Bolt Action Rifles. Wayne Zwoll

This bullet weighed 198 grains and had a muzzle velocity of 2476 fps at a breech pressure level of nearly 50,000 psi. The 8x57sS is a potent military cartridge with very impressive ballistics.

      In the United States, the sporting version of the German 8mm cartridge is known simply as the 8mm Mauser or 8x57mm Mauser. Most U.S. ammunition makers loaded this cartridge years ago and made it with several different types and weights of bullets. However, since there was such a wide variety of rifles being used, chambered for the 8mm Mauser cartridge, some of which had actions of marginal strength or barrels bored too small for the bullets, the cartridge manufacturers became concerned.

      In due time, the 8mm Mauser cartridge loaded in the U.S. evolved into a single bulleted loading which developed only mild breach pressures so that it could be fired in most 8mm Mauser rifles. Therefore, as loaded today by Federal, Winchester and Remington, it has a 170-grain jacketed softpoint bullet giving a muzzle velocity of about 2500 to 2570 fps at a pressure level of about 34,000 psi. Gauged by modern standards, or compared to a cartridge like the 30-06 with the 180-grain bullet, the U.S.- loaded 8mm Mauser cartridge appears outdated. This is not the case, however, for these 8mm Mauser cartridges are equal to the 30-40 and 303 British for taking most species of North American big game animals.

      The 8mm Mauser cartridge is very responsive to handloading, and the careful handloader having a sound M98 military or sporterized rifle can reload the case to nearly equal the 30-06 in performance.

      *Common U.S.-English usage shows the “I” in print as a “J,” but this is incorrect.

Mauser Models 71 & 71/84 FdH

      The M71/84 Mauser rifle.

      IF THERE WERE a Hall of Fame for firearms designers and inventors, the accomplishments of German-born Peter Paul Mauser would certainly be displayed most prominently, because he, like our own John M. Browning, was one of the world’s foremost creators of firearms mechanisms.

      The Model 71 was the first successful rifle designed and produced by Paul Mauser, but this achievement did not come easy, and it was coupled with a personal disaster which would have stopped many a man not as hardy as Paul Mauser. Its success signaled the start of a long career of firearms development which ultimately led to the Model 98 Mauser action system, unquestionably the best military turnbolt action ever designed.

      It was natural that Paul Mauser (1838-1914) became a gunmaker; his father and six older brothers were also gunmakers. After some schooling and an apprenticeship in the gunmaking trade, he began to show an interest in gun design while working in a government arms factory in Oberndorf, Germany.

      Wilhelm Mauser (1834-1882), Paul’s brother, four years older, was also interested in firearms development work, and they worked together until his death. Paul, however, had the brains and hands for the mechanical details, while Wilhelm handled the business end. Together they developed the M71, obtained a contract and set up a factory to produce them.

      Paul and Wilhelm probably began working together in the mid-1860s. Their first efforts were focused on improving the Dreyse needle rifle, at that time a widely used breech-loading military arm. Its firing mechanism had a long needle-like firing pin which had to penetrate the paper cartridge case and powder charge to detonate the primer, positioned at the base of the bullet. Their initial Models 71 improvement changed the action to cock on the uplift of the bolt handle. About the same time, they converted the action to use a metallic cartridge, its primer located in the case head. It appears the Mauser brothers also worked over the Chassepot action in a similar manner, but failed to sell their ideas to modernize these rifles.

      The Mausers then, about 1867, built some rifles on actions of their own design incorporating these new features, but again they failed to sell their new rifle design. However, an American arms salesman, Samuel Norris, representing Remington, heard of their rifle and thought it showed promise.

      Norris negotiated a partnership with the Mausers, and evidently thought enough of the Mauser action to have it patented in the United States. This patent, No.78,603, was granted to him and the Mausers on June 2, 1868. This action, known as the Mauser-Norris, was the first patented design bearing Paul Mauser’s name.

      Meanwhile, the Mauser brothers continued working to design and develop a rifle action which would interest someone, Remington having failed to take up the patented rifle. Discarding many of the Mauser-Norris features, they built a another rifle with several important aspects. The new rifles were given to the Prussian army for testing. After these tests a few changes were suggested. The Mauser brothers made the necessary changes, following which the Prussian commission tested the new rifles and found them good. The new rifle was officially adopted in 1871, and the Mauser brothers received a contract. They were in business at last! (The Mauser-Norris, or the Mauser M67/69, as it is also known, and a second Mauser rifle, known as the Interim Model, are extremely rare. Only a few test rifles were made, and fewer exist today.)

      The M71 and their next rifle, the M71/84, were made in large numbers, and are still common today. I will limit my detailed discussion in this chapter to these two models.

      The Model 71 Mauser

      With the Prussian contract in hand, the Mauser brothers set up a small temporary shop in Oberndorf, then moved to larger quarters in 1872. In 1874 the new factory was destroyed by fire, but they promptly rebuilt and resumed production of the M71. Not long after they were given a new contract to make 100,000 M71s. They granted licenses and received royalties from other armsmaking firms, which also began producing 71s in large numbers. M71s were made in various German government arsenals at Amberg, Danzig, Erfurt and Spandau, and in the great Austrian arms center at Steyr. While the M71 became the standard shoulder arm for the entire German empire, the Steyr factory built thousands of them for China, Japan and other countries. All in all, huge quantities were made from 1872 to 1884 and, though they were more or less obsolete by the latter date, many were not retired from service until years later.

      The M71 Mauser was made in several styles. Foremost was the M71 rifle with a barrel 33.5” long, 53” overall and weighing about 10 pounds. The M71 Jaeger rifle has a 29.45” barrel, is 48.75” overall and weighs about 9 pounds. The M71 short rifle weighs about 8.5 pounds and has a 20.5” barrel.

      The M71 Carbine has a 20” barrel, is about 39.5” overall, and weighs about 7.5 pounds. All were chambered for the 11mm Mauser cartridge.

      The Model 71 Mauser carbine. Chambered for the 11mm (43-caliber) Mauser cartridge, this carbine has a 20” barrel, is 39.25 ” overall and weighs about 7.6 pounds. The model designation, stamped on the left side of the receiver, is “K. MOD. 71”. The date (year) of manufacture is stamped on the right side of the receiver. On the top flat over the breech end of the barrel is stamped the makers name, on this one: “GEBR MAUSER & CO OBERNDORF.”

      The M71 Mauser Action

      The receiver, a one-piece iron or steel casting or forging, is bored lengthwise to accept the bolt; the front end, about 1” long, is threaded to take the barrel shank. Beginning behind the ring, part of the top and right side of the receiver is milled away, leaving a loading port about 3.12” long. The receiver bridge behind the loading port is slotted to allow passage of the bolt handle and bolt guide rib. Behind the bridge the receiver is milled down to form a tang.

      The steel bolt body is cylindrical, drilled out from the front. Integral with the bolt body is a heavy longitudinal guide rib and a bolt handle with a round grasping ball. With the bolt in the receiver and the bolt handle turned down, the rear end of this rib lies in front of the right receiver bridge wall, locking the bolt in the receiver.

      The M71 bolt has a separate head which does not rotate with the bolt when the handle is raised or lowered. The rear end of the bolt head fits partly into the front of the bolt, and is drawn back with the bolt by a collar which fits into a notch cut under the front part of the bolt rib.