Mauser M03 - Accuracy & Repeatability - Part 4

Yesterday I stalked through fields, forests and up and down hills for five hours with a Mauser M03 on my shoulder. It had a 270 Winchester barrel installed. Before heading off I removed the Kahles K624i scope and put a Zeiss Victory HT 2.5-10x50 on - better for a surprise meeting with some pigs. I covered 12 km according to Google Earth, probably more given the slopes and some meandering. The weight of the M03 was not a problem. And unlike the Mauser, I'm not newly minted!

I found fresh sign of a mob of pigs, but not the makers themselves. Once I was back at my starting point I decided to fire a shot from the cold barrel, to check its accuracy with the Norma 150gn Spire Point ammunition I had zeroed the Zeiss to the week before. I'd done that with two shots; one to get on the map and a second to get the point of impact close to being 5cm high at 100m. I made a final adjustment of a couple of clicks up and a couple right without firing another shot. So the test shot I was about to fire would be useful proof of the rifle, scope, mounting, ammo and zeroing.

Rabbit + 270 Win + 150gn = too much gun, every time. But there it was, with a buddy about 130m away, in front of a blackberry patch on a beautiful green lawn. I lay down and rested the Mauser across my backpack and removed the bolt to check the barrel was still clear after all that walking through the bush. I reinstalled it, cocked the action and gently pushed the set trigger forward. If everything was working correctly the shot should be about 5cm high so I aimed at the bottom edge of the middle of the  rabbit. I already had earplugs in and earmuffs on.

BANG! Despite the solid weight of the Mauser M03, there's still some kick when a 270 Winchester launches a 150 grainer at full throttle - especially shooting prone. Not unpleasant or painful, but still a split second of chaos. The rabbit was hit; the other hopped a few steps but stayed put until I'd walked three quarters of the way over there. Then it took off and I watched it race away over short green grass through a very pretty patch of forest. I was happy with the rifle's accuracy and didn't notice my feet hurting. The Norma Spire Point had gone exactly where it was meant to. Another tick in the box for these Mauser M03s and their accuracy and repeatability.

Mauser M03 - Bolt Disassembly & Assembly

I made this short video to show how easy it is to disassemble and reassemble a Mauser M03 bolt, to clean it, dry it or lubricate it. I wouldn't recommend disassembling the bolt beyond the steps shown.

What I like is that this can be done in the field, no tools needed. Doing this with a Remington 700 bolt requires tools and props and significant hand strength. The Sako bolt I've pulled apart also takes some serious pushing, aided by gloves or grippy rubber strips. My Mauser M03 bolts are going to be easy to work with in comparison.

Mauser M03 - Accuracy & Repeatability - Part 3

Update in Feb 2016 - click this link to see how accurate my hand loads are in this 270 Win barrel. :-)

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This week I ran my first test of how repeatable the Mauser M03 rifle system is after removing and cleaning the barrel.

My aim with this test was to see the effect upon repeatable accuracy of:

- oiling the fouled barrel upon returning from a day out hunting
- removing the scope and barrel a few days later
- cleaning the barrel with solvents and brushes
- oiling the barrel lightly
- re-assembling the rifle and scope
- patching out the oil film a few days later before hunting the next morning
- shooting a single shot with a cold, clean barrel to simulate a first shot on game.

All of the shooting in these tests has been done resting the rifles over the hood of a Landcruiser, with rice filled bags as supports and targets at 100 paces. Nothing fancy. After firing the shot in the video below I realised that the shallow gully I was shooting over would have shortened the shooting distance I paced out by a few meters. Also, I wasn't striding out as much as usual when I set things up, a little after midday. I'd covered many kilometers and steep hills from before dawn, searching for the bad guys. I was a bit weary. The line of sight would have been about 10m shorter than for the group I fired last week. The bullet would still have been rising and would've been higher on the target if it was a little further back.

Enough words. Watch the video below to see why I'm happy with the real world hunting accuracy achieved with my Mauser M03. This is with a 270 Winchester barrel using Norma Kalahari 120gn factory ammunition.



This is the Norma Kalahari 120gn projectile that made the hole in the video above, recovered from soft damp earth. As designed, the front end has fragmented, leaving the solid rear portion to penetrate deeply and exit.

The dappled light was good when I was resting for a while in the afternoon so I took a few pics. There's a large patch of blackberries below where I was resting and right on dark-o'clock I saw a pair of pigs about 250m away, just as they made it into cover. I'll look for them again in a couple of days. Might even take a Mauser with me!

Mauser M03 - Accuracy & Repeatability - Part 2

Update in Feb 2016 - click this link to see how accurate my hand loads are in this 270 Win barrel. :-)

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Last weekend I fired some test shots to check the accuracy and repeatability of new 270 Winchester and 30-06 barrels on Mauser M03 rifles. My intention with these tests is to simulate realistic use of Mauser M03s as hunting rifles, from one hunting trip to the next. These are not bench rest rifles. They won't be used for firing group after group at the range, with the barrels cleaned in a standardised manner between groups, followed by a fouling shot.

I store my rifles with the barrels lightly oiled, after a gentle or thorough cleaning, depending on recent usage. I patch them dry before heading out.  Unfortunately, most of the deer, boar and foxes I know will not wait around while I fire a fouling shot into the earth next to them. :-) I need to know where my Mauser M03s will put shots from clean and cold barrels. It will be the accuracy and repeatability of the rifle system with the first shot, after weeks of storage, that matters.

In the first video below three shots are fired with the 270 Win barrel. The first shot is slightly high, while the second and third shots fall exactly where they should. The Kahles 624i scope had been removed and replaced several times. The turrets had been 'exercised' and returned a few times too. The barrel was not removed - I'll run tests on that later. Ammunition is Norma Kalahari 120gn.


The next video shows the first shot fired from a 30-06 barrel with the same Remington Express 180gn Core Lokt ammunition that made a group a few weeks ago. I'm happy about where it lands. These Mauser M03 rifles, barrels and scope mounts are proving to be as repeatable as I was expecting. :-)