I found an Oberndorf pre-war '98 with a very clean barrel, in 8x57 of course. I have never shot a Mauser with the original barrel, so I don't know what kind of accuracy to expect.

I'm wondering if these things shoot, if not messed up with corrosive ammo shot in the past. What has been your experience with these mil-surp original Mauser barrels, regarding accuracy?

KB

all of them i've had shot very well with yugo surplus ammo.
most of them would shoot 3" or 4" 10 shot groups at 100 yards, a few of them have done better but thats about average for my mausers

They shoot pretty good even when real dark. I've seen good 8mm Mil,Mauser barrels shoot 1 1/2", large number of shots with open sights @ 100 yds. Just gave one away that I sporterized into a light weight scout with a sawed of 20" barrel.No bench rifle but it will do 1 1/2" to 2" at 100 yds and the young lady is a novice shooter.It also wares a home grown muzzle brake.
KB, from your description I'd say your barrel was in much better shape than mine.If you got it try it. roger

KB,

I'm with Roger on this.

Have had many that were great shooters.

Look at it this way....it costs you nothing to try it!

I have a 7 X 57 that will shoot under 2" and that's not too bad for a milsurp barrel.

I have had some that looked like crap and shot real good.
Just be sure to check the muzzle,to see if it has been wollared out from the cleaning rods over the years.

I'm a great believer in chopping of a centimeter or two and recrowning old barrels. Maybe even less. Just enough to sharpen up the crown might be all that's needed. I'm going to undercut an original carbine barrel by a millimeter or two without disturbing the original crown. (Not on a mauser).

Bartsche , Would you have picture of your home grown muzzle break (or muzzle blast intensifier as I call them! )

I bought one for $200 with a Simmons scope, Williams scope mounts, Timney (sp?) trigger and Fajen stock that would shoot 1" five shot groups at 100 yards all day long (provided I took my time and consentrated). Alas, I got a 30-06 barrel for it and it didn't improve any, still a 1" at 100 rifle.

Wonder how hard it would be to rechamber the 8mm mauser to 8mm Rem Mag?

quote:

Originally posted by 303Guy:
I'm a great believer in chopping of a centimeter or two and recrowning old barrels. Maybe even less. Just enough to sharpen up the crown might be all that's needed. I'm going to undercut an original carbine barrel by a millimeter or two without disturbing the original crown. (Not on a mauser).

Bartsche , Would you have picture of your home grown muzzle break (or muzzle blast intensifier as I call them! )

PM me your E-Mail address. roger

I have a 1935 mauser 7x57 that will shoot into one inch or less with a wide variety of ammo. It has a scope, and the barrel is in very good shape. I also have an 1944 bruno 8x57 with a somewhat worn but clean barrel(no Pitting). With a peep sight it will do one and one half inches at 100 yards. They appear to be at least as accurate as todays remchesters.

I just picked up a 1943 M98, identical numbers on all parts in a Curly Maple(I think??), fitted almost perfectly the old fashinoed way about 30-40 years ago, Bueler scope safety, bent bolt, very nice blued barrel receiver, Timney trigger. It was a total steal for what I paid for it.

But it wouldn't shoot for sh**...walked rounds up and left. I pulled it out of the stock and saw black spots where it had been touching so I scraped them off, shimmed up the receiver 0.015" to give a little more clearance and it started to shoot nice 1" triangles with 150 and 185 gr bullets.

The point is...you don't know what a barrel will do until you shoot it...just like a new barrel...just because it's old doesn't mean it's bad.

Try it or don't...it's your choice.

I would guess the chamber is a bit oversize depending on when it was produced. The way old commercial AND military were very good, but war time stuff may or not be worth cutting up for washers.



LUCK

40's era Czech 8mm 38/22 or some such, couple "Turks" and a 1900 Oberndor Swede . . . Surplus ammo and we shoot 5 gal. bucket sized stumps at 700 yds off a sandbag w/ iron sights.

Leave it just the way the factory built it!

Mauser built masterpieces -- which is why you see so many custom guns with a Mauser receiver.

Above ^ . . . Wood like that and we'd be taking it everywhere, like a little kid with a favorite teddy bear.

Jeez! That's sweet grain!

