End Of Summer And The 7x57 Mauser

Here we are. Not even mid September, but night temps are dropping into the 50s during the day and mid 40s at night. The smell of wood burning stoves is in the air, and all of this green will soon turn to New England tourist gaping autumn colors.

I don’t know where the time goes. Just finished putting on some new window trim pieces where rain and past winters took their toll. A little carpentry work, some paint and window caulk, and the house looks a lot brighter. One very short run of bottom and end trim needed to be cut out and replaced right down to the sheathing. I will have to be more diligent in getting snow away from the foundation this winter.

Pressure washing the house did wonders, dispelling any thoughts of whole house painting. Unfortunately, pressure washing a hundred feet of porch railings, posts and balusters resulted in some exposed bare wood. Hand peeling, scraping and sanding exposed worsened the situation. So that structure ended up with a near complete repaint. High ceiling short legs; I ended up becoming a ladder monkey.

Despite the ongoing house and garden maintenance, the house is quiet, private, and free of neighbors that want to talk about our political, religious, ethical, racial, and social differences. Although insurance premiums went up 20%, and I am awaiting my new… Biden enhanced property tax bill.

Guns at the right time and in the right place…

Maybe it’s all of the whitetail bucks caught on the backyard trail camera, or the seasonal weather change, but I did take a break from home and land projects to spend some time on firearms. I’m afraid the current gun culture has run off without me, and left me writing about traditional hunting and defensive firearms.

I very recently passed on receiving some prerelease firearms because… I just did, after I stopped laughing at them. To each his own.

This little Ruger has made an appearance, many times, on Real Guns. It is one of my favorite rifles, and writing about it affords me many shooting opportunities. It is basically a Ruger M77 Hawkeye International, walnut stock, blued steel, including its bolt handle.

Yes, it is barrel stamped 275 Rigby which, of course is a 7×57 Mauser with a John Rigby & Co German identity hiding, marketing department twist. It has a carbine length 18.5″ barrel, overall length is 2.5″ longer than a yard stick, and it weighs only 6.6 lbs.

Nothing is adjustable to fit my form, including its L6 trigger, so I was forced to learn how to conform to the rifle and shoot it accurately. Like just about every other firearm I own, and every pre M16 military issued rifle.

Scoped, the Ruger has been tinkered into sub MOA accuracy, but it apparently can drop deer and hogs, sans scope, using only its very sophisticated open sights. No optics to break, no batteries to run down.

What don’t I like about this little rifle? If I were forced to make a criticism, it would be the stamped steel, fore and aft pivoting front sling attaching point. It does not swivel left or right and I always worry it will scratch up the stock without a sling in place.

I am not much of a sling guy. I am more of the “Don’t walk too far, always be ready to shoot, and leave your trigger finger hand exposed to the winter elements” persuasion. So I put a little piece of tubing on the attaching point where it contacts the stock. That’s the end of my “cons” list.

I like the hinged floorplate, I like the trigger, I like the non-SpongeBob recoil pad. I like its compact form, I like the 90° bolt lift I like its blued steel, walnut woodiocity. Yes, the birth of a new word. I like the way my face and the stock comb share common space when using open sights.

No, the Ruger International is not an exotic piece of gear, it was not expensive. The truth of the matter is, when I am hunting, other than safe gun handling related issues, I really don’t pay much attention to the firearm. It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.

Hunting to be is a leisurely sport. I don’t climb mountains or blaze trails. I don’t like excessively cold or wet weather. I just like being outdoors on woodland property.

If I do feel like killing something for home menu variety, I will post at an appropriate location, bring a snack, use my backpack for a shooting rest, and wait for dinner to walk to the edge of a clearing. If one doesn’t, I’ll stop at Hannaford’s on the way home, metaphorically speaking.

And then there is ammo

I like the 7×57 Mauser. It’s not too small and not to big. Recoil is modest, as is report. It does not consume a lot of powder, bullets are mid range in price with a broad selection. Bullet weights range from 100 grains to 197 grains with 24 increments, although I confess that I only use three weights with the 7x57mm.  120, 140 and 160 fit my needs based on game and local landscape.

For the expressed purpose of building a supply of ammunition for this coming deer season, I handloaded a grand total of 20 rounds; 12 rounds for sighting in and practice, 8 rounds to fill the rifle’s magazine to capacity, twice.

I expect to end the season, if a deer is acquired, with 7 rounds unused… or 6, if a twig gets in the way.

Why a slow 160 grain load, when a peppy 120 grain or 140 grain bullet would be flatter shooting and have enough mass and kinetic energy for a clean kill.

Shots are all near, inside 50 yards, under 100 in the extreme, so flat shooting trajectory isn’t a… thing.

A handloaded 160 grain round provides high bullet mass and greater expansion for a larger wound channel. The 160 grain can also generate higher kinetic energy out of a short barrel rifle. I only assembled one load, based on prior experience with handloads for this cartridge and rifle combination.

All handloads were assembled using new Norma brass. Norma brass alloy works for me or, more correctly, their annealing process. The necks are soft beyond what is needed for proper neck tension for bullet retention, then the brass is progressively harder down to the case web and case head. The cases hold up and contribute to uniform chamber pressure.

The bullets are 160 grain Speer Hot-Cor #1635. They are relatively soft, expanding well, while holding together on deer size game. The ballistic coefficient is 0.504, good enough to also use with 7mm magnums of various types. They also happen to be moderately priced within a population of competitive products.

Many power choices..

I’ve loaded this combination using twenty types of powder that produce muzzle velocities within 200 fps of one another. Hodgdon H414 and Winchester 760 Work well. More recently, Alliant 16 or 17 have achieved excellent velocity and accuracy. In this case, Re16 was used, a powder that is less sensitive to temperature and load density.

Using an assembled overall cartridge length of 2.960″, raw case capacity is 59.5 grains of H2O, bullet seated capacity is 51.1 grains. The SAAMI maximum pressure is an old Mauser safe 51,000 psi. For my modern bolt action rifles, I load to 60,000 psi. The velocity difference with short barrels and heavier bullets like the 160 grain are significant.

49.0 grains is near case full and chronographed MV is 2685 fps. Three shot group 100 yard accuracy is 0.7″ to 0.8″ with the little Ruger. Works for me. Happy hunting!