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Safe conversions for small ring Mausers?
1/11/2012 11:44:30 PM
My dad gave me 3 small ring Mausers to work on, one 95 and two 96's.
One of the 96's has a barrel that is scrap value only and I was considering going with a diffierent cartridge when rebarreling. I see 308 Win barrels out there, are these safe for a small ring 96 ?????
What are my options????
One of the 96's has a barrel that is scrap value only and I was considering going with a diffierent cartridge when rebarreling. I see 308 Win barrels out there, are these safe for a small ring 96 ?????
What are my options????
1/12/2012 10:08:54 AM
I've been contemplating your question.
Maybe it's the Scot in me, but I can't see any reason to let a good action go to waste, you just have to figure out its best use. If I was tackling a project with a 96 Mauser, I would chamber it for a low pressure bottle neck cartridge, maybe with the intent to shoot lead bullets; basically something fun to shoot targets with good hunting utility, too.
6.5X55 seems like one logical choice ...
Maybe it's the Scot in me, but I can't see any reason to let a good action go to waste, you just have to figure out its best use. If I was tackling a project with a 96 Mauser, I would chamber it for a low pressure bottle neck cartridge, maybe with the intent to shoot lead bullets; basically something fun to shoot targets with good hunting utility, too.
6.5X55 seems like one logical choice ...
1/12/2012 11:08:44 AM
Rhineland offers a .45 ACP conversion for small ring Mausers for about $150.
http://www.troupsystems.com/MAUSER/mauser_conversions.htm
http://www.troupsystems.com/MAUSER/mauser_conversions.htm
1/12/2012 11:50:11 AM
There's always been a big stink since the early days of gun discussions on the net, rec.guns newsgroups etc since at least the early 90's over .308/7.62 NATO conversions of small-ring Mausers from various European countries, that were second-line, training, reserve, or police issue etc.
Price Waterhouse labs did a big test, and found that a small ring Mauser with .308 proof barrel wouldn't fail until it was charged to something like 3X a SAMMI proof load. Tons of folks, me included, ditched some rather valuable small ring 7.62 Nato milsurps like the much more rare FR-7 companion to the Spanish FR-8 I have over all the bad advice on this.
That's not to say an improperly done conversion, or a receiver with bad metallurgy/heat treat/whatever... couldn't fail. But the same is true for a large-ring Mauser action in 7.62 Nato/.308 too.
Price Waterhouse labs did a big test, and found that a small ring Mauser with .308 proof barrel wouldn't fail until it was charged to something like 3X a SAMMI proof load. Tons of folks, me included, ditched some rather valuable small ring 7.62 Nato milsurps like the much more rare FR-7 companion to the Spanish FR-8 I have over all the bad advice on this.
That's not to say an improperly done conversion, or a receiver with bad metallurgy/heat treat/whatever... couldn't fail. But the same is true for a large-ring Mauser action in 7.62 Nato/.308 too.
1/12/2012 12:28:49 PM
Originally Posted By AJ_Dual:
There's always been a big stink since the early days of gun discussions on the net, rec.guns newsgroups etc since at least the early 90's over .308/7.62 NATO conversions of small-ring Mausers from various European countries, that were second-line, training, reserve, or police issue etc.
Price Waterhouse labs did a big test, and found that a small ring Mauser with .308 proof barrel wouldn't fail until it was charged to something like 3X a SAMMI proof load. Tons of folks, me included, ditched some rather valuable small ring 7.62 Nato milsurps like the much more rare FR-7 companion to the Spanish FR-8 I have over all the bad advice on this.
That's not to say an improperly done conversion, or a receiver with bad metallurgy/heat treat/whatever... couldn't fail. But the same is true for a large-ring Mauser action in 7.62 Nato/.308 too.
There's always been a big stink since the early days of gun discussions on the net, rec.guns newsgroups etc since at least the early 90's over .308/7.62 NATO conversions of small-ring Mausers from various European countries, that were second-line, training, reserve, or police issue etc.
Price Waterhouse labs did a big test, and found that a small ring Mauser with .308 proof barrel wouldn't fail until it was charged to something like 3X a SAMMI proof load. Tons of folks, me included, ditched some rather valuable small ring 7.62 Nato milsurps like the much more rare FR-7 companion to the Spanish FR-8 I have over all the bad advice on this.
That's not to say an improperly done conversion, or a receiver with bad metallurgy/heat treat/whatever... couldn't fail. But the same is true for a large-ring Mauser action in 7.62 Nato/.308 too.
Any links to the tests?
I have a rifle, that has the Kimber name on it , that is a conversion of an M96 swede to .308 with a heavy barrel. Shot it for years without a problem.
1/12/2012 1:02:10 PM
Originally Posted By shortround:
Any links to the tests?
I have a rifle, that has the Kimber name on it , that is a conversion of an M96 swede to .308 with a heavy barrel. Shot it for years without a problem.
Originally Posted By AJ_Dual:
There's always been a big stink since the early days of gun discussions on the net, rec.guns newsgroups etc since at least the early 90's over .308/7.62 NATO conversions of small-ring Mausers from various European countries, that were second-line, training, reserve, or police issue etc.
Price Waterhouse labs did a big test, and found that a small ring Mauser with .308 proof barrel wouldn't fail until it was charged to something like 3X a SAMMI proof load. Tons of folks, me included, ditched some rather valuable small ring 7.62 Nato milsurps like the much more rare FR-7 companion to the Spanish FR-8 I have over all the bad advice on this.
That's not to say an improperly done conversion, or a receiver with bad metallurgy/heat treat/whatever... couldn't fail. But the same is true for a large-ring Mauser action in 7.62 Nato/.308 too.
There's always been a big stink since the early days of gun discussions on the net, rec.guns newsgroups etc since at least the early 90's over .308/7.62 NATO conversions of small-ring Mausers from various European countries, that were second-line, training, reserve, or police issue etc.
Price Waterhouse labs did a big test, and found that a small ring Mauser with .308 proof barrel wouldn't fail until it was charged to something like 3X a SAMMI proof load. Tons of folks, me included, ditched some rather valuable small ring 7.62 Nato milsurps like the much more rare FR-7 companion to the Spanish FR-8 I have over all the bad advice on this.
That's not to say an improperly done conversion, or a receiver with bad metallurgy/heat treat/whatever... couldn't fail. But the same is true for a large-ring Mauser action in 7.62 Nato/.308 too.
Any links to the tests?
I have a rifle, that has the Kimber name on it , that is a conversion of an M96 swede to .308 with a heavy barrel. Shot it for years without a problem.
BTW... it's H.P. White Labs... "Price Waterhouse"... WTF was I smoking for breakfast this morning.
Samco had a big thing up on their site about it a few years back. Now it's mostly message board archive references to it like this:
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-40448.html
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?151928-The-dead-Horse-and-the-93-95-Mauser-converisons
This of course isn't to say someone couldn't fark up a .308 conversion of a small ring Mauser into something unsafe, just that there's been a lot of folks who like to act knowledgeable and say ANY small ring Mauser rebarreled in .308 is inherently unsafe are full of it.
And it became such 'common knowledge' at one point, a lot of folks (myself included) didn't buy, or got rid of some european or South American small ring mausers in .308 over it.