Yeah...I thought I died and gone to heaven when I layed eyes on it and asked the price...you'd pay 200 bucks MORE for a Savage 110 at Walphart. I dammed near tore my pocket off getting my wallet out and kept looking over my shoulder as I ran out the door. First time something this good has come my way in a coons age.

I steel epoxy bedded around the recoil lug and 2" of the chamber plus a skimmed the rear mount area while I was cleaning up the barrel channel and receiver.

Who ever did it did the barrel steps also...I haven't seen a job like this since the early 60's from Master craftsmen using chisels, gouges, scrapers and bluing or their own special spotting dye.

It's not perfect and has a few wowees if you look very close, but it's way, WAY better than any I ever did and I did quite a few really nice stocks back in those days.

1943 Gustloffwerke "bcd" markings on the receiver

It's definitely a keeper.

LUCK

Nice happening, Foobar. roger

Nice 200.00 rifle, well worth the money. The stock is a standout.

quote:

Originally posted by Kabluewy:
I found an Oberndorf pre-war '98 with a very clean barrel, in 8x57 of course. I have never shot a Mauser with the original barrel, so I don't know what kind of accuracy to expect.

I'm wondering if these things shoot, if not messed up with corrosive ammo shot in the past. What has been your experience with these mil-surp original Mauser barrels, regarding accuracy?KB

Any follow up on this KB? roger

remember, factory reminton ammo is likely to be POOR -- in accuracy and velocity .. it will ahve .318 bullets.

privi or SB 8x57 is the right answer - 323 bullets

I have an 8X57 98K take-off barrel that was re-contoured & crowned that shoots 3 shots consistantly 1/2" or less at 100yds W/hand loaded 200gr Partions or Hot Cores @ 2700fps.

Own a few 8mm and 7mm mauser rifles. Don't reload for the 8mm ones, just shoot surplus.

None are the proverbial tack drivers, but shoot acceptably well for me. Considering the fact my tired old eyes prefer a scoped rifle. Even the Izzy, an 8mm Israeli 98 mauser with one rather bad looking bore.

Not sure this relates to the German ones but I had a military FN Mauser .30/06 that shot one-and-three-eights inch without rebedding, but maybe after I floated the barrel, 40 years ago.

Military 8X57 barrels are junk. Send them to me & I will dispose of them for FREE!

I have two old Turks that both shoot real well.
Paid $45 each for them, one was thru a dealer that doubled his fee's though! I got 'em for builders but have never done anything with them other than shoot since.

My eye's are shot, loaned one to the CMP leader and he won every match for over a yr with hard cast and 20gr Red Dot. He also shot a nice muley buck with it that fall. Some younger than me and fine eye's.

Start by slugging the bore and making a chamber cast so you know where to start.

Good luck,
George

FWIW, loaned a .308 Izzy, a K98 mauser rebarreled to .308 for Israel, to a gent to use in a military surplus rifle competition we shoot at our private range. Gent had a time hitting a 100 yd target with it....saying the rifle shot poorly and gave it back to me after 2 or 3 competitions. Mind you, own a few other mauser military rifles with better looking bores than the Izzy. I will apologize to him for rifles performance. But a few days later I will take the Izzy to range and shoot some decent 100 yd groups with the rifle. My point is, might be the shooter. Mind you, I consider the gent I loaned the rifle to an excellent shooter, probably better than me. However, he was used to scoped rifles and the mauser sights proved a problem for him.

Own a fair number of mauser type action military rifles, both small ring and large ring type. None are the proverbial tack drivers, but consider them to shoot decent accuracy for what they were intended.

My current 8x57 is a BRNO 43 that a buddy's father sent home from Normandy as a souvenir. It retains its original barrel that is the most minty milsurp Mauser bore I ever looked through. (It now lives in a custom schnabel-ed graceful walnut stock.) I was going to re-barrel it until I made the mistake of shooting the donor. Holy cats, does it shoot! Even though I don't care for stepped barrels, I didn't have the heart to replace it. (Note: the old guy had it reblued before it fell into my hands. He said he failed to thoroughly clean the German blood off of it before crating it up and by the time he caught up with it a couple years later it had rusted pretty good. He was an Ordinance officer who pulled off sending a few trophies home.)