Argentine 1909 Mausers in .30-06?

[Eaglelord17]

Hi all,

I have been noticing for sale recently a lot of Argentine 1909 Mausers listed in .30-06. Wondering if anyone knows anything about it as they were all issued in 7.65x53 and unless rechambered by civilians should still be in that caliber. Is it just a case of dealers mismarking them or was a bunch converted in other countries to .30-06 for civilians and now are being resold here?

 

[bearhunter]

This is a post that pretty much covers the story.

"The Argentine military adopted the FN49 in 7.65x53 Mauser not .30-06. At a later date the Argentine Navy converted around 5,000 of them to 7.62 NATO with new barrels and 20 round detachable magazines. The M1909 30-06 conversions were done when the importers brought them and 7.65mm ammo wasn't readily available. As stated above it was a half assed done conversion as the bullet diameter wasn't even close. Some of the stuff done by those old importer companies was pretty shaky."

 

[MiG25]

Years ago at Proline Shooters in Calgary they had beautiful 1909 Carbine, unfortunately it had been given the 30-06 treatment.

The Argentine's did have a very similar cartridge at one point.

 

[slug]

Over 50 years back, I had a smith rechamber one to '06. It performed quite well with .30/30 cast bullets. IIRC, I shot a partridge through the neck with it. I mistook it for a deer.

 

[Potashminer]

A CGN guy told me that SIR in Winnipeg had those for sale - 7.65 barrel that someone ran a 30-06 reamer into - to create a chamber for 30-06 ammo. I have an Infanty version and a Cavalry version - neither is messed with - as original - I read they were highly desirable in USA to make into "hunting guns" because they were one of the few military Mauser 98 rifles with a hinged floor plate - a good deal of the "fussy work" was already done - so they were relatively "easy" to convert. Some years ago, I got RCBS dies labelled "7.62x53 B M" (probably "Belgian Mauser - one of the several names that cartridge had). From Tradex, I got some PPU brass, and some more brass from CGN - and I use bullets for 303 British (0.313" (7.950 mm) or 0.314" (7.975 mm) diameter)