thread. Other people say that this too is hogwash. My guess on that one is that it depends on how horny you get with your load data in that caliber. Most moderate cast loads are probably OK in my opinion. Use your own judgment on that though.

If I were going to re-barrel one of them, I'd stick with the original 7mm Mauser caliber. Personally I think that it is a truly great all around caliber & it is the one that the gun was designed around, so it should be fully safe as long as the gun is in good condition.

[Bret4207]

My ratty old '93 Mauser cost $29.00 out the door, of course that was in 1976. Shoots jacketed 160's as close as I can hold. Will often put the RCBS 7mm-160FN into 2" groups at 65 yards, sometimes lots larger, once in a while much smaller. My rifle would be a fine candidate for paper patching, but I just don't have the time to play with it now.

If you have the extra funds, I'd snap it up in a heart beat.

[94Doug]

It seems the general opinion is for me to spend money. I was considering only cast low pressure loads anyway, so I think I feel safe with the action. I figured a good cleaning of the bbl would be in order, then see what I really have.

Thanks guys!

Doug

[Bret4207]

IMO there's nothing "wrong" with the Pre 98 actions- the 91, 93, 95, 96. Some were made concurrently with 98's with similar or the same metals. Not all, some. The gas vent issue....ah, not a real biggie to me, but then I fire form my brass and don't load hot. Same for the 3rd lug. Actually, it's the 4th lug since no one ever counts the root of the bolt handle. My biggest concern with any 100 year old guns is metal fatigue, erosion, rust, and the possibility that some time in the distant past it went through a fire. I shot a Win 94 for some time before I figured out it had experienced some post factory "heat treatment". (If you accidentally unscrew the barrel by hand pressure alone sometime, remember I did it first!)

Just take a good look at any of the old Mausers, Springfields, Krags, etc. They are probably fine, but it never hurts to take a good look at bolt lugs, for cracks in the receiver, for unexplainably soft springs, baked on crusty stuff in the nooks and crannies, etc.

[6.5 mike]

They also make a very nice .257 roberts. Mine is a 1916 pattern with a hinged floorplate, & square bottom bolt face.

[94Doug]

...well, now to find a set of reloading dies and a mould.

Doug

[izzyjoe]

the ammo is worth at least $50, so your basiclly gettin' the gun for $50. the last time i bought 7x57 ammo it was 18.99box, and that was two years ago. and if the barrel is trashed you could find a milsurp barrel or buy a new one and have a nice shooter. it would make a nice .257.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I have one of those Israeli rebarreled 308´s that I have been shooting cast out of for more than 20 years. I would not hessitate to hunt with it if I could where we reside when up north there.
My son in Minnesota still has his also and bangs away with it. I think I paid a whopping 59 dollars apiece. All 3 we bought shoot fine .

[Kuato]

I bought a 93 Mauser in 7x57 that had been sporterized. Paid $100 with the old Burris 4 power scope included. The guy said it didn't shoot all that good. Took it home & found out that the action had been bedded including the barrel channel. So I sanded the channel, cooked up some 162gr j-word loads with IMR3031 & headed to the range. First 3 shots @ 100 yds. could be covered by a nickel!!

The barrel is the original & the date on the gun is 1900. the bore looks like new & headspaces perfectly. Not too shabby for a 110 year old gun!

[Dutchman]

I bought this at an estate auction in Winamac, Indiana in about 2001. Paid $75.

It's a factory rebuilt rifle with a new/unused beech stock. That fact attracted me to it initially.



The old boy who owned it had been a bullet caster and shooter. But he must've been past 80 when he dearly departed. This rifle had stood or been stored in his cold icy barn in northern Indiana for a good long time, decades at least. I tried to look past the rust.



Not all Spanish Mausers have a crest. Many will be found scrubbed of markings except a serial number. Those Spanish Civil War guns. Circa 1936. Even some Polish Mausers can be scrubbed that way as they were there in Spain at the time.





The large oval gas escape hole is a retro-fit. I'm not up on when it was done.



Generally the stories of Spanish-made 1893 having soft steel, or softer than German-made, is true. If the rifle has a mis-match bolt number I'd be more inclined to want to check headspace with at least a field gauge. I have both field and no-go in 7x57mm Mauser.

Given acceptable headspace and a normal visual inspection there's no reason to limit it to low pressure loads. Normal factory 7x57 are pretty mild to account for these exact rifles by the major ammo companies. Even a normal load of 2400 would be ok and safe. But being of a prudent mindset you can't go wrong being conservative instead of liberal (with the powder charge).

There were a number of 1893 Spanish Mausers brought back to the U.S. from Cuba after that little incident in 1898. They ended up at the Springfield Armory and eventually sold to Bannermans in New York. Those that were sold had a piece of paper stuck to the right side of the buttstock identifying it as being one of "those" rifles. Surviving examples are extremely rare... the paper being removed also removed provenance. It could be a $1,000 collectible... or not.

Not all 1893 Mausers are Spanish and certainly not uninteresting. Those with the three letters OVS are Orange Free State South Africa and can be found from new/unissued to war trophies. Very big bucks. I owned OVS 8776 in 1968. It was stone mint unfired as-new right out of the Mauser factory crate of 10 rifles.

The 1893 was the first staggered magazine. It was Paul Mauser's patent for this magazine that transformed bolt action rifles from then on.



Dutch

[Bret4207]

Dutch, what rust? Nothing a little oil and TLC won't cure. I have seen a number of rifles in far worse looking shape ( judging by the pics) that shot fine.

[roverboy]

Dutchman, with some oil and 0000 steel wool and some TLC you can probably get most of that rust off. Still a nice old rifle.

[Beekeeper]

I'll gladly look past the rust if you are so minded to sell.
Great looking 93.


Jim

[Dutchman]

I didn't do anything with this rifle so I sold it to a friend for the same $75. I think he posts here once in a while.

Dutch