Austrian .308 Mauser Questions

M

Matt VDW

New member
Today I went to a gun show planning to buy an 8mm Yugo or Czech Mauser, but I was seduced by the prospect of logistical simplicity and bought a .308 Mauser instead.

What worries me is that I don't know much about the history of this rifle except that it was not originally made in .308, so now I'm wondering about the quality and safety of the conversion work. Here's what I have:

It's a mil-surp Mauser about 43" in length with a 23" barrel. The receiver is marked "MODELO 1912" on top and "WAFFENFABRIK STEYR" on the left side. Sometime after it left the factory, the word "NATO" was added to the top and "AUSTRIA" was added to the left side. The top of the receiver also sports a crest consisting of a plumed shield marked with a star and flanked by crowned deer and a crowned eagle. The barrel is stamped "M12 .308" and "CAI ST. ALB. VT" (which I know stands for Century Arms International, the importer). The rear tangent side has gradations from "3" to "20", which is very optimistic if it means 2000 meters!

Since "Modelo" is not a German word, would I be correct to guess that this rifle was built by Steyr for some South American country?

More importantly, should I be confident that the action is strong enough to handle .308 Winchester (assuming that the headspace is correct)?
 
OK, I've done a little Web research and discovered that what I have is a Chilean 1912 short rifle which was apparently converted from 7x57mm by the Chileans. It's good to know that this rifle was not re-bored by some guy in Vermont. :)
 
Your rifle was made by Steyer of Austria between 1912 and 1914 for the Chilean Army and was originally chambered to 7mm Mauser. That is the Chilean National Crest on the receiver. Some time after WWII, the Chileans rebarreled it for the new fangled 7.62 NATO cartridge (.308 Winchester).
Since it is a Model 98 type Mauser, it will handel the new cartridge just fine.
The numbers 3 through 20 on the sight are for 300 to 2,000 Meters. I would guess, though I am not certain about it, that these settings were calibrated for the old 7mm Mauser military load that the Chileans used before WWI and would be off for any 308 Win. ammo you might fire today. On this type of rifle with this type of sight, you have to put on a new sight any time you change the load, since you have a new trajectory if you do this. Think about it.
It may be, but again I do not know for sure, that the Chileans just readjusted the sight notch or the height of the front sight when they did this work to put the bullet on a known point (300 meteres? 100 meters?) with the new 7.62 NATO round. The Swedes did something like this when they changed the load for their 6.5 Swede Mausers, but this just corrects things for one distance. In this case, you just told your troops what the new situation was and forgot about all the longer settings (which were not of much use anyway, as things turned out).
As always, it is wise to have the head space checked on any old rifle you intend to fire, but this one will probalbly check out O.K.
CAI ST. ALB. VT. stands for Century Arms International Saint Albans Vermont, which is the "import mark", just there to comply with one of the stupidest laws ever passed in the U.S.A. Its just on there to insult your intelligence.
I'm not sure what the M12 stands for.
The Europeans usually spelled things out in the language of the country that bought their arms, a considerate touch.
These are nice rifles in a very popular caliber. I have wanted one for some time, but all the ones I have seen at gun shows around St. Louis are badly beat finish wise, but that doesn't mean that they would not have shot just fine. I know there are some superior ones out there (finish wise). I already have too many rifles, so I'm more into the "collectable" specimens rather than the shooters.
 
Thanks, Herodotus.

The metal on my rifle is in very good condition (except for the lack of finish) but the stock is in bad shape; it's dinged and dirty with a few cracks at the wrist. Still, for $90 I can't complain. None of the serial numbers match so I definitely want to have the headspace checked before firing it.

If anyone's interested, I can post a digital picture.
 
I have seen one of those and it appears that the rebarrel was done with cut down 03A3 2 groove barrel. Does anyone know if that is the case?
 
European barrels made for military Mausers are always (?) stepped. American military barrels are never (?) stepped.
So are these barrels stepped or not? That might answer your question.
 
The barrel is, indeed, stepped.

I have a few more questions for any Mauser experts out there:

1) Is this a large ring Mauser?

2) Where can I get some stripper clips that will work with .308 ammo?

3) How much does it cost to re-barrel a 98 Mauser?
 
This should be a large ring Mauser with a 1.410" diameter receiver ring. Small ring would be 1.300" diameter.
Just about any stripper clips made for rimless rounds should work just fine in the Mauser: any made for 8mm Masuer, 30/06, 7mm Mauser, Swede 6.5mm Mauser, etc., etc. They are all the same: German, American, Turk, Swede, etc., etc.
I will let a gunsmith go into the rebarreling costs. It shouldn't be to bad if you can find the right military surplus barrel, but bad if you cannot. Barrels for custom sporters can go anywhere from $20 for the cheapest to $300 for a Shilen to even more ($600) for something realy fancy (flutes, octogons, etc.) and then you have actually install it, chamber it, put sights on it, finish it (and perhaps the rest of the rifle). It depends on what you want to do.
 
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