Mauser M03 - Accuracy at 300m

As I've said in earlier posts, for me it's all about first shot accuracy. If I'm shooting at a fox or a pig or a deer, it will be the first shot from a cold barrel that counts.

In the previous post from last week I checked and adjusted zero for my Mauser M03 rifles at 300 meters. For this post I set up a fresh target board at 300 meters, with a 2.5 cm centre square surrounded by 5 cm squares. 20 x 20 cm overall.

I fired one shot at 300 meters with my 30-06, 270 Winchester and 243 Winchester. I'd left the barrels dirty from last week, to ensure that cleaning or oil residue after patching out did not affect the fall of shot. The 30-06 fired a 180 gn Remington Core Lokt factory load, the 270 a 150 gn Norma Spire Point factory load and the 243 a hand-load made with a 68 gn Berger flat base bullet and 40 gn of ADI 2208 powder.

As can be seen from watching this week's video, the first shot accuracy from these rifles is good. The shot from the 270 is a bit off to the left, but my excuse is that I made the final adjustment last week without firing a confirming test shot, to conserve ammunition. The wind also picked up with this shot, quartering from right to left. I've moved the windage turret on the Zeiss Victory HT scope two clicks to the right. I'll ask the next pig or fox I shoot if I've got it right now. Update - Ask this pig!

Later, as the sun was almost setting and casting a low-angled golden light across the long slope of an east-west hillside (geez that's a lot of adjectives), I rested the M03 Deluxe with its Kahles 6-24 on sandbags across the Landcruiser's hood. After some scanning with my binoculars I found three young rabbits. I clicked the Kahles down 6, to set zero at 200m and adjusted the zoom to 16x. The rabbits were at about 150m, so I aimed slightly low. The M03's set trigger was perfect. Three for three. As I was driving home I waved when the farmer's daughter and I passed each other on the road. She would find a shopping bag with fresh dinner for her cat by the back door.

Mauser M03 - Zeroing at 300m

I was looking at Google Maps to hunt around on a farm for a nice level stretch of 300 meters where I could fire a few shots with my Mauser M03 barrels, to check where the bullets were going at that range. I was measuring the distance with the ruler tool in a paddock I was familiar with when I noticed a tight group of black lumps where I knew there should only be grass. That has to be a mob of pigs!

By the time I got out there the pigs were gone, so I set up a large piece of really stiff waste cardboard to shoot at instead. The barrels had been oiled for storage and then patched out, so the first shots at 300 meters would be a bit loose. I figured it would take three shots to get the scope turrets adjusted for each barrel. In the end that's pretty well how it turned out, although with the 270 Winchester barrel I only fired two shots, as I have only a handful of rounds remaining of the two boxes of Norma factory loads I bought to make fire formed cases. I wanted a magazine full for walking around later. These Norma rounds have been good ammunition to start with.

Here's the video, with the shots shown as I fired them, changing between rifles. I'm fiddling with the turrets between shots, so there's no tight grouping to admire.

Edit - Look at the video in the next post to see where the first shot from each barrel went, in a test the following weekend.

In the soft evening light just after sunset I scanned through my binoculars and picked up some rabbits on a hillside at 150 meters. I selected the 243 Win and brought the elevation turret back to a 200 meter zero. I'd knocked over three of them when I looked further up the creek line and saw a fox sniffing around on the ground at about 250 meters. It was directly ahead of the Landcruiser so I couldn't rest over the engine compartment. I moved the front and rear sandbags to the ground and settled behind the Mauser and its Kahles 6-24 scope. The first shot slipped just over its back and it ran 50 meters before starting to sniff around again. I aimed a little lower and didn't miss the second time.

Blaser vs Mauser? Click vs Bang!

Now, I like Blasers. They have some very appealing features such as good build quality, short overall length, light weight, fast reloading and convenient take-down. Of less interest to me is the ASM feature, or Ammunition Saving Mode.

I stumbled across the video posted below while watching some driven hunting on YouTube. I've added it to a playlist I have on my Mauser M03 Blog channel, showing Blasers failing to fire. Mauser M03s can fail to fire too I'm told, if primers are not seated properly in handloads. I've never seen it happen though, for real or in a video. And I think I've watched every M03 video on the internet. Hmmm.



