Show me (or tell me) about your favorite 7X57 rifles!

[RicinYakima]

Following the discussions about 7MM rifles, I found a lot of folks that like the old 7X57. So show us or tell us about your rifles.

I'll start and say that I don't have any of the '93's or '95's anymore, nor any of Remington rolling blocks nor the Remington 700 Mountain Rifle. So here is what I have:



The top one is a reproduction of the Wundhammer 1906 rifle he built for himself. After he made the rifles for Whelen, Cross and White and the others, he made one for himself. He used the best walnut arsenal stock and re-sighted the rifle. I used an express rear sight and simple bead up front. Fixed rear is for a case full of 4831 and the Nosler 160 partition. The 300 yard flip up is cut to the Lyman 160 target bullet with 20 grains of SR4759. While it is a heavy rifle at 8 pounds, with its 26 inch barrel, it is all between the hands and after shooting '03's for 50 years, a great "throw up and shoot".


The bottom is a 1/10 twist barrel that is great with the Speer 130 grain flat base bullet. While I have never shot a cast bullet from it, it is a solid 1 1/4" shooter at 2900 f/s with a plus P 4350 load. It weights 7 1/2 with the 4X Weaver K scope.

So lets hear about your 7X57's.

 

[david s]

I posted this earlier in another thread.

In the early 1980's I walked into the Happy Hocker Pawn Shop in southern Florida. I walked out with a Mauser ES340B Patrone 22 L.R. rifle. Someone had made a target rifle out of it by (badly) fitting a steel Lyman peep sight and front apeture sight. But what an amazing little rimfire action. I kept the 22 rifle for about 15 years till it wandered away but kept the rear peep sight. Fast foward to just past Y2K and suddenly there were a bunch of Turkish 8mm Mausers for sale cheap. Locally a friend went to look at a couple that were for sale and I tagged along. Turns out they weren't a couple of the Turkish variety but a couple of the Germans and still really cheap. We both walked away with one. So what to do with it? Fit one of Calico Hardwoods Weatherby reject stocks and a NECG banded front sight to the 7X57mm barrel. It is drilled and tapped for a scope even though it's built around that left over Lyman peep sight but then it also has a right handed cheek piece even though I'm a leftie. Just easier to get rid of that way if it ever goes up for sale. It shoots the Nosler 160 Partitions very well and has pulled off the Montana trifecta of deer, bear and elk in a single season.

 

[RBHarter]

The only shooter on hand is an old 110 LH recently rebarreled . 24" standard taper barrel . 1-9.5" . 3-9×40 . Trigger worked , about 3.5# . Light walnut pressed checkering , white line shotgun recoil pad .
It's not much to look at beyond the workhorse class . Lots of scars and dings .

 

[Glaciers]

Personally do not like 7mm cartridges. The exception would be the 7x57. Really want one of the Winchester Featherweights in that and one in the Swede. I find all others boring.

 

[fiver]

my Featherweight is in the 25 caliber version of the 7X57 it still manages to kill deer just enough.
I'm down to 2.5 7X57's and one of them isn't really an actual Mauser case configuration it's in the ICL long neck.

it looks just like this,,, only with dents and dings and scratches and some of the bluing missing.
it will still shoot near 1/2" with it's hunting load [no not ever for sale]

the second is a Tang safety Ruger.
the .5 is one I need to get the barrel fitted on.
it'll be a short barreled Mauser actioned rig with a monte carlo style stock if I ever get it to a smith and get it done.
I got the action bedded and the stock done [the new barrel is sitting there in a box with a brand new Ackley reamer] it just needs all the other stuff done to it.

I had another Ackley rifle but it got built into the XCB rig.
also a mark-X, a win black shadow, a Charles Daley, a couple of 93's and a few 95's have passed through over the years.

 

[Axman]

Here’s my favorite.
Ruger RSI
Paid $425.00 new in box.
Shot some whitetail and a cow elk then sent it off to Turnbull to pretty it up.
Not the best pic.

 

[Bret4207]

Just a ratty old 93 or 95 Mauser, I forget which, in a plain jane "almost finished" Bishop stock with a Lyman recvr sight and military front inverted vee. Ugly and boringly effective. The trigger is the stock 2 stage and breaks at maybe 4 or 5 lbs cleanly. The bore isn't pristine, it's well used and has some pitting. Doggone nice old rifle!

 

[Ole_270]

I don't have one, darnit. I've always wanted one, especially after loading for one my father in law traded for about 40 yrears ago. M95 Mauser, bubba sporterized, still a nice rifle. The one I really want is one I saw a picture of years ago. Mauser actioned Mannlicher by Duanne Wieb. Would be afraid to take that one out in the brush!

