Mauser M03 - Scope Ring Height

Mark in British Columbia made contact with me via the Mauser M03 Blog Discussion Forum, to talk about the height of Mauser's 30mm scope rings. The ones he had for use with a 30mm diameter Schmidt & Bender scope had a height of 9 mm - too high for many people I'm sure. Here's the 'Before' photo.

Mark's hunt for the Mauser Double Square Mount rings I'm using with my Zeiss Victory HT scopes was proving fruitless. These have a 5 mm rise from the bridge to the bottom of the scope. I rang Mialls Gun Shop in Melbourne, Australia to see if they still had them and could post to Canada. Yep, no problem was their answer.

Mark ordered some rings and a mount base from Mialls and has now installed them to the scope and Double Square Mount bridge, with the following result - the 'After' photo. That's better!

Mark finds that the scope aligns with his eye immediately now, upon shouldering the very nice stock he has. This is a good thing; an important safety factor for the next time (hopefully not!) he's charged by a grizzly bear while out deer or moose hunting. After the last frightening encounter of this kind, which ended as shown below, Mark has adopted the Mauser M03 setup we see above as his safety equipment - and hunting rifle. And here's me worrying about bumping into a wild boar while it's all fat and lazy and lolling around in a wallow.

I think 'Bear Whisperer' might be a good nick-name for Mark, given his skills in attracting and pacifying them with a minimum of fuss. Or perhaps 'Bear Chills'? :-) The black bear below can only agree. I hear that bears are being reintroduced into the woodlands of western Europe, in part to help control the numbers of deer and wildschwein. I bloody hope no-one comes up with the bright idea of releasing bears here in Australia, to help with our kangaroo and pig numbers. Deer numbers too, actually. Although, if they did, I'd develop a whole new appreciation for my own Mauser M03s. :-|

Mauser M03 - Good Accuracy After Bolt Catch Repairs

This blog post comes from a successful repair story that's run its course over in the Mauser M03 Blog Discussion Forum. It will help other Mauser M03 users find this information if searching. What's interesting is, after being totally disassembled the accuracy delivered by the rifle, scope and ammunition is simply brilliant.

A forum member was having problems with the bolt not always being stopped by the bolt catch during extraction. That's not what you want when there's bears in the woods! Here's a video showing the problem. There's others at M03 Fan's YouTube channel .

Careful inspection indicated that wear at the leading edge of the bolt catch might be causing the catch to slip under the mating surface of the bolt head, rather than engaging properly and arresting the rearward movement of the bolt. The following images will help tell the story. First, here's the top part of the bolt catch. The second image shows a close up of the leading edge.










The rifle was disassembled by the owner and the receiver and bolt were sent off to the Mauser/Blaser agent for repair. Gunsmiths there welded new metal to the top of the bolt catch, then machined it back to the right shape. A very effective repair job. If you're going to try this at home, I suggest removing the bolt catch from the receiver before getting stuck in with your favourite welder. ;-) The part below will be easier to work with once it's out of the rifle. :-)

And here's a good picture that M03 Fan took of his Mauser M03 receiver, out of the stock and nicely laid out. A fun Sunday afternoon project.

But the best part of the story is that with the resurfaced bolt catch back in the receiver and the rifle fully reassembled, test firing showed that the bullet impact point was unchanged. The 10 shots fired through the owner's 308 Win barrel were very nicely grouped. The repeatable accuracy of the Mauser M03 rifle system is proven once again. A great result!

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