I had a thought the other day (and no it didn't hurt ). I want to build a rifle each for my two boys and give it to them on their 18th birthdays. On hand I have an Anschutz .222 that belonged to my late father-in-law and a Brazilian Mauser 98 in 7x57. The .222 is in a pretty crap state and will need rebuilding (barrel and other bits)but I want to keep is as original looking as possible. The Mauser is a military rifle and will need stripping down.I'm thinking along the lines of a light express type of rifle, sort of like that .35 Sambar that was in the Gun and Game magazine last year, but what calibre? Keep it in 7mm? I do like the 8x57 a lot as well OR something with oomph like the 9.3x62? What do you guys think and why?

Gidday Bakes,

You are dead right about the 222, leave it as it is.

The mauser on the otherhand would make a perfect allrounder if you were to put a nice stock on it rebarrel in either 6.5 x 57 or 7 x 57 and turn it into a nice custom job with a low power leupy 1 x 5 on it.

For your youngsters it will handle anything you have in Oz with a good selection of bullets in either cal. Both cals are classics and really suitable for hunting on this side of the Tasman if they decide to come here for a bit of a look around.

Big thumpers are a bit over-rated with no significant increase in performance over these classics.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

the 7mm is to good to pass up, you can back it off to thet the boys used to it then start winding it up to perform on game.
let them get there own big bopper. give them something that you can use.
greg

Have a change of plan. I also have a M96 swede. I may use this as one of the birthday rifles and keep it in 6.5x55. 7x57 would be a good calibre for the other one but I do like the 8x57. You don't hear about this calibre much and it would be cool to make up a nice rifle in it.