Anything unique about a 1953 FN Mauser?

Z

zeke mccune

Member
Hi Gang:

Yesterday, I bought the above rifle chambered in .257 Roberts. I gave $150.00 for as it had a scope and a new unfinished stock. The stock needs to be sanded and finished on the outside and it has a faint crack behind the tang.

I never owned a Roberts but this rifle seemed to say,"Take me home." I have some rally nice maple, cherry and walnut for a stock for this rifle so I can see a new stock for it in the future. The cherry wood has tiger tail grain which I have never seen in cherry.

My question is this, is there any thing special about a FN Mauser made in 53?

TIA,

Zeke
 
I have been told that the FN Mauser action has been proven to be one of the most reliable actions ever produced for hunting. I have two rifles with this action.

I realize that it has a great extractor and that it is strong.

What is the thinking about this action pro and con?

Concho Bill
 
Feed it from the magazine

One thing that my memory tells me about (this is a qualified statement as I am old and it is early in the morning and I am on my first cup of coffee) is that the rounds MUST be fed from the magazine due to the controlled feed extractor design. If you do not, you run a very real risck of breaking the extractor.

George
 
Breaking an extractor?

Hi George:

I have forced the extractor over the "rim" of a chambered round many times in my life with Mauser type of actions with no problems. The extractor has a bevel on the outside to help it slide over the "rim."

I am not saying that one can not break an extractor by doing this but I never had a problem. Pehaps I have been lucky!

Thanks for the response.

Zeke
 
The standard military procedure was to press on the spring of the extractor behind the tit that the circlip fits into with the off hand gripping from under the action while closing the bolt if you had one that feed in front. Try squeezing it with the bolt out & see how much travel happens at the extractor.
 
Squeezing the extractor on the M 98

Hi John:

Good God man, If you can squeeze the extractor on a M 98 bolt to get it to move your are indeed a MAN! I can't imagine anybody doing it to get the extractor to jump over a cartridge to get it to chamber!

Back in the day, I was taught that one removed the extractor in the groove in the front of the bolt by squeezing the extractor high enough to clear the groove and then slide it forward to remove. I have only seen gunsmiths remove the extractors by placing a small flat screwdriver under them and twisting.

Perhaps I did remove the extractors buy squeezing them when I was young but today, no can do.

Sincerely,

Zeke
 
Travelor said:
One thing that my memory tells me about (this is a qualified statement as I am old and it is early in the morning and I am on my first cup of coffee) is that the rounds MUST be fed from the magazine due to the controlled feed extractor design. If you do not, you run a very real risck of breaking the extractor.

George
Click to expand...

George, I believe you are right. This has never been a big problem to me when I was hunting. I believe the pre 64 model 70 Winchester had a similar extractor.

Concho Bill
 
Get a copy...

Zeke,
Get a copy of Frank DeHaas bolt action book, or the one by Stuart Otteson. Also there's the shop manual book on gunsmithing Mausers. A library is cheaper to build than rifles.
Regards, Ron
 
You Can

Do some hand work on the leading edge of the Mauser Extractor so that it is a little easier to "push feed" rounds.

The worst thing about forcing the extractor over the rim is it tears the rim all up.

As for the originol question, of course the Mauser is a good solid Hunting Rifle. After WW-11, literally thoudands wereconverted to "something else", even though the originol 8mm chabering was an excellent deer round.


One od the neate tricks was to convert the 8mm to 8mm-06. Brownells, (I think), sold a chambering kit that consisted of a reamer, a reamer guide that fit the action, a T-Handle, and a headspace gage. You literally hand reamed the chamber out to fit the 8mm-06.

This was oneof Elmer Kieths favorite projects, he used to tout it often in which ever magazine he was writing for at the moment.

I don't no how many Countries continued to make Mauser Rifles after the War, but I suspect it was more than a few.

Just google "Mauser". There is an entire industry built around shooting, and talking about shooting, Mausers........jackie
 
Well then if you have the books and unlike me not eaten the covers off, then you know which of the different of the several FN Mausers you have. I would sure make a user friendly up grade of the bolt shroud and go with one of the many shrouds that are after market and offer you the three position safety. Make sure it is one that says it has all the safety of the original to protect the shooter by proper gas venting.

If you have not worked on the original trigger, find some one that has. Do not put a box trigger on this action, they are fine for non Alaskan hunters, but they sure as heck freeze up in wet weather. You don't need to know how I know this first hand. It is my favorite action for hunting, none of the rest give me the same peace of mind (outside of custom made).:D
 
Hey Big Al:

What is a box trigger? This gun came with a Tinniney Sportsman trigger and it is set at 1.5 lbs.

I dragged a Rmington o3-a3 all over Alberta that had a Timminey trigger that was great. I had it set too light and the first time I saw a moose the first two shots went off in the air LOL.

Zeke
 
As you can tell from my post that I want a firing pin safety. I do not want a trigger safety. Locking the firing pin is in my opinion is the safest safety you can use on a loaded rifle. Every safety problem I ever had has come from rifles with a trigger safety.

The older triggers for the Mauser are the open type and allow for the use of a bolt shroud safety. The worst thing that happens to the box trigger that you have is freezing rain. The trigger becomes wet and the cold makes the trigger inoperable. Blowing dust and sand find a home in a box trigger and you have problems.

This is not and issue for the guy shooting from a bench, the trigger goes on you, a home fix is in the cards, some get be doing a fix at the range. Trouble for a hunting rifle in the field is just not in the cards for the user of if he is equipped with and open style trigger.

It is just about impossible to find bad comments about the Old M-70 trigger and firing pin safety. The caution with them becomes wear on the firing pin cocking piece. But not in your life time if you don't play with it.:D
 
have to agree

with Big Al on the hunting rifle thing.
by the way Al have you looked at the Montana Rifleman action? in my opinion it has all the best features of the winchester and mauser melded into one action.
the actions are cnc machined so they are built from scratch with trued face on reciever.
the only caviot i can see is if one uses iron sights or a scout scope the mauser has the notch on the left side of the rifles action that i use for my thumb to carry the rifle in my hand. small thing but then most of the time its the small things that endear us to the mauser action for hunting rifles.
Fred
 
Montana actions start life as and investment casting. Pine Tree be thy name.

I know vary well the history from scratch about these actions.

The vary top end actions are always found from the custom makers, you just have to have pockets down to your ankles to afford then. A good starting point in an action would be the M-76 from Dakota Arms. Then you can triple the price from just under 1300.00 to well over 4000.00. Past the Dakota action I really start to have reservations for a North American hunting rifle, or for that matter even for Africa. They will not kill any better or work any better than most of the Mauser's for that matter. I like the Dakota because it has solved all the gas problems of the old M-70 and still works the same. However, one needs to remember that it did not start life as a billet forging.

That is a debate that a book length article would not be able to solve even at the microscopic level. Cast or forged, you pays your money and takes your choices.

For me with some modifications the Mauser and the Pre-64 M-70's have given me everything I want or could desire. Beyond that for hunting it seems to just get into the what if game.:D


P.S. The FN action is far from being and action you would kick out of bed for eating crackers.
 
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