Update in Jan 2016. Here's another one! Embedded below. This time a Blaser being used by a shooter who really knows his stuff and isn't shy about closing the action. From his nonchalant reaction, I'm guessing this is not the first time it's happened. I want to be fair about this so do please send in a comment if your Mauser has failed to fire. Personally, I've never had a cartridge fail to fire, whether it be a factory load or a hand load, in any rifle I've ever used. Hmmm indeed. :-|



Update in Jun 2016. Found another one! Watch this poor chap save a round of ammunition and a couple of dollars when the second shot with his Blaser fails to fire. He reloads with a 'chock-chuck' and then 'click', followed by another 'chock-chuck'. He shows us the ejected cartridge and asks why the primer hasn't got a mark on it. He's lucky it was a boar running away and not a buffalo coming at him!



Update in Aug 2016. Here's another one! Click! Believe me, I'm not looking for these. I'm simply stumbling over them while watching other hunter's videos. How often is this failure to fire problem happening with Blasers? It's never happened with my Mauser M03s. If it has with yours, please let us know, in the interests of even-handed reporting.

Update in March 2024. And another one! This time on a hunt in Africa, when a rifle that goes bang and not click is often important. Just after 20:06 you'll hear the French hunter say, 'And the first?'. He's asking his companions, what happened with my first shot? They tell him the bolt might not have been pushed forward properly. So it didn't fire. Luckily he was shooting an impala and not a charging Cape Buffalo. Here's the link - https://youtu.be/B6PUSMYzgoY?si=euQb6eSQkTPfnUdW&t=1206 

A Mauser M03 and Lambing Season

In Australia we have a plague of European foxes. They are beautiful and fascinating animals to watch, until you see them ganging up on a newborn lamb or taking bites out of a struggling ewe. Feral pigs will do the same, so last weekend I was carrying my Mauser M03 with a 30-06 barrel fitted, along with a Zeiss Victory HT 3-12x56mm scope. I'd be well and truly ready for an encounter with either. Sure, the farmers in the area might hear a boom in the distance but they'd know I was dealing with their arch enemies. Only wild dogs would be higher on the list than pigs or foxes.

The light was still dull and a heavy frost covered the hills and valleys. I was walking a bit faster than usual for stalking, trying to keep warm, when my eyes picked up a fox on my starboard bow, about 100 metres away. It hadn't noticed me, which I thought was unusual given that we were both out in an open paddock, with me coming over a crest. I stood still but the fox kept moving along its track, angling away from me and up the slope. It stopped just after I'd fitted my earmuffs and quietly pushed the cocking lever over to the Fire position. It didn't look at me but I think it sensed something was out of the ordinary. This would be a standing shot - a 50-50 chance at a small target - trying to pull the trigger on the right wobble. As I lost the sight picture with the recoil I had the usual split second thought about whether the shot had been good. I believed it was, with the wobble on the fox's head when the rifle boomed. My M03 absorbed the 30-06's thump comfortably and when the scope came back into position I saw that my target was on the ground instead of running away. I experienced that feeling that hunters know, the one that isn't easy to understand for people who love all animals equally, the cuddly ones and the guilty ones. Happiness for having used my equipment skilfully to do my job well, pride from having achieved what I set out to do after getting up at four o'clock on a cold winter's morning and sadness for the animal. It didn't know that it was a feral pest and officially declared as vermin, to be shot on sight with extreme prejudice and with the best calibre for foxes - whatever you're carrying at the time. The 180 grain Remington Core Lokt projectile had just clipped the top of it head, so it would have made a great pelt if that's what I was after.

The fox I saw later that morning would not have made a great pelt. The sun was up and I'd climbed to a high hill-top to enjoy its warmth. The strange thing is that this fox and I were within 30 metres of each other for 10 minutes or so, with only the curving slope of the hill keeping us out of each other's sight. It was having a snooze in the morning sun while I was using the elevation to look far out across the farm. For foxes. Or pigs. Either would do. I took a few steps north-east towards the sun and saw the fox stand up and stretch right there in front of me, down the slope a little. It was no more than 25 metres away. I'd frozen for a few seconds, waiting for it to see me and race away, but it didn't. Surely it will see me as I put my earmuffs on. Nope. It has to see me as I move my slung rifle up into a firing position. Nope. It'll hear me cocking the action. Nope. My feet were still positioned with both pointing at the fox so it was an unusual posture when I had my eye lined up with the scope. Not a steady hold but it's a big target behind the cross hair - better be quick - but don't want to miss - aim for the shoulder - Boom! The shot rolled it down the slope a couple of metres. The 180 grain Core Lokt made a big and bloody hole, but not the riotous mess a Nosler Ballistic Tip would have made. This was a big dog fox, that could have killed lambs on its own with ease.

