Great round and great rifle

by Charles, Friday, January 18, 2013, 09:28 (4330 days ago) @ brionic

The 1891 Argentine Mauser is a great German rifle. Mine is an early one made by Lowe. It has had the barrel shortened to 24" and the stock accordingly. Whoever did it, knew what they were doing. The muzzle was turned down and the original front sight was installed. Looks almost seamless.

Back in the late 70s, many of these came into the country and sold for a song. Many of these rifles were unissued and like new. They are still around, but have increased in price. Folks recognize a great, well made and accurate rifle when they see it.

These rifles are "fat 30" caliber, like the Brit, Jap and long rimmed Russian rounds. My Lowe runs .312 in the grooves. While jacketed bullets are not plentiful, there are many fine cast bullet designs that do well in this rifle. These rifles tend to have a longer tapered throat, so bullets that run .312 to .314 on the body most often do well. The land diameter of mine is .302. So, I use .314 X .302 cast bullets with good results.

The round is known as the 7.54 Mauser, 7.65 Belgian and 7.65 Argentine. As Hobie said, cases can be made from any 30-06 based case. I use an old Lyman Shell Resizer and it is to short to use 06 cases full length, so I use 8mm cases also made in a Lyman Shell Resizer.

For fun, here is a pic of the original LC 62 NM case, a 8mm made from another, and a 7.65mm made from an 8mm. On the far right is an original Norma 7.65 case. All cases are stright, but one was sitting on a little trash on the desk which makes it look crooked.