1,000 yards M1886 Portuguese Steyr Mauser-Kropatschek rifle
- Thread starter diopter
- Start date
- Location
- Alberta, North America
pretty interesting info... I love my 43 Mauser carbine and can hit steel plates consistently out to 600m and good to 800, this with modern open Marble sights. Don't knock lead and the old rifles and calibers, when you know range and ballistics and hold over, etc, amazing shots can be made with them. Thanks for posting.
I have three different models of Steyr made 1886 Kropatschek rifles. I could have had all four but my money ran out and I let the carbine with matching numbers go. When I got the cash together an hour later it was gone.
The video is correct in that there were three main models. The fourth model is nothing more than the long rifle with a full length upper hand guard that was built for the Colonies and is often referred to as the Colonial Rifle. I saw a lot of Kropatschek rifles in Angola in 1969. No short rifles that I remember and very few carbines. As far as the rifles went, some had upper hand guards and some didn't. Some of the native police were still being issued some rather beat and worn examples of these rifles at the time. Many of the civilians had them in all configurations from beautiful sporting rifles to falling apart surplus rifles.
The first thing to notice about these rifles is how well made they are. Incredibly close tolerances and fit on all metal parts. Even the rifles with mismatched numbers are tight fitting. Likely the mismatches had to be hand fitted but I don't know for sure.
I shoot my rifles with 200 grn .320 diameter paper patched bullets over a 65grn FFG charge. They function flawlessly and are more accurate than I would have thought. The bores in my rifles are sharp, bright and shiny. They measure out well over the .318 described in the video. Mine all slug out to a consistent .320 minor and .327 major diameter. None of them will shoot 323 diameter bullets well. They will however shoot the .329 diameter Hornady bullets quite well. I don't shoot much jacketed though. The paper patched loads are a pain in the butt but then again. I don't shoot these old girls much.
The Colonial model is mismatched as would be expected and the National models are both matching. I own a Colonial rifle, a National Rifle and a National Short Rifle. Still looking for a decent matching National Carbine.
These are great rifles but not many people realize how big a role they played in history. The Portuguese controlled a lot of area at the turn of the 20th Century and these rifles were their mainstay.
They are smooth operating, ergonomically pleasant to shoot but there is a sad lack of components for them. I have been lucky enough to accumulate 100+ Berdan primed brass which I wash and don't reload them until a day before taking them out to shoot.
P&S has a couple of these great pieces of history for sale. One is recent and the other has been there for quite awhile. I suspect the gouge in the stock of the Colonial model scares people off. Brass is difficult to find.
The video is correct in that there were three main models. The fourth model is nothing more than the long rifle with a full length upper hand guard that was built for the Colonies and is often referred to as the Colonial Rifle. I saw a lot of Kropatschek rifles in Angola in 1969. No short rifles that I remember and very few carbines. As far as the rifles went, some had upper hand guards and some didn't. Some of the native police were still being issued some rather beat and worn examples of these rifles at the time. Many of the civilians had them in all configurations from beautiful sporting rifles to falling apart surplus rifles.
The first thing to notice about these rifles is how well made they are. Incredibly close tolerances and fit on all metal parts. Even the rifles with mismatched numbers are tight fitting. Likely the mismatches had to be hand fitted but I don't know for sure.
I shoot my rifles with 200 grn .320 diameter paper patched bullets over a 65grn FFG charge. They function flawlessly and are more accurate than I would have thought. The bores in my rifles are sharp, bright and shiny. They measure out well over the .318 described in the video. Mine all slug out to a consistent .320 minor and .327 major diameter. None of them will shoot 323 diameter bullets well. They will however shoot the .329 diameter Hornady bullets quite well. I don't shoot much jacketed though. The paper patched loads are a pain in the butt but then again. I don't shoot these old girls much.
The Colonial model is mismatched as would be expected and the National models are both matching. I own a Colonial rifle, a National Rifle and a National Short Rifle. Still looking for a decent matching National Carbine.
These are great rifles but not many people realize how big a role they played in history. The Portuguese controlled a lot of area at the turn of the 20th Century and these rifles were their mainstay.
They are smooth operating, ergonomically pleasant to shoot but there is a sad lack of components for them. I have been lucky enough to accumulate 100+ Berdan primed brass which I wash and don't reload them until a day before taking them out to shoot.
P&S has a couple of these great pieces of history for sale. One is recent and the other has been there for quite awhile. I suspect the gouge in the stock of the Colonial model scares people off. Brass is difficult to find.
I had a rifle chambered in 8x60R. I found I could make Boxer cases for it using 444 Marlin brass. One pass in a FL die and brass is almost good to go. I bit short in the neck... but so what?
The rim is slightly thick in my rifle, so I made a few passes of a file to take a bit off the back of the case. Just enough to erase the head stamp. This left the primer pocket a bit shallow, so a twist of a pocket uniforming reamer took it down to the correct depth.
The rim is slightly thick in my rifle, so I made a few passes of a file to take a bit off the back of the case. Just enough to erase the head stamp. This left the primer pocket a bit shallow, so a twist of a pocket uniforming reamer took it down to the correct depth.
I've had my colonial Krop for a couple years now. It was a gift from Smellie as he said that I needed to have one in my collection.
As others have stated brass is the easy part. Take a 348 winchester case and bevel the rim to fit the bolt face. Then I annealed the brass and formed a shoulder with a set of 8mm lebel dies. I then fireformed the brass and that was that.
I partially resize the brass with a lebel die and it works just fine.
Above is left a standard 348 winchester piece of brass, middle a 348 that has been beveled, annealed and sized with a 8mm lebel die. Right is an original 8x56 kropatschek round.
This picture shows a fireformed and partially resized piece of brass ready to load. It looks identical.
Smellie gave me the idea to used 8mm lebel dies as he had never fired his and was interested to see if I could get the ball rolling and put his ideas to work.
My rifle has a generous bore of .330" or so so .323" to .326" cast bullets don't work very well. I plan to make a custom mould with a long slender bullet roughly mimicking the shape of the original. I will simply bore a hole on my lathe with no grooves and then size and paper patch the long slender bullets. That's my plan anyway, it may not work but experimenting is 1/2 the fun. .
As others have stated brass is the easy part. Take a 348 winchester case and bevel the rim to fit the bolt face. Then I annealed the brass and formed a shoulder with a set of 8mm lebel dies. I then fireformed the brass and that was that.
I partially resize the brass with a lebel die and it works just fine.
Above is left a standard 348 winchester piece of brass, middle a 348 that has been beveled, annealed and sized with a 8mm lebel die. Right is an original 8x56 kropatschek round.
This picture shows a fireformed and partially resized piece of brass ready to load. It looks identical.
Smellie gave me the idea to used 8mm lebel dies as he had never fired his and was interested to see if I could get the ball rolling and put his ideas to work.
My rifle has a generous bore of .330" or so so .323" to .326" cast bullets don't work very well. I plan to make a custom mould with a long slender bullet roughly mimicking the shape of the original. I will simply bore a hole on my lathe with no grooves and then size and paper patch the long slender bullets. That's my plan anyway, it may not work but experimenting is 1/2 the fun. .