In the moment before I fired I thought about whether my improvised shooting posture, with my feet and chest pointing towards the target and the rifle coming almost straight out from my shoulder, could lead to my eyebrow getting whacked by the scope. With my old and lightweight Remington Mountain Rifle this could have been a problem. But I instantly decided that the extra mass of the Mauser M03 would soak up the recoil. It did - I had no problem at all.

First Shot Accuracy with a Mauser M03

A fox at 160 metres is a small target, so knowing where the first shot will go from a clean, cold 270 Winchester barrel fitted to a Mauser M03 is very useful. My tests with this 270 barrel have shown that when it has been patched dry after storage with an oil film in the bore, the first shot prints about 30 millimetres higher than subsequent shots. This pattern is consistent with all of my M03 barrels. 'But Rick, why are you shooting foxes with a 270?' I hear you ask. Well …

My eyes opened just before 4 o'clock and realising I was wide awake I checked my iPhone to see if the weather report had improved since the evening news last night. Nope - a pretty rotten day was forecast, but not as bad as it would be on Sunday, so I slipped quietly out of bed and gathered my winter woolies, hat, coat, etc. As I sit here typing at midday my wife is telling me I woke her up, but I don't think so sweetie - I heard soft and steady snoring. It must have been when I dropped my boots in the dark a few minutes later that you woke up. You were asleep again when I turned back home to collect my forgotten gloves.

As I was driving to this morning's farm I saw a familiar vehicle with a dog cage on the tray-back. It was still completely dark when the driver of that vehicle and I stopped at the roadside and shared notes on where we'd seen the freshest sign of pigs lately. His dogs were always top performers at finding them; I would be relying on my eyes, or perhaps my ears if I was close.

About halfway along the nine kilometres I walked I saw the first fox of the morning, looking healthy and well fluffed up against the cold and drizzly dawn. The wind was in my favour and the light was still dim; it wasn't aware of me. It had been standing still for a while, no hurry at all, so I concluded I would have time to move up to a craggy old fence post, put my earmuffs on and take a rested shot. The Zeiss scope helped me find him again in the half-light and with it set at 4 power the cross-hair was steady. I'd already adjusted the ASV+ turret to 100 metres. The fox was way beyond that but I knew the shot would be high. I pushed the cocking-lever across to the right, feathering the locking tab to keep it quiet, then felt for the trigger with my gloved finger. I would use the trigger in its normal weight, not the set-trigger. Yep, he's still there. Aim. Bang. Down.

'Good shot', I said to myself quietly, followed by, 'Good rifle'.

There was much less light than the photo suggests. After I'd put the phone back in my pocket I saw through the mist a shape that looked like another fox, sitting and facing me, next to a bracken patch at 150 metres. The Zeiss confirmed this. My movements didn't frighten it off as I expected; rather, it started trotting towards me. Or perhaps it was following the first fox. It soon stopped, then ran off a bit, stopped again, sat and watched for a few seconds, then ran off into the bracken. I didn't fire. It was too far for an off-hand shot. I also didn't want to give any pigs in the area another clue as to which way to run. I saw a third fox later during my walk but it also got away. A flock of sheep were behind it when it stopped to look at me. Clever fox.

The misty drizzle was getting heavier and was covering my glasses and the Zeiss lenses with a fine layer of micro-drops. The pigs would have snuck into heavy cover by now. Time to head for the car, have a warm drink and drive home, where I would dry off and lubricate my Mauser M03.

Three Mauser M03s vs Feral Beasties

Moonless night - check.
Full tank - check.
Full block of Cadbury hazelnut chocolate - check.
Flasks with hot water, cooler bag with cold milk, coffee and hot chocolate sachets, sandwiches, even breakfast - check.
Million candlepower spotlight - check

What else … ? Ah, that's right. Three Mauser M03s, perfectly sighted in - check.

The late afternoon light was fading by the time I drove from where I'd fired test shots with each of my M03s to a broad slope where I'd seen several pairs of rabbits the week before. On that day I was travelling light and had only a 30-06, looking for four pigs that had been seen in the area. The rabbits had been safe then. Today I had a 243 Winchester and a bag of deadly accurate hand-loads. Today was going to be different.

The first shot was 200 meters a long way up the slope at a rabbit that crept slowly from behind a bracken bush. Zok! The second was only 100 meters away along the flat, so I had to aim at fresh air, three centimeters below the intended point of impact. The lack of damage to the body made this wild rabbit as good as a bought one. The farmer's daughter's pets would approve. After I'd delivered the rabbits and enjoyed some freshly fried potato slices hot from the pan I got back to work, meaning, the rabbits were safe again. I knew from experience at this farm that the foxes clock-on at seven pm and the pigs at midnight. I also knew from experience that the weather report is a big fat lie and that showers easing in the evening with light winds means that my windscreen wipers would be mostly on and that the 243's wind-bucking performance would come in handy. All came true.

