I just picked up a neat old military rifle and was wondering if it has any collector value before I tear it apart. It is marked "Remington" with patent date 1901 on upper tang and "7MM" on top of barrel. I'm pretty sure it is a Mexican because it has two barrel bands. It is in very good overall condition with a good bore. I understand the Mex was chambered in 7x57. Would this rifle stand up to modern 7x57 factory loads? The wood is extremely good and the metal is shiny brown. Bore is sharp chamber to muzzle. Any information or comment appreciated.
Mike

Mike: These are getting tougher to find in original military condition with a very good bore, so you might want to leave it stock.
The down side is that there have probably been more so-called smokeless rolling blocks in 7X57 blown up with "reasonable" 7 X57 ammo and handloads than any other of the RBs. I know of one local collector who dumped all his rolling blocks after a smokeless action let go and nearly killed him. I've seen the remains of the rifle. I do not know the details of the load.

Bill,
Thanks. After I posted, I took a cruise on Gunbroker. There are several of them posted, most in exponentially worse condition than mine so I will leave this one as is an wait for a beater to cannibalize an action from. If anyone wants to watch the action, I list over there as M. J. Ryan.
Mike

Somewhere along the line there must have been a change in dimensions since those old ones have excessive headspace with new ammo.Also all old guns should be handled gently as the parts are old, worn and the metallurgy not like modern guns.

Mike I have a Mexican roller but mine has a ingraved emblem on top Republic of Mexicana I made a 40/56 out of it !

The 7mm round used in the Mexican Rolling Blocks was slightly different from the conventional 7x57 and are very slightly longer. Crofts Baker wrote a good article on the cartridge and rifle focused on reloading for it. The article was in Black Powder Cartridge News about a year ago or so.

My friend Stan has one and he shoots 7x57 out of the box in his and he also reloads his and says it shoot fine he cut the barrel to 20 " as he like short barreled rifles .
Above mistake !!!! 40/65

While looking for a section of PVC pipe to ship a barrel in, I came across an old 12 ga. hammer gun I'd forgotten about. The RB is on gunbroker and I'm going to go after the SxS instead. I'm M. J. Ryan over at GB. If anyone from AR wins it, I will cover shipping costs inside USA. If from Michigan, I will cover sales tax.

I seem to recall that the 7X57 Rolling Blocks were 7X57R. I could very well be mistaken.

We were never meant to win ! RonE !