Mexican Mauser range test - couple pics

kjohn

kjohn

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I took my Mexican Mauser in 30-06 out to my buddy's private range today and dusted off 26 rounds of handloads and five old factory Winchester Silvertips.

Target was set at approx. 40 yds and rounds were fired off a rest. The factory rounds were all over the place, but with my fuzzy old eyes, I can't blame the ammo. The best group was with five shots, marked on the target with an "X". Load was once fired, full length sized Imperial brass, Winchester primers, 12 gr. of Unique, 160 gr. Lee WW GC bullet spire point. Very nice load to shoot. Next batch I will just neck size with a Lee collet die and use the same load and bullet.

My days of shooting a rifle without scopes are numbered, as I have trouble seeing through the haze over the rear sight. Yes, I know I am supposed to focus on the front sight/target.

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Nice shooting! It looks like the cleaning rod came out a bit from the recoil though, I have the same issue with some of my Mausers.
 
Nabs said:
Nice shooting! It looks like the cleaning rod came out a bit from the recoil though, I have the same issue with some of my Mausers.
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Yep. Good eye. The Mauser is also missing the little spring that pushes the ejector out into the path of the casing upon extracting. Easy fix. It seems like the old girl likes that powder charge and that bullet. I'll make up another batch. :)
 
The model 54 Mexican Mausers, when found in decent condition are as nice as any of their European built counterparts. Very well finished throughout and as long as the bores are in VG/EXC condition are every bit as accurate.

The wood used in their stocks is a Mexican grown hardwood that doesn't grow in large diameter. They opted to cut the planks into thinner strips and laminated them together in such a tight pattern that it's next to impossible to detect unless you have it in your hand and can look closely. I have seen many that were very dirty with no finish on them left that the only way to see the lamination is to clean them up to the wood and degrease them. Some people find the stocks to be on the large side, especially if they have small hands.

They also went through several changes in their development. Parts are different and often look to be from their 7x57 mod 1912 rifles. The biggest noticeable difference between the two models will be the sleeker non laminated stocks on the 1912. Still very well made of high nickle steel. They are often overlooked because they're usually in lousy condition and often mistaken for the M95 actions, some of which had bolts with gas shields identical to the 98 bolts. It can be confusing and care should be taken but they are all clearly marked which model they are.

The model 54 rifles will come with two different styles of sights. The early rifles will have tangent types of their predecessors and the later rifles will have sights similar to the US 1903A3 Springfield.

The steel in those receivers has a very high nickle content and can be extremely difficult to blue. Same goes for the floor plates.

Kjohn, your stock looks to have had its original finish taken off but the blue still looks pretty good. This isn't unusual from the other 54s I've handled. I haven't been able to find out or figure out what blue recipe they used but it's one of the most durable I've ever seen. If the floor plate or trigger guard on a sporter get scratched and you want to touch it up with cold blue none of them will take. I finally had to have mine powder coated.
 
jbmauser said:
Nice shooting Kjohn! I think the 54's are a neat Mauser variant.
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Thank you! Yes, it is an interesting rifle. A continuance of my good luck in stumbling across this rifle is obvious. I posted this rifle last Spring on another US site. A couple of members indicated that they have been looking for 30+ years for a decent example of this model, with no luck. Most of the rifles that were imported into the US were hacked up into sporters.
 
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