So I picked up a curious old mauser.

[anglia2]

The stock is made in Italy by Sile. Whitworth also used M-17 enfield's with the same style stock. They did make sporters in the '80's using newly manufactured Yugo mausers.

Yes they did , and I've got one . It's a Yugo commercial 98 in 30/06 , it's also one of the most consistent shooting rifles I own . It will keep pretty much anything I've shot in it within about 1 1/2 to 1 inch at one hundred yards , regardless of conditions . Funny enough , the only thing I did to it was to bed the recoil lug . The barrel isn't free floated , but it does have a PH type adjustable trigger . It's become one of my favorites .
As others have pointed out , I'd bed the recoil lug on the 7x57 and see how it shoots , I wouldn't be surprised if it shoots well . Nice rig .

 

[jbmauser]

I had one identical to it but in .30-06. It was a great shooter and I used it for my first elk. Ended up selling to good friend of mine and he still has it and has used it on several moose as well as whitetail.

 

[ndallyn]

Update! Upon examination, the barrel channnel of the Sile stock (did eventually find the "Sile" mark in the barrel channel) was pretty poorly inletted - multiple high spots down the length. So the barrel was fully free-floated and the channel was sealed with a couple coats of tung oil before hitting the range for a few hours.

The first 20 rounds I put down the pipe were federal 140gr blue box - accuracy was abysmal (best group was about 4 inches at 100m). Over the next 4 hours I put anther 100 rds down the pipe with handloads - and was rewarded with several sub moa 5 shot groups.

Best groups were:

PPU case
140 gr PPU soft point
38.5 gr IMR4895
CCI 200 primer

View attachment 170697

PPU case
162 gr Hornady SST
45 gr H4831
CCI 200 primer

View attachment 170698

Just picked up some 175gr Speer grand slams to try next. I will be replacing the trigger on this rifle as the military trigger it currently has is not doing me any favours. It's useable, but does not break cleanly every shot.

 

[Buckmastr]

Nice shooting

 

[kamlooky]

Yah dun good.

 

[BigUglyMan]

OP, you have just learned a very important lesson...never shoot the donor!

 

[dan belisle]

There is no marking inside the barrel channel that I can see - just the stamped s behind the trigger guard. Most of the info I was able to glean about Whitworth mausers from the internet talk about them using Yugoslav mark x actions (zastava commercial actions). From what I have read the guns imported in the 80's were of this type (commercial actions). Since this rifle has a military action I suspect it may have been from an earlier timeframe. Was hoping to find some more info - only could find pictures of the commercial actioned versions.

Likely 50's or 60's with the military action. - dan

 

[FLHTCUI]

Nice rifle... I wouldn't mess with it...

X2, the glueing still looks amazingly clean for a gun that old.
30 plus years is my guess.
Need to see the range report
Rob

 

[Hitzy]

Likely 50's or 60's with the military action. - dan

I think we already dated it in previous post's based on the proof marks on the barrel...1973 or 45 years old, whatever way you look at it

For the trigger, the no safety Timney would be a good upgrade. Expect to hog out a bit of wood to make it fit.

 

[BigUglyMan]

Bold also makes a safety-free trigger. That's what I put on my Husky.

 

[ndallyn]

Already have a brownells order on the way with a couple Timney triggers (one for this rifle and another for an m48 mauser) plus some other tools. I was very pleasantly surprised with how well the PPU components from tradex shot - have been using PPU brass in a few rifles, but this was the first go with their bullets. Also worked up a good 8mm load with their soft points.

 

[dan belisle]

I think we already dated it in previous post's based on the proof marks on the barrel...1973 or 45 years old, whatever way you look at it

For the trigger, the no safety Timney would be a good upgrade. Expect to hog out a bit of wood to make it fit.

Missed that. That maybe when the rifle was built, but that action is definately surplus. - dan

 

[Falconflyer]

I think we already dated it in previous post's based on the proof marks on the barrel...1973 or 45 years old, whatever way you look at it

For the trigger, the no safety Timney would be a good upgrade. Expect to hog out a bit of wood to make it fit.

The barrel is 1973 but the action is not. It still has the thumb cut out for stripper clips so it's definitely not a commercial Mauser but a surplus action that was re-barreled and re-stocked by Whitworth. In fact, a lot of war time Mauser actions had the thumb cut out welded shut by custom makers but for quick and dirty re-sale Whitworth and others didn't bother and left the thumb cut out as is. The safety has been converted to a model that will work with a scope too.