 

[Ben]

Several years ago I built a 7X57 mm on an Argentine 98 Mauser action.
The rifle has always been a real nail driver.

These photos were taken when the metal was " still in the white ".
It was built for my friend Nick.
We shot groups like this all day long with the rifle.
One day he mentioned he might sell the rifle.
I grabbed it before he could change his mind.

Looking at this group, you can see why I wanted the rifle.

 

[Ben]

About 12 years ago, I bought a stainless steel Ruger Hawkeye in 7X57mm.
I usually shoot the g/c'd Lee Soup can at 132 grs., lubed with Ben's Red and rolled in BLL, then sized to .286" with 10.5 grs. of Alliant Unique.

I ordered a Boyd's synthetic stock for the rifle, I glass bedded the action, tuned the trigger a bit and free floated the barrel.
These groups were fired at 50 yards and the groups don't enlarge much when you take it on out to 100 yards.
If you enjoy shooting cast bullets, you'd just about have to like this rifle !

Ben

 

[Rick H]

My only 7x57 was an old 93 or 95 Mauser purchased out of an oak barrel in the sporting goods dept. of a K-mart in 1968. Cost me $18 with two boxes of cartridges. My buddy and I went out in a field to shoot it and it split brass on about half the rounds fired. I sold it untouched some years later.
I like the cartridge and 7mm's as a whole, owning a 7mm Rem Mag and a 7x30 Waters. I think either the 7-08 or the 7x57 are about perfect for all around deer hunting.

 

[Ben]

I view the 7X57 like I do a geometric circle.
Very hard to improve on the design.

Ben

 

[waco]

I'd take this one. Made in 1974. Just like me.

GunBroker.com - Error

 

[Rick H]

Not for 2250+ fees and tax. I love Ruger #1's but that era (early-mid 70's) was the era of "ify" Ruger barrels. I would hope to pay a lot less for one that I would end up having to rebarrel. On the other hand it is cheaper than Mitty's $12K Mauser.

 

[RBHarter]

Groused around and found a couple of of pictures .
I haven't shot it since the change over . It feeds properly , the mag is a little long being able to accommodate a nearly 4" OAL . I might have to fix that if I find myself short stroking it .

Yep it's got the bolt on the wrong side but I find lefties like it that way . I've gotten to the point that it doesn't make much difference which side I shoot from .

 

[Rick H]

That bolt looks just fine over there....., all of us in our "right mind" appreciate it.

 

[462]

Mine is an 1895 Chileno that would drive either of Ben's rifles to fits of laughter.

Ludwig Loewe serial numbered C 9198 and produced toward the end of 1897.


Instead of the butt stock being stamped with the usual national crest and "1895", it is stamped with the rare "ME" (poor stamping makes the "E" look like an "F") that nobody seems to know exactly its meaning, though "Ministerio Ejercito" -- Ministry of the Army -- seems to be the most common guess.

I've not done anything other than replace the original two-stage trigger with a Timney. A previous owner filed the front sight thus. Though roughly done it is an improvement over the standard inverted "V".

However, this is how my eyes see it

Despite the sight picture, this is a typical 50-yard target with Lyman's 287641 and 13.0-grains of Unique

For a long while I kept backing and forthing about keeping it, but it continues to put closely enough holes in paper to make it a keeper.

I wonder if it and my 1891 Argentine ever traded a few shots.

 

[CZ93X62]

I am quite fond of the Euro Metric rifle calibers, but one I have never owned is the 7 x 57.

 

[Edward R Southgate]

Don't have pictures but I got a 93 Spanish and a Chilean rifle , 1 each . Also have a Kimber in 7/08 . The rest of my so called 7mm's are actually more 30-32 caliber being, Swiss , French, and Belgian cartridges . Would love to have a modern 7X57 one day , if I live long enough .

 

[RicinYakima]

Would love to have a modern 7X57 one day , if I live long enough .

I have had Remington's and Ruger's but didn't' keep any of them. My favorite is the iron sighted Springfield on a double heat-treated action and 26 inch heavy barrel I turned more than half the weight off in the lathe. It was my first all rust blue action, barrel and bolt with the small pieces heat blued. Since I prefer a well set up two stage trigger, it stayed with the action.

Working up loads for it, I used the plus P data from twenty five years ago, about 52,000 CUP. Since I did the chambering, it is smooth and my top loads, the cases look the same as the starting loads. You should not be afraid of having a rifle made on a post WW1 Springfield, if the builder is good.