Seven foxes had clocked-on for the last time before midnight when I was heading for the soft, wet paddock where Mrs Farmer had seen the freshest digging. Many thistle roots had been munched by a big pig, she said. Experience again had taught me to listen carefully to the clues the landowners provided. Many many times I'd found pigs within a good seven iron shot of their best recommendation.

The thing about moonless nights is that the intensely high contrast of a million candlepower focussed by a parabolic reflector can make interpreting the two dimensional scene that is lit up quite tricky. I was holding the lamp with my right hand and trying to focus my binoculars with my left, sussing out some dark shapes, when another dark shape made a distinct movement at the edge of the scene. I panned the binoculars but forgot to move the light. Everything went dark. Bugger! Once I had the binos and the light lined up I found I was looking at a muddy snouted and totally guilty pig. The dark shapes that had caught my eye were huge clumps of turned over soil.

As I walked to the back of the Landcruiser I felt like a golfer. Hmm … a gentle swish with a five iron or a strong swing with a seven? It was the Mauser M03 in 270 Winchester that I lifted from the rifle box and I soon had it teed up on the front of the Landcruiser. Earlier in the day when checking the sights I noticed that the Zeiss ASV+ ring number 004 has five clicks between 100 and 200 meters. Five clicks it is then. Reach up to flick the light back on, and now load, and press the cocking lever to the right. Oh OK then - the Victory HT has an illuminated reticle so I may as well switch it on. Yes, that's nice. Now where are you piggie? There, quartering towards me. Bang. Whop.

Three Mauser M03s vs a Beer Box

Some wild pigs were making a mess of a farm I shoot on and I hadn't been able to find them during a few sessions at dawn and dusk. It was going to take an all-nighter to deal with this mob. I arrived mid afternoon and after gathering the latest intel from Mr & Mrs Farmer, drove to a sheltered valley to check points of impact for the three Mauser M03 rifles I'd brought along in my custom rifle box.

Each rifle was fitted with the same barrel as used previously, which had been lubricated with a few drops of Break-Free for storage. Before heading out I pushed a tight patch through each barrel, to remove oil residue. I didn't use a solvent to strip oil from the bores. They looked clean and shiny but not oily.

I set up a beer box (empty!) at 100 meters and fired two shots from each rifle over the front of my Landcruiser. The 270 Winchester and the 30-06 were consistent in placing the first shot through the clean barrel a few centimetres higher than the second shot. With the 243 Winchester I used a leftover hand load with a different bullet and charge as the fouling shot, so the impact point doesn't relate to the second shot. All three of the second shots went exactly where I wanted them to go, forming a neat 16mm group just above the target square. That'll do Mauser. :-)

Cue feral beasties!

Mauser M03 - Barrel Change Accuracy

I've been wanting to do this accuracy & repeatability test with my Mauser M03 system for a while. This isn't as big a test as I still plan to do one day, but it's useful nonetheless. Here's what I did, to assess how well the system holds zero after barrel & scope changes.

I fired a test shot with the 243 barrel installed on my Mauser M03 Deluxe stock and receiver. It was bang on, just above line of sight at 100m, as expected. I switched to the 6.5x55 barrel and fired a shot, to find that it was 1.2 milliradians lower and 0.9 milliradians to the left. I put the 243 barrel back on and moved to a new target sheet, shown in the picture below. I then fired alternating shots with the 243 and 6.5x55 barrels, changing and adjusting the scope each time.

I would have liked the 6.5x55 holes to be above the square, like the 243 holes, but I got the scope adjustment wrong with the first shot, so stuck with that for the next.

I fired only two shots from each barrel. I was hand-loading each round at the range, as well as changing barrels and it took quite a while to do. My video camera was whirring away up near the target throughout all this; I still haven't checked if I got all of the shots 'in the can'. :-) (I did - video now embedded below).

The results: the two shots in each group are 17mm apart, which is only slightly more than when I don't change the barrel with each shot. There was a wafting breeze blowing across the range and a difficult hot afternoon mirage to deal with. All in all, I'm impressed and so were the other fellows who watched my progress. A couple of them said they'd be happy if they could get accuracy like that from their hunting rifles, noting that they don't switch barrels, the scope, or make ammo on the spot. As explained in earlier posts, as a hunter it's where the first shot goes that matters for me, far more than where the second, third, fourth or fifth shots go.

