Need some Mauser experience

>>33951044
Small ring mausers were made for a lower pressure round than .308.
The Chileans are not safe to fire due to the method of conversion. The barrel was rebored to proper .308 diameter and the chamber drilled out and a 308 chamber insert soldered in. The small gap typically left between the new chamber and the bore lets hot gases erode the solder and can eventually cause failure.

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>>33951044
I'd keep it as a nice wall-hanger. You can read up on the details of why here:

http://dutchman.rebooty.com/1895Chile.html

The tl;dr is- they soldered in a .308 chamber insert into the barrel. This was so it could serve as an emergency back-up rifle in case of invasion.

Alright, if that's the case, can this issue be overcome through regular maintenance and low grain / low pressure ammunition, or is this simply a fact of life for these 308 Mausers?

>>33951109
Well, I'm kinda on the hunt for a rifle I can really put some ammo through. The same guy has a Mosin for roughly the same price. I'm just starting to feel like I'm fence sitting here. He's a gunsmith, and assures me the gun has been tested at pressures equivalent to 155 grain 308. rounds. Should I just play it safe and go with the Tula instead?

>>33951376
I'd go with the Mosin myself, assuming it was in decent shape.

>>33951376
just buy a savage axis instead of fucking around with milsurp. it will be a less issue free experience as a practical shooter unless you really want milsurp.

>>33951448
This is the only correct answer.

>>33951448
Yeah, similar bolt action rifles have definitely been on my radar. I've also considered buying a single barrel Topper shotty in 12GA. then using barrel inserts to fire other rounds. At the end of the day, I'm just looking for an extremely cheap and fairly reliable rifle. The main reason this one caught my eye was the price.

>>33951457
I was really hoping for something with irons in order to keep the cost low. That's basically the only thing keeping me from a Savage rifle.

>>33951084
>Small ring mausers were made for a lower pressure round than .308.
Wrong. The pressures of 7x58 is roughly that of .308, it's just that retarded SAAMI underloads 7mm Mauser so much that it appears way off.

>>33951109
Depends which conversion it is. The short rifles got brand new barrels. The soldered in chamber inserts are sketchy though. Depends on how well it was done. There are plenty of M1 Garands that had a soldered in chamber insert to convert them to 7.62NATO.

>>33951641
Yeah, the insert is definitely the first thing I'm going to ask to check when I come back in. Once again, just looking for something to put ammo through. I don't plan on hunting or accuracy shooting, so underloaded rounds wouldn't be a problem for me. Looking for a safe threshold I can load / fire at.

>>33951641
So it's not that the action isn't strong enough, it's that the conversion method isn't great. A rebarreled Chilean with a true 308 barrel would be completely safe. Gotcha.

>>33951679
It would? I'm pretty sure the one I have my eye on is rebarreled, so that would solve a lot of my headaches.

>>33951709
If it doesn't have the soldered chamber, it's almost certainly safe for regular provided the barrel is high quality

>>33951668
You should also ignore the retarded "warning" about 7.62NATO being wildly overpowered compared to .308WIN. They are the same pressure. Just idiots read the wiki page and didn't understand that the two were measured completely differently that gave wildly different numbers.

The wiki page has been changed and both numbers are of the same type of measurement, yet the retards will still post their shit.

>>33951679
Well, it all depends on how well it was done. The Chileans certainly weren't the only ones that did this sort of thing. To me it sounds scarier than it actually is. It's not like the solder will flow and insert fall out.

>>33951728
IIRC the short rifles were converted with surplus M1903A3 barrels.

>>33951738
Hopefully somebody who owns one of these will show up. There seems to be a lot of controversy about the pressure of the rounds, and the reliability of the soldering on the insert.

>>33951568
its not that much to get a gunsmith to install irons if you really want em, yeah it will be about 100 inculding parts and labor but thats not that much if you compare em to the price of ar irons

>>33951568
You can get a Stevens 200, with a (cheap) scope for under $350.

You are better off with a modern production bolt-action rifle if you want the best bang for your buck. A modern rifle will cost around the same as that Chilean Mauser, but it will have

1.) Factory free-floated barrel
2.) Adjustable trigger
3.) Factory bedded receiver
4.) Mounting systems for optics and other accessories
5.) Aftermarket options (different stocks, for example)

The Mauser will be inferior in every way except for being a Mauser.

http://www.jgsales.com/mobile/spanish-1916-mauser-bolt-action-short-rifle,-7x57,-good,-used.-p-80642.html

>>33952741
This guy is right unfortunately. You can make Mausers shoot great, but it's way more expensive than buying a modern firearm. Ruger Americans and savage axis are awesome for the money. I work in a custom Mauser shop, we hate Ruger's and savages, but we cannot deny they shoot well.