308 bore with a 1×10 twist from a co worker (I traded him a military gore tex jacket for it that I had kept from my days in the service) & ordered a walnut stock for it from Boyd’s Gunstocks. I managed to get a smoking deal on a Shilen match barrel in. It sat in it’s ruined state in my gun safe for many years before I finally got it out & decided to resurrect it. This rifle was also one of my first gunsmithing projects & of course I ruined it. I would also bring home some 7.62 NATO ammo from live fire ranges I went to while serving in the USMC & shoot that stuff in it too. I got it when I was all of 15 years old & shot commercial 308 out of it for many years. The rifle that is the subject of this post is a M1916 Spanish Mauser chambered in 7.62×51 NATO (although the importer marked the barrel as 308 Win). Basically this means that you need to exercise caution when handloading & selecting factory ammunition to ensure that the components used are in good condition & assembled properly & the same goes for factory ammunition, it should be visually inspected before using it. The lack of gas venting safety features is a concern but I feel like I should point out that the Winchester Model 70 has NO gas venting features at all. Obviously there is some difference but I don’t think it’s enough to matter as long as we are not talking about magnum cartridges. I also believe that there is no significant strength difference between the M93 & M98 Mausers. I think this is a bit of an extreme opinion to have considering that official government arsenals obviously felt differently. All in all it’s a pretty well thought out conversion.Īccording to the “experts” on the internet, these converted rifles (known as M1916) are death traps or pipe bombs that should never be fired.
They modified the internal magazine box & follower for starters, they also modified the internal feed lips on the receiver, they recalibrated the sights, & had the good sense to add a gas vent hole in the front ring of the receiver. When Spain converted these rifles to 7.62×51 NATO, they did more than just rebarrel them. All of these cartridges operate at higher pressures than 7×57 or the others. Spain rebarreled them in the 1950’s to 7.62×51 NATO which is extremely similar to the commercial 308 Winchester.
Turkey rebarreled them to 8x57JS (or IS) Mauser. I feel that I should point out though that several government arsenals of that time period obviously disagree with the modern opinion that the action isn’t suitable for higher pressure cartridges. And most damning of all, it lacks the third “safety” lug on the bolt body. It does not have the gas diverting flange on the bolt shroud like the Model 98 does either. To compound this, there are also some passive safety features found on later Mauser 98 rifles that are not present on the 1893 such as gas vent holes in the action & bolt. The 30-40 Krag, 303 Brtish, & 7.62x54R are other military contemporaries that fall into the same pressure category.īased on it’s original caliber offerings and due to the smaller barrel shank, barrel threads, & front receiver ring size many feel that the 1893 action is not suitable for cartridges that exceed intermediate levels. None of these cartridges operate at what could be called a high pressure but instead are known as “intermediate pressure” cartridges. It was designed around such cartridges as the 7×57, 6.5×55, & 7.65×53. The 1893 is what is known as a “small ring” Mauser action. It of course was intended to be loaded via 5 round “stripper clips” or “chargers”.
#SPANISH MAUSER 1916 FULL#
The 1893 Mauser was the first Mauser to use the 5 round, double stack, internal magazine combined with the full length spring steel non rotating claw extractor that Mauser nuts fawn over so much. The Spanish rifles also have a Fascist crest on the front receiver ring from the days of “Franco’s Spain”. In military trim they look something like this: That being said, I have handled & fired many & think they are perfectly serviceable. They are generally regarded as inferior to German made rifles.
#SPANISH MAUSER 1916 LICENSE#
After a while, Spain began to produce it’s own copies of Mauser rifles under license from Mauser. In fact the 1893 Mauser is basically known as the Spanish Mauser even though several countries adopted it for service & Spain herself used many other models. It was that commitment that urged me to complete the project that is the subject of this post.īack in the day, Spain purchased it’s military rifles from Mauser Werke in Germany. I call this “turd polishing” and it is a hobby that I am truly committed to. I believe that they are “industrial art” and have a place in this world & should always be saved & brought back to usefulness if at all possible. As anyone who has read any of my previous writings knows, I can’t sit back & watch a firearm rot into oblivion.
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