I've still got some ammunition tuning to do and these barrels should become more accurate as the shot count climbs over 50, so stay tuned for even better results. :-)

Mauser M03 - 243 Win Accuracy

This is a quick post to report on some excellent accuracy results delivered by my Mauser M03 in 243 Win on Saturday, using Berger's 68gn Flat Base Target/Varmint bullet. I chose 2208 as the first powder to try and fired a test shot with 38gn then went straight to 40 gn for the groups shown below. That is, the bare minimum of load development.

The first group measures 15mm centre to centre, the second group is 9mm. Yes, that's three shots; the first two went through the same hole, in gusty cross-wind conditions. I'm very happy with that. It's with a standard profile barrel too.

Late in the afternoon on Sunday, in strong winds, I knocked over three rabbits at 280 to 300 meters. The farmer's cat and dog were happy to see me that evening.

Give some flat base target or hunting bullets a try in your Mauser M03. You might like the results.

Hunting in Norway with a Mauser M03

It's summer here in Australia and I haven't been doing much hunting with my Mausers. However, I have received a hunting story from Simen in Norway who bought his new M03 around the same time I bought mine. Reading it has made me look forward to the colder months again. The Mauser M03 in the first picture is a Norwegian Classic model with Grade 5 walnut. Simen has fired a few hundred shots through the barrel and is getting tightly clustered groups. Here's the story that goes with the pictures, below.

It was a cold October morning in Norway. I had just woken up to the familiar smell of coffee, hunting gear and weapon oil. I loaded the gear and dog into the Jeep and set off. Just about 4 kilometers away I stopped, meeting up with the rest of the hunting party. Everyone showed up, even the guy who had a stroke last year, making him almost paralyzed in the left side of his body. That's when you know the Norwegian moose hunting season has started. We had some laughs and drew stands. I'm one of the two dog handlers so stands really don't matter that much to me, but truth to be told, it would later that day. 

We set off and I got the message that everyone was at their stand, so my Norwegian Elkhound, Dina, and I set to work. There wasn't much to brag about in the first drive, just a couple of roe deer seen but not shot. After the drive we gathered around the fire, eating and exchanging funny stories and experiences. Again we draw for stands and again I don't really bother to take note. This drive started slow, with nothing seen, heard or smelled. I decided to take a 5 minute break just to get in sync with the other dog handler. I looked at my dog and noticed that Dina was smelling something. Her head was pointed upwards with closed eyes; there are definitely moose in the area. Dina and I walked another 300 meters before she started pulling really hard. Now I'm 110% sure. I let her off and she ran away like a gust of wind. I let the other hunters know that she's loose. Not long after Dina was 800 meters away and I heard barking. Once again I let the hunters know that she was pushing a moose. The sound of a gun rang out in the forest, leaving it in silence. I hear on the radio "I've shot a bull!". It was the guy who had a stroke almost a year ago. A big smile develops on my face, not only because I'm happy for him, but because of the work my dog did. She was only 11 months old and most dogs of the breed don't really work until they are two or three.

I stayed sitting where I was, waiting for my dog to return so that we could practice tracking. She performed perfectly! The hunting party returned to the fire and talked about the achievements of Dina and the successful hunter. He shot the moose while it was running at full pace and at almost point blank range. More funny stories were exchanged while we passed the time. I was quite tired after the second drive and the temperature had increased a lot, so I decided to draw a stand this time. Usually I hate sitting and waiting, but on this day it had become so warm I really didn't mind. I drew stand number five, which is in the open with many animal trails running close by. The stand is also located on top of a small berg, which gave me some altitude. I sat at the stand waiting, looking at stand number six sometimes, just to make sure of where the guy occupying that stand was. After about one and a half hours I heard something on the radio, "The dog has found a moose and is carrying it towards stand six". I stood up with the M03 ready just in case and saw that the guy in stand six was ready as well. We both heard branches breaking and the adrenaline started pumping. 30 seconds later a moose ran out, broadside to my stand. I cocked the rifle, lifted it to my shoulder and lined up the open sights. A shot rang out. I heard the bullet penetrating the moose, hitting the rock behind it. The moose kept running, this time directly away from me. I aimed for the back of it's head and another shot rang out, this time without any clear signs of a hit. The moose ran back into the forest. I let the party know that I had fired and hit it and at the same time heard the noises of it falling over. Another smile grew on my face and soon after I found it, laying dead four meters past the forest line, with a perfect shot in the lungs and one in the neck. 

Simen, his Mauser M03 in 30-06 and his moose - in Norway.

This is Dina, Simen's young but already effective Norwegian Elkhound