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

Mauser M03 - Barrel Change

I made a short video on the weekend showing the 6.5x55 Match barrel being removed and the 243 Winchester barrel being installed. The Kahles K624i scope is then reinstalled to the receiver. I had loosened the two barrel mounting screws before starting the camera. They were as 'hand-tight' as I could get them, so getting them loosened was a bit of a trick. I don't use a torque wrench; I just tighten by hand, as consistently as I can, with the Mauser T-key. It seems to be working as the 243 barrel dropped two rabbits with the first two shots, at 230 meters. :-)

Mauser M03 + Kahles K624i + Rabbits

This is a quick mobile post from yesterday's outing. With the first shot from the 6.5x55 barrel, cold & clean, I dropped the rabbit seen through the Kahles. Same again with the next two shots, all at 250m. Later in the day I installed the 243 barrel and hit at 230m with the first shots. Very happy with the repeatability and accuracy of the Mauser M03 system.

Mauser M03 Deluxe in 6.5x55 with Kahles K624i riflescope

The view through a Kahles K624i scope with MSR-K reticle

With the 6.5x55 & 140gn Nosler Accubonds,
better velocity from 46gn of 2209.

Mauser M03 - Chronographing 6.5x55 Loads

In the video linked below I'm firing 6.5x55 hand loads over a chronograph. The idea is to use the velocity and ballistic coefficient of the projectile to work out the ballistic curve, for long range shooting. But I think I'll be working the load up to a higher velocity, which hopefully will help improve the group size too - often does. These loads were Lapua cases and 45 grains of 2209 pushing Nosler Accubond 140 grain bullets. The average velocity from the 60cm barrel was 2667fps. The group size is 24mm; not as good as the 12.5mm three shot group from the previous week.

Lapua Cases - 243 Win & 6.5x55

I'm developing hand-loads for my Mauser M03 barrels in 243 Winchester and 6.5x55 calibers. The pictures below show the spread of weights for new Lapua cases, in 0.1 grain groupings. 

The 243 cases are in a wide, peaky, skewed Bell curve distribution; the mode is 171.3gn. Can you see the case that is fifth from the end of the long column? Even the best cases come with dings.

The spread for the 6.5x55 cases is not as wide, but isn't a neat Bell curve either. The mode for the 6.5 cases is 179.2 gn. It's an unusual distribution, which almost suggests the cases are from two batches.

I need a volunteer to do this with a thousand cases, to see if the curves get neater. :-)

Lapua 243 Winchester cases, sorted into 0.1 grain groupings. Mode = 171.3gn.

Lapua 6.5x55 cases, sorted into 0.1 grain groupings. Mode = 179.2gn.

Mauser M03 - Accuracy - 243 Win & 6.5x55

It was a beautiful spring day yesterday, though the wind picked up a little in the afternoon while I was doing some load testing with my Mauser M03 Deluxe and two barrels - a standard profile 243 Winchester and a match profile 6.5x55. The video below shows a group from the 243 and then the first three shot group from the 6.5. I'm quite happy with how these barrels are working. The target board I'm using, the same as in my earlier videos, shows how hand loading is delivering better results than the factory ammunition used with my 270 Win and 30-06 barrels. I'll be developing hand loads for those later.

The 243 load uses 95gn Berger VLD Hunting and 42gn of 2209.
For the 6.5x55 it's 140gn Nosler Accubond and 45gn of 2209.
Lapua cases and RWS primers for both.