argentine 1891 Mauser -Help

C

Colonel Custer

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Proud owner of 2 Mosin Nagant rifles is considering buying an 1891 Argentine Mauser. 7.65x53. Folks can anyone tell me about this weapon? I know Hornady and Privi Partisan make the ammo but little else.
 
The 1891 Argentine was a fine quality early Mauser bolt rifle.
It was a favorite action for European custom rifle builders in the 1920's and 30's due to the light weight and smooth action.

It was made as a 29" barreled straight bolt handle rifle and as an 17" full stocked bent bolt handle cavalry carbine.
The early rifles were made by Ludwig Loewe of Berlin, and after they and another company joined, they were made under the DWM name.
In both cases quality was very high.

It's not suitable for much of anything over the 7.65 in power and the rifle has to be checked for safety and head space by a gunsmith before shooting.
Many of these had the crest ground off when Argentina sold them, many didn't.
 
I've got an Engineers carbine version built in 1893 and it's awesome. Handles well, shoots well with Hornady and surplus ammo. The 7.65 is a pretty sweet shooting round.
 
Being a Mauser fanatic I've owned a few '91s and they have all been fine guns. I'm a sporterizer so take that into account, I guess.
The 7.65 Arg is a great round. What you have is ballistically in between a .308 and a 30-06. Kinda hard to argue with that, huh?
Unlike some Mauser guys I like the look of the magazine on a '91.
Just a cool rifle to me. Enjoy.

George
 
Had a friend years ago and that was his deer hunting rifle. He got deer. Couple of things I remember.

He had an "armor piercing" round. We were in the deep woods and lined up a bunch of trees and fired it. We quit counting the number of trees that thing went through. Never fired any more armor piercing rounds either. Too dangerous.

We were hunting in a "freezing rain" condition. All the tree branches (and our guns) had a thick coating of ice on them. He was sitting on a log and looked behind him and six feet away was this nice buck crawling on his belly, nose to the ground, to sneak by him. He pulled the trigger and the firing pin was froze solid. He could only watch this buck crawl away. (Not the guns fault BTW).
 
Thanks

Thanks guys anyone else got info? I'm paying $100 for it and have been told that it does fire. I will take it to a gun smith I know and have him check it. Found some hornady ammo $26 a box so its not too expensive too shoot. Looked at a carcano but ammo was $40 a box. Can any one tell me about common problems with this gun if it has any?
 
I have one and it's a great rifle. Someone cut off the forestock decades ago but it's untouched otherwise. It's quite accurate with PRVI Partizan ammo, which, btw, sells for $17.49 at Midway, much less than the Hornady stuff.

I like the Argentine Mauser as it's a lot lighter and handier than the later Mausers. Much nicer to carry around in the woods.
 
Your rifle, while the machining is great, is still an 1890's design,made of 1890's plain carbon steels, and made under the primitive process controls of the period.

If you ever reload stay on the low end of loads, never hot load the thing.

This rifle does not handle gas well, so do not load hot loads that may pierce primers or blow case heads.
 
Back in the early 70s a gunsmith named lizt built a friend of mine a 280 Remington using a Argentine 91. He fitted it with a double set trigger.

The rifle was a pleasure to shoot and took many yotes and white tails before my friend got into shot guns and put it on the rack.
 
I don't think an 1891 action would be suitable for the 280 cartridge.
I used to own a 91,and enjoyed using it as it was.
 
I deer hunt with a 1891 Argentine Mauser made in 1984 and I love it! The 7.65 is a heavy hitting round with more than enough power to knock deer down at range. The only thing that sucks is you need a LER scope for it and buy a base to replace the rear sight if you want to put an optic on it, unless you pay to get it drilled and tapped.

Issues I've heard of are light primer strikes from springs made in the late 1890's. I replaced mine with a Blitzensprang spring and it lights rounds off like a champ. A couple other of my buddies will own them and had similar issues with either worn out firing pins or springs. Numrichs has them instock and so does Sarco if I remember right. Another comes from idiots hot-loading them and setting the bolts back in the receivers, which isn't so much a problem with the Arg, but anything that is hot loaded to the point of failure.

Use the ammo right for the Argentine and it will serve you fine.

Your rifle, while the machining is great, is still an 1890's design,made of 1890's plain carbon steels, and made under the primitive process controls of the period.
Click to expand...

I've heard this over and over and can't help but wonder. If the 1891 Arg is such a 'primitively' made rifle, why haven't I heard of one blowing up? People shoot rifles a lot older than 1891 manufacture and walk away fine because they follow the rules.

Hot loading from a machinist's stand point makes no sense at all. Why would you want to torque and beat metal to the highest it can go for any reason? Why risk blowing your bolt/pieces of your weapon into your face for a few extra MPS?
 
Ballistics are supposed to be pretty close to the .308 from what I've read and understood. Mine really likes the Hornady Customs for hunting, I still pound out the old surplus stuff when I can find it, then scrub the barrel real well. You'll like the Argentine. Pics?
 
All of my mauser's shoot up and right, making hunting w/ iron sights a bit tricky. I keep them matching and in military original configuration without holes and scopes--more historic that way. Fun guns! I picked up a big lot of Norma 7.65 ammo on GB, made in the 70s or 80s, that shoots well. Don't buy the bulk military ammo, that crap is nasty--so cheap and tarnished that I wouldn't even risk chambering a round, for fear that it would get stuck!
 
The right/left is easy to fix, just whack the front sight to get it to line up, the way Peter Paul Mauser intended.

Up/down is harder, but can be done depending on the front sight. For some rifles taller/shorter sights are available.

The easiest option though it to take it to the range and chart out what the sights settings equal in real life.

For my K98 with 178 GR Czech surplus shoots high, about 3 1/2" at 50 yards, which puts the zero at roughly 400 yards. I can hit a 300 yard gong consistently using a 6 o'clock hold.

The 200gr Yugo surplus is much closer to the actual sight markings, with the 200M mark equal to just under 200 yards.
 
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