Mauser M03 - Hunting in Norway

Here are some photos of Simen Naess' new Mauser M03 in use during a hunt for caribou in Norway. The terrain is wide and open and getting into a good firing position involved much stalking and crawling, over moss, grass, rocks and shrubs, while paying full attention to the wind and the state of the herd. Simen's M03 has the beautiful Grade 5 walnut seen in an earlier post and is fitted with a 30-06 barrel. This new M03 is already living the full life of a real hunting rifle. The stock will be developing a patina that tells the story of the adventures it has been on with Simen, while still looking great from the proper maintenance it receives, including with a good, natural stock treatment.

Thanks for the photos Simen. :-)

Mauser M03 Deluxe - Photos

This weekend was all about doing maintenance on my trusty old Landcruiser. Saturday - changed the front and rear differential oils, topped up the gearbox and transfer case and adjusted the handbrake. Sunday morning - checked the wheel bearings. By the time I'd tidied up and scoffed some lunch it was getting a bit late to head out hunting. Not to mention how stiff and sore I was from crawling around under that Landcruiser. But, the late afternoon was ideal for a few photos of my new Mauser M03 Deluxe. This is Mauser's Grade 5 walnut.

I've included at the bottom photos of a selection of stocks, taken by Mauser while my Deluxe was being made. They were sent to Miall's Gun Shop and then to me, so I could nominate an order of preference. Upon ordering the rifle I was asked if I had a general preference and 'Dark wood with stripes' was sent to Germany on my behalf. Stocks Nr. 1 and Nr. 2 are plenty dark, but after some deliberation I put Nr. 3 first, which is dark and light, with colour and stripes. I had quite a smile on when I opened the shipping box a few months later, to see the complex grain of Nr. 3 with my own eyes. :-)

Mauser M03 Deluxe with Kahles K624i

A new Mauser M03 in Norway

A Mauser friend in Norway has provided pictures of his new M03. Fantastic wood! I think I'm right in reporting that this is Grade 6 walnut and that the barrel is a 30-06. Excellent choices.

Enjoy. :-)

Correction - this is Grade 5 walnut, which Mauser has fashioned into a beautiful, warm, impressive and purposeful rifle stock. It is being put to use right now and I wish the owner 'good hunting!'

Mauser M03 - Accuracy - 243 Winchester

Before heading out hunting a few weeks ago and again yesterday I quickly loaded up some 243 Winchester rounds, to test for pressure with the new Lapua cases I'm using. I'm not doing serious load development yet, just some quick proofing. Any time spent at a noisy rifle range is time that could have been spent better out hunting.

The first time I tried the new 243 barrel was with Speer Grand Slam 100gn projectiles. The pic below shows that targets the size of pigs out to 200m are in trouble, by I want better than that. I loaded these three rounds with my new Wilson in-line dies and a K&M arbor press, so could feel the tension of the bullets being seated. The very end of each neck was turned in slightly from fire-forming, which made seating the next bullet difficult. I think this happened because I put a small chamfer on the outside of the neck rim with an RCBS neck chamfering tool. That slight bevel might be a problem under high pressure in the chamber, causing the end of the neck to be pinched in. I'd put two chamfer angles on the inside of the necks as well, to make seating easy, but the pinching inwards right at the opening was still a problem. Given the trouble I had seating the bullets, I wasn't expecting them to shoot well.

A poor group from badly loaded test rounds. 6mm Speer Grand Slam 100gn

Some new 95gn Berger VLD Hunting bullets had arrived in the mail, so I tried these with some fired cases that had the neck pinching rectified, with a K&M neck expanding tool. This is normally used to prepare cases for neck turning, but is also good for straightening out any neck pinching. These bullets seated smoothly and consistently. I set them to 20 thousandths of an inch from the lands on top of 42 grains of 2209.

Resting over the front of my Landcruiser again, in a bit of crosswind on a farm, the first shot with the Bergers, with a clean and cold barrel, landed right where I wanted it to. The point of impact was consistent with the Speer Grand Slams, so that's a bonus. I fired the second and had to look really closely through my Kahles 24 power scope. Same hole! I should have stopped there as I don't ever expect to shoot a feral beastie three times. The third shot landed slightly lower - could've been me shaking a bit - my Landcruiser is not a concrete bench. This is a great result for loads that were thrown together before heading out. 13.5mm centre to centre. I will be tuning this load by adjusting the seating depth and the powder charge, so it could get better. I might actually waste a morning at a range to see how good this barrel can be.

The bolt is from my new Mauser M03 Deluxe, which has the 243 Win barrel fitted at the moment. Once I have loads for this one sorted, I'll start on the 6.5x55 Match barrel. Should be good. :-)

A better group with 6mm Berger VLD Hunting 95gn.