Just bought a mauser actioned, mannlicher stocked, 18" barreled, .300 winnie.

I don't know why it was chambered for .300 but it is. I only wanted the action and stock for a progect, so I thought $175 was a good price for it.

I had planned screwing on a whelen barrel to it and call it a day, but with the other work done to it already, rails, extractor, bolt face. etc. I'm kinda stuck with a .532 rimmed round unless I want to change it back.

I don't know what the performance woould be out of a 18" barrel; but I bet it would look cool shooting flames out 3ft or so.

Any suggestions.

turfman

Any of the WSM series would be readily adaptable to the action and would be a bit more appropriate to the short barrel than a .300 Win. Better still would be a .350 Remington. This has the case capacity of a .30-06 and uses powders in the medium-fast burning range, so such a short barrel is not so much a handicap with the .350 RM.

Of course the other option is to rebarrel with a rifle-length barrel in the belted magnum caliber of your choice and remodel the Mannlicher stock as a conventional half-stock sporter.

turfman,
Maybe just leave it as is and down load some 200-220gr bullets. Sure would make a nice thickets rifle!

til later

a H&R 301?

It sounds like, with an 18" barrel, you've got a really LOUD 30-06 on your hands. My vote goes wth the 350 Remington or some similar cartridge (325WSM comes to mind). That would be a little better suited to the short barrel.

In the package you have it's already setup for any of the "Classic magnum" calibers, so getting 338Win 358Norma, etc to feed in it....

WSM's wouldn't gain you anything except feeding issues
and a need for either a new mag box or mods to the one you've already got.

If you wanted it for the action? an action you have, but with the bolt face work already done...


AD

The mauser action does not work real well with a short mag or the .350 rem either, very hard to get decent feeding.
I would consider somthing like a .375 or.416 taylor or a .358 Norma. What is the bolt face on the .375 ruger ? ...tj3006

I should Clarify.

I wanted the action and stock set up. When I looked at the gun the barrel seemed to have a millitary barrel on it and had the contours to point to that. I asked the guy what caliber it was, thinking it was 8mm. He said he didn't know, fathers gun, fathers since passed. The gun is parkerized and no markings left on the action or barrel. There are a few Waffen eagles on the bolt release but thats it. I looked at the bolt face and it looked big but really didn't pay any attention to it. Now I get it home and slug the barrel; its a 300 .

I want to keep the mannlicher configuration, but it just seems redundant having a mag caliber in a short barrel.


What kinda velocity would you think I'd loose on average. I'm thinking around 300fps. Again the intent was to make a whelen set up for shooting 250's, around 24 - 2500fps. If I could obtain 2400 - 2500 out of the 300 with 220's, I'd be happy

turfman

i had a sako A V for a while that had a factory 18" BBL chambered in 375H&H.

Turfman I would do exactly as you intended. Shoot that thing with 200's or 220's and see what it does for you. Not every rifle out there has to have that 24" barrel.
See what you've got before you go tearing it apart.
Your velocity loss may be less than you think, some rifles only lose 25 fps per inch of barrel cut off so in your case maybe you will lose as little as 150 fps? Maybe more just shoot it and see.
Just my 2 cents.

turfman,
Four reload sources show 220's at 2700 to just over 2800fps out of 24"bbls. You say you'd be satisfied at 2400 to 2500fps. If you split the difference on both velocities and figure in 6" less bbl your talking a loss of 50fps per inch. Seems ALOT! If you have access to a chronograph I'd be giving it a try.
Do you like the looks of the rifle? How about a picture.

til later

Let me see about posting pics; I'm sure there is a tutorial here.

I like the configuration of the gun, plus it has set triggers and hinged bottom metal.

Now for the bad part; its parkerized.

I'm thinking of a new stock patterened after this one, but of curly maple.
Talley rings, some sort of sights,probably a rib set up, and some engraving. I'm probably not going to blue it cuz of the engraving.

Let me see about the pics.

turfman

If you are thinking of a new stock, then you are not limited to an 18" barrel. Most "Mannlicher"-style barrels are 20 inches or longer, some as long as 24". Why don't you think about using a longer barrel with a larger bore cartridge (for a greater expansion ratio, which can utilize faster powders appropriate to a 20 or 22-inch barrel). As I suggested earlier, the .350 Rem Mag fills this bill (and contrary to someone's earlier posting, would have no feeding issues in your current magazine.)

The 375 ruger is the best option (.532 bolt same as the win mag) since factory ammo is getting classic velocities out of a 20" barrel.

The best thing imho is to get a new bolt and do a 358 win.

Well; Went to the range sat.

Ooof. It was fun. looking through the scope when this thing went off was impressive; just a big orange flash in the reticle.

I didn't even set up the chrony as I don't think it will stay a .300; but I might look harder at the 375 ruger. Seems they're getting 2600 fps with 270grn rn bullets out of 20" barrels. Thats about perfect to what I was originally intending.

What you have in essence is a very loud and flashy 30-06!

I would just rebarrel it to a another 300 Win. Magnum ( a great caliber ) with a 26 inch tube..All magnums should have 26 inch tubes IMO, or they just don't cut it over a standard caliber..

You have several choices, about any short magnum round like a .338, 7 mag, 358 Norma, 30-338, and a host of others that will work without any modification other than a new barrel and at $175 you will still be in the gun for very little....

You can also open the bolt face for some other larger calibers..The new Ruger calibers would be interesting, they presently have a 375, 300, and a 338 and the .416 is in the plan..These Ruger calibers will require some magazine modification and perhaps some bolt face work.

No, can't do it. Want to keep the mannlicher format. The 375 ruger looks promising. Have to get a casing and see if it will feed though.

.458 x 2" American or .450 Marlin might be nice from a 20" bolt action. The only thing is the large barrel diameter may make the sides of the stock too thin up front.

I have heard people talk about too-short barrels for certain cartridges, like '20" is too short for a .270 Win.', but I believe you may have found an even better example of such a critter! I believe the blast and fireball from that barrel will be impressive, but the MV with a 180-grain bullet will be close to 200 FPS (or more) less than you'd get from a 24" tube.

Could be worse. What about the 16" BBL Ruger Frontier carbine in 300 WSM?

Turfman,

I rebarrelled a 300 Win Mag to a 375 Ruger. The bolt face on the 300 Win fit the 375 Ruger perfectly with no modifications. Keep in mind that Hornady is using a blended powder when loading and that powder is not available to handloaders. I have been using Re-15 with great success, but I have a 24" barrel so you may have to experiement some. I love the 375 Ruger.

Good luck.