Mauser 1871/84 from S.O.G.

[arclight]

This is sort of a follow-up to the thread last Summer about the 71/84's that SOG had for sale.

About 2 weeks ago Southern Ohio Gun called to let me know that they got a few more 71/84 Mausers in and would like to sell me one if I was still interested.

I received the gun about 5 days later, and just got it cleaned up. The stock was badly dented and cracked, the bolt stop was missing and had been replaced with a generic bolt and plastic washer, but everything else was there and mostly OK.

I refurbished the stock by stripping with oven cleaner, sanding, steaming out the small dents, sanding, filling with Acraglas, sanding, gluing up the cracks, sanding, you get the idea. Used about 5 coats of Tru-oil and some paste wax to buff it out.

The bore cleaned up well with Outer's Bore Foam, revealing a nice shiny tube with only a few pits around the muzzle. The magazine tube was rusty on the outside, but sound. I stripped the rust using the electrolysis method shown here:

http://www3.telus.net/public/aschoep...lyticrust.html

Everything else got cleaned up and I reblued the small parts. I turned a new bolt stop on the lathe, and substituted a 1/4x28 machine screw to hold it on.

All in all, I would recommend this rifle for the $250 price tag they had, provided you are willing to put in 10-20 hours of work fixing it up. Not sure if I got lucky on getting a good bore and mag tube, but I'm happy.

Anyone have any experience with using Alox and the Lyman .446 mould?


Arclight

[Uncle Grinch]

How about a photo of your new toy...

[Buckshot]

...............Doing that work is part of the fun of the whole thing. Er................ at least to me it is Yup, we need photos!

I have a 1871 Mauser:



Sorry, it's the only picture I have of it, and I have a 71/84 someone sportorized by cutting it down to about carbine length. No photo's of it at all. I need to take some.

I've only shot smokless loads in my 2 early Mausers but if the alox you're asking about is Liquid Alox, I've not used that in either rifle. I've used the standard 50/50 beeswax/alox and it works just fine.

................Buckshot

[gregg]

How about a photo of your new toy...

Yup

[BudRow]

Buckshot, It seems to me that you have taken a shameless opportunity to "Show Case" your fine stable of weapons with the intent of inspiring envy. Surely you must find time to photograph your guns idividually so as to only reference the gun in question when replying to any given thread. You can't imagine how inadequate you make us low budget collectors feel!
Best Wishes, Bud

[The Old Ranger]

You were VERY lucky. I rec'd a serious ********* 71/84 from S.O.G. Sent it back pronto.

Never again.

The Old Ranger

[Wayne Smith]

If you're gonna shoot it with BP as it was designed to be shot you do not want to use Alox. Emmerts or any of the soft BP lubes is all you need.

[EchoSixMike]

I used the RCBS 370 mold and they worked well. No experience with the Lyman mold. Alox was OK with 34gns 3031. I used SPG with black powder, a card wad and a grease cake immediately behind the bullet. It worked well, but too much hassle. The IMR 3031 load shot better and I feel no need to use black in this rifle. Alloy was 20-1. S/F....Ken M

[MtGun44]

Buckshot,

That front rifle looks suspiciously like a REALLY nice 7x57 RB.

What's the caliber?

Bill

[uscra112]

Man, I feel like I have the luck of the Irish after reading this thread! I bought a 71/84 at a small gun show here in Michigan a few years ago for $220, and I've yet to fire a round thru it, because from the look of it, it's never been fired since it left the works. Could this be? I've been told that a lot of surplus ones ended up in Canada after WW1. . . . . Maybe they were NOS ? Germany never actually fought a war with the 71/84. Anybody know any more about it?

[uscra112]

Oh, and one other thing I know about the 71/84 that might be useful.

The chambering is specific for paper-patched boolits. And the original German ammo was in fact paper patched.

The neck diameter is small. A fella I met later on had rechambered his - the neck was too small to take a nekkid boolit of the usual groove-diameter-plus.

Hearing that, the light went on - Paul Matthews specifically mentions this in his book "The Paper Jacket". Apparently it was standard practice in the age when the paper patch was "best practice" for cartridge arms. Which is to say about 1870 until the invention of smokeless, and the consequent introduction of the metal patch. The idea being to squirt the undersize boolit into the throat as it simultaneously obturated, thus preserving the patch from tearing. Especially in a fouled bore.

I have a stash of original B.P. Mauser ammo. That's how I know it was paper patched, I can pull boolit or two and post dimensions, should anybody care. I did pull one to verify that it is/was dead soft, as Matthews said it would be. It was.

