Broomhandle Mauser care and attention

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maple_leaf_eh

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A few years ago I bought a Chinese-origin Broomhandle Mauser from Lever. Always wanted one. It arrived (tucked between the front doors) with surface pits, mostly matching numbers and a horrible bore. Jason at Gunco gave it the thumbs up as complete and sound. He should know, his store logo is a Broomhandle. But he wasn't willing to do any work on it. Not worth his time for the condition.

I still want to fire the gun, but haven't found any .30 Mauser ammunition anywhere. Some US posters suggested reduced loads in 7.62 Tokarov cases, but I haven't explored that yet. I can get a better resale for it as firing, not as a money sink. For the moment, that ugly bore has my attention. Any suggestions for relining in the original cartridge? What hoops would be required to get that done in the US?
 
Main problem I see with those "reduced tokarev loads" is that 7.62X25TT casings are either made of steel and/or berdan primed, so we need to scratch them for reloading purposes. As for taking them apart, reduce the powder load and re-assemble them, these SOBs are crimped tight...

So at that point, you would be better to order 500 pieces of Starline brass (these are under 100$ so you can buy direct) and load your own from the beginning.
 
could rebore it to 9mm and then shoot 9mm mauser ammo in it,.. bertrim brass in australia makes the cases, but i think so did or does rws and .. one american produer. i dont recall if it requires any magazine changes, i should thnik not much, as is basicaly a sized up 7.65 mauser round.. rim and case are the same dimentions,
 
About 25 years ago or so when Century had their Bromhandles for sale at 150.00 or so I got two and the bores on both were like a sewer pipe but they both shot decentley. I made about 500 rounds of 30 Mauser brass using 223 cases. I just spent 15 minutes rumaging around and can`t find any but I know they are here somewhere. If I recall I cut the 223 cases to length and lubed them up really good and stuffed them into a set of 30 mauser RCBS dies then loaded them with a cast bullet to finish fire forming them. I think I used Federal or IVI brass. They worked great once they had been formed and I used jacketed bullets after that.
Hope this helps.
khornet
 
case conversion

khornet said:
I made about 500 rounds of 30 Mauser brass using 223 cases. I just spent 15 minutes rumaging around and can`t find any but I know they are here somewhere. If I recall I cut the 223 cases to length and lubed them up really good and stuffed them into a set of 30 mauser RCBS dies then loaded them with a cast bullet to finish fire forming them.
khornet
Click to expand...

Great suggestion. I'll go look at Cartridges of the World to read up on the dimensions. There is heckuva lot of .223 and 5.56 floating around compared to .30 Mauser. I've blown the neck out on .308 to make 7.5x54 French, so this sounds straight forward.

Do you use anything in the case to keep it from crushing in the forming die?
 
I used something in the case neck and it might have been the expander plug from the mauser die set. Resize and decap the 223 brass first as I know that I ried to do the forming without doing that and ran into problems.
Base dia on the 30 is .388 and rim is .391 and on a 5.56 they are .373 and .375. I did this for a couple of years and found a case of Hanson ammo which I used instead. Still have the two bromys and I know I have some of the homemade cases somewhere.
hope this helps you.
khornet..
 
Starline makes .30 Mauser/7.63 Mauser brass. You could contact Starline for their Canadian distributor.
1300 W. Henry • Sedalia, MO 65301
800-280-6660/660-827-6640 • FAX 660-827-6650 • 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F
Midway, who won't/can't ship to Canada, wants $20.49US per 100. Epp's doesn't list it, but contact them anyway. They might have some or know where to get some.
Fiocchi loads it too, if you can find any.
I have data for an 85 grain jacketed bullet and an 84 grain cast bullet. E-mail me and I'll send it to you.
 
rim and base dia

khornet said:
...
Base dia on the 30 is .388 and rim is .391 and on a 5.56 they are .373 and .375. ...

hope this helps you.
khornet..
Click to expand...

I made that same observation and wondered about swelling and about the extractor contact. If there are pre-made cases, I might as well skip the troublesome middle steps. But good to know there are alternatives.
 
Use 9mm blank and cut it off just behind the rosette crimp. You have a ready made case...just insert bullet and as they say Bob's yur uncle". Drop me a private email and I might have some left I can send you. I cut off the crimp with a jewelers saw, trim and load. DON'T USE THE BLANK POWDER!!!!!!!!!!! flush it.
Cheers,
U-NO-HU
 
wheaty said:
Use 9mm blank and cut it off just behind the rosette crimp. You have a ready made case...just insert bullet and as they say Bob's yur uncle". Drop me a private email and I might have some left I can send you. I cut off the crimp with a jewelers saw, trim and load. DON'T USE THE BLANK POWDER!!!!!!!!!!! flush it.
Cheers,
U-NO-HU
Click to expand...
And to think I truthfully gave my ammo declarations after leaving piles of 9mm empties around the training areas.
 
I have both a Broomhandle ( well two: Bolo and standard C96) and a tokarev.

Starline brass is the only way to go. Hornady and Sierra both carry bullets.
You can also use lead or pulled bullets. I've used lots of different powder but would suggest that for the broomhandle, you work up a load of WW231 from about 5 grs. plus (up for 86-90 grain pills).

If you need to reline the barrel, this should not be a big problem. 9mm is another option.

If you really get stuck, let me know. I have a little bit of factory kicking around here somewhere.
 
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I saw 2 boxes of 7.63 mauser ammo at the Ancaster show this morning. Fiocchi and really old Kynoch. What does either one go for? I assume the Kynoch is collectable and shouldn't be shot?
 
When Mauser did this for the German army, they were able to chamber 9mm Luger. Also you see a lot of C-96's that were originally in .30 Mauser, but are converted to 9mm Luger, due to the problem with corroded / pitted bores.

I'd rebore for 9mm Luger.

ausjulius said:
could rebore it to 9mm and then shoot 9mm mauser ammo in it,.. bertrim brass in australia makes the cases, but i think so did or does rws and .. one american produer. i dont recall if it requires any magazine changes, i should thnik not much, as is basicaly a sized up 7.65 mauser round.. rim and case are the same dimentions,
Click to expand...
 
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