[danyboy]

USCRA112,
Came across a topic you replied to about Mauser 71/84 using paper patch bullet. You had mentioned that if anyone cared, you could pull one bullet to verify the softness of the bullet.
I have been shooting this old rifle for years. It's the reason why I ever got into reloading, I got the disease !
Since then, I have spent hundreds of hours in the basement and at the range and still with the same woman !
Anyhow, I slugged the barrel: .433 bore and .448 groove. All I ever shot was .446 cast bullets with smokeless 4198, 3031. The range owner found 5 bullets after raking the sand bank. I am the only one using this caliber and the bullets were exactely as cast ! I have stopped heat treating them since then but after reading you maybe I should try using paper patch bullets. Do you know where I could find info on how to do this and what size bullet do you figure I should use ?
danyboy

[TAWILDCATT]

I recently bought one from "centerfire systems"$39.I now suspect mine was cast off from SOG.However the barrel is perfect inside.so most all must have been very good.mine is missing the bolt head.

[floodgate]

TAWILDCAT:

"Mine is missing the bolt head."

Reminds me of a story - probably not true, but a good story natheless - about ol' Francis Bannerman. Word got to the State Department that he had just sold several thousand old Mauslicher rifles to a "friendly foreign power" in Latin Amrica we currently weren't so friendly with. State sent a man out to talk to him about it. Bannerman listened to the complaint, smiled, and pulled out a desk drawer full of parts; "Don't worry about it, sonny; I kept the firing pins."

I wonder if something of the sort didn't happen with the 71/84's.

floodgate

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I have quite a bit of experience shooting one. The RCBS mold is the one to use. Mine throws bullets at 402 grains. Wheel weights are fine. I size to .447. I use the NRA 50/50 formula for smokeless and would reccommend you go straight to a case full of 2F and a thin wad that fits lightly compressed under the bullet at 3.02 with that bullet to establish expansion due to firing in your gun. Mine is .432/.446". I use WLR primers. I don't think a bottle neck likes much compression. I use a 18"drop tube. For smokeless, I've gone up to 35 grains of IMR 4198, and 32 grains(4198) was very good at 2"/100yards. I use my own beeswax/tallow for black powder. My best IMR 4227 load was 30 grains /a half square of tp wadded hard on the powder with a split pea size of NRA lube betweenbullet base and a tablet back wad fitting tight in the neck. That made a 2"group/100, chrono'd 1487, 1491,1498, 1498, 1494, with acceptable case expansion. I finally settled on duplexed RL-7 and 75 grains of 2F at 3.02 OAL as my allways load. I made a high front site to replace the original to get me in the center of the SR-1@ 100. BTW the rear leaves are 250 meters, 350 meters, 400 at the bottom of the slider standing, and then out to 1600. I only size the neck .390 deep, imperceptably bell for seating,and don't crimp as all is perfect for my gun. I'm still using my original Bell cases, and anneal every 4 firings, but neck lengths vary a bit due to trimming. CH4D dies. I have one of the unissued guns from the early 60s, no regimental markings, really cherry. I took the arsenal grease off(left some too). You couldn't ask for a better BPCR. BvT

[danyboy]

BVT,
2" group at 100 yards, you must have eagle vision if you shot with open sights only !
I'll continue experimenting, maybe I'll find a way of getting more precise.
Thanks,
Danyboy

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Heck I've been shooting irons all my life. That mauser shooting was off sandbags on a good bench. When you get old eyes you change from point of aim shooting to 6'0clock as in my case, to the get the most contrast possible for a good sight picture. You don't sight your 25-20 in for the bead to cover a squirrels head anymore, you change the sights to but the bead under its chin for a headshot. I skirmish 10 shoots a year, thats near 400 rounds a year in competition offhand at 50 and 100, clays at 50, 6"tiles at 100, with a 2 band enfield. Last shoot I lucked out, ran 4 for 5 shots at 100. I have no doubt there are many here who can do much better. Many I shoot with do much better, some are in their late 70s (n-ssa.org). I can do better with other guns. That mauser rear sight is so fine I suffer eye fatigue quickly and my old musket is getting heavy and has built in wobbles. Find an open sight shooting discipline and jump in! Cast to shoot!

[smokemjoe]

I did a write up about last year in the Fouling Shot Mag. The carbine had alot of recoil, The rifle did good. Nice old guns, All I had was the lyman mold. Smokemjoe,

[danyboy]

BVT,
I lift my hat to you. Problem on this side of the border is gun control laws and lack of shooting ranges. The media and feminists are making sports shooters look bad.
I need more practice. the closest range is about 45 miles. Cost of gaz has skyrocked. We had a range on the outskirts of town but a neibhour managed to shut it down after getting the environment department involved and complaining about noise. The range had been around for 30+ years.
danyboy

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Hi Danyboy that's a tough situation. Can you find a close place to squirrel hunt? Make a range there, 25/50, with a bushel of dirt for a backstop for a 22. Shoot a CZ for cheaper accuracy. I had old Redfield target peep sights put on mine. Back to the 43 M I never had any good shooting with the 4895 powders. I paper patched .432 pistol bullets for express loads. Accurate 5744 works with the standard bullet too, but I gave up on IMR stick powders slower than 4198. Careful attention to every step in casting, sizing and reloading is the key with the Mauser. Pm if there are related questions you have. BvT