9.3X57 Mauser

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Wyosmith

New member
Hello to all.
Who here has hunting and killed game with a 9.3X57 Mauser Cartridge?

I am looking for information and stories about the performance of the cartridge on game and details of the shot angles, range, and bullet used, velocity (barrel length may help)wound channels and bone broken and so on.

I am hoping to make one for myself this year along with a 9.3X62 I am making now. I have made a few for friends and customers and I hear good things, but I would love to hear more 1st hand accounts.

I own and have used a 9.3X74R in my Ruger #1 quite a lot, so I have some experience with the it. I will assume I will see nothing much different from the 9.3X62.
But storied about the use of the 9.3X57 are rare in the USA. The 9.3MM cartridge seem to be gaining popularity in Wyoming, Idaho ad Montana these days.
Please,,,,,do tell.
 
S

Scorch

New member
Not a 9.3, but I used to shoot a 9X57. Worked very well on deer and pigs (that's all I ever killed with it). Kind of like shooting a 358 Win or a 35 Winchester, 250 gr bullet at 2300 fps. Like hitting them with a lightning bolt. Very little meat damage.
 
M

Mike Irwin

Staff
I've shot a 9.3x57, but I have no experience with how they perform on critters.

I have to wonder, though, why you'd choose to make rifles in two cartridges that are so close in performance?
 
W

Wyosmith

New member
Well to answer your question Mike Irwin, just because I like the bullets and the Classic Mauser rifles. I have no "need" at all. In fact, if truth were told I need only 1 center-fire rifle. But so what? That would not be as much fun. Need or "reason" have nothing to do with a love of nice rifles.


I want----------- therefor I need.
:D
I am pretty sure you understand. That's the mindset of probably 99% of the members here. We LIKE the guns we like.
 
M

Mike Irwin

Staff
Yeah, I fully understand that, and I certainly celebrate it. Hell, I've got going on 30 S&W revolvers for that very reason. And 3 rifles chambered for .300 Savage...

It just seemed that these were going to be more working guns from your description, and I was wondering if there was some sort of niche you were trying to fill, and I was wondering if you weren't duplicating a performance band unncecessarily.
 
W

Wyosmith

New member
One, the 9.3X57 will be a full stocked Carbine and the other, the 9.3X62 will be a Classic rifle.
Both stocked to fit me.

The "57" will have a double schnable stock to the muzzle with silver highlights and muzzle cap.
The "62" will be a rifle with a slender barrel, classic banded F.sight, express ear sights and barrel band swivel mount. Stocked in good walnut with a short forend and an ebony tip.

Both are good hunting rifles and will be working rifles, but the carbine may be a nice addition to hunting in super heavy brush on the river bottoms or also for those times when I go to the black timber after elk. I often hunt elk in the very steep and forested places in Western Wyoming and the short carbine will be a wonderful little tool for those places. The standard 22" barreled rifles are fine too, but as I said, I don't have "need". I just want.

My wife pointed out something last year that woke me up. I have carried some wood and some Mauser actions with me over the last 33 years waiting for "the time" to make a few guns for myself. It has now been over 1/2 of my life waiting to come up with "Spare time".

It's not going to happen.

So she told me "look, we both work, you don't have to do everything yourself. I earn a living too. I'll cover the bills and you should go make your rifles before you get to old to enjoy them"

So when she pointed out that I have waited over 1/2 of my life I realized she was right.

I am now taking 1 day a week to work on guns for ME!
I have not done that since I was in my late 20s. I know I don't have unlimited time to do things, so I guess I'd better do them now, before I can't.

I still work on customers guns 5-6 days a week. So they don't get shafted on the deal.
But Life goes by fast. We need to try to grab what we can and help all we can, and enjoy being a blessing to others while we can because there will come a day when we can't.
 
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Husqvarna

New member
I too don't get why you'd make both

the x62 can be loaded down to x57 levels

but you can't load x57 like a x62

I shoot x62 yeah there is some recoil but nothing too bad, I train regularly with mine

from a bench yeah not my first choice but standing or hunting scenarios nemas problems

x57 has more of a trajectory so why handicap yourself?
 
J

Jack O'Conner

New member
My kid brother lives in north-eastern Wyoming. He has a wildcat rifle chambered for 9.3mm based upon the .308 cartridge. Ballistically very similar to the mighty .358 cartridge but with heavier bullets. He has taken many deer and one spike horn elk with this interesting rifle. Good lethal performance every time. Would he get the same results with a .358 rifle? Probably, but wildcat cartridges bring much loading and experimenting pleasure to their owners.

Jack
 
W

Wyosmith

New member
Just as a note the 2 rifles I am making are different. I like both styles.
The 9.3X57 will be a short barreled (17") full stock carbine with classic iron sights and a scope mount too. It will have the double Schnabel forestock and the rounded grip cap, classic full stock styling. I'll make a set of silver escutcheons and a silver tip and grip cap for this rifle too. I may do some silver highlights on the bolt knob and also some inlay work on the floor plate.

The 9.3X62 will be far more British in it's styling. Shorter barrel however than what the Brits and Germans made as a rule. I am using a 21" barrel on this one. Somewhat like the 1920 Mauser Type A #1 pattern, but with different rear sight. I will make the stock with less drop for use with the scope, and I will also have a bead-lined cheek piece. Steel grip cap, ebony tip and barrel band swivel mount and front sight.

So to answer the curious among you, it's really not a matter of the cartridges as much as it is the rifles. I just want bot to be in 9.3 bore. Sure, I can load the 9.3X62 down just as I can load the 9.3X57 up (in the 98 Mauser) but that doesn't matter to me. I just like them. So I make them.
 
W

Wyosmith

New member
Well I cut out the blank and did all the inletting today for the 9.3X57 in the full length stock. Took 11 hours. But I am ready to start shaping the stock now. I should have a firing rifles in the next month or so.
 
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the possum

New member
Ooooooo... Please post pics when it's done. Actually, post pics now and throughout the build! I'm already drooling with anticipation. I loves me some Mannlicher stocked guns!
 
W

Wyosmith

New member
Let me see if I can get this camera to work today and I'll post a few.

This job is for myself, so I don't get to work on it as much as I'd like, but customers have to come first. So it may be 2-3 months before I get it done.
I'll try to post as the process goes along.
 
T

the possum

New member
This job is for myself, so I don't get to work on it as much as I'd like, but customers have to come first. So it may be 2-3 months before I get it done.
Click to expand...

One time I saw an interesting idea by a custom blade smith. He had a backlog on his list of custom orders, and never had time to make something for himself, either, and really wanted one to keep so he could carry it and show it off.

So he entered his own name on his order list. After he worked through the backlog, his name finally came up as the next one on the list. And then he took the time to make one for himself, just like any other customer's name on the list.

Just a thought.
 
W

Wyosmith

New member
Yeah I have given that some thought, but the problem with gun making is the time it takes to make them. It's common for me to put in 4-6 weeks and at the end, if I keep the gun there is no money for bills.
Well I am married now and my wife works. She told me to go ahead and make the guns for myself I have wanted to make for 30 years. She can cover the bills for a month now and then. So that's what I am doing. I started last year and this year I'll make a few too. I have had a few Mausers and one Lee "Speed"(ish) rifles that I have wanted to make for myself since I was in my 30s and I am now in my 60s, so I think my wife is right. I should make one now and then for me.

But I still don't just work on a rifle for myself. When I do start one for me, I work on it only 1 day a week or sometimes 2 days. I feel a moral obligation to get the guns done for those that have waited so patiently, so I never just make one from start to finish for myself. One thing I can say however, I can make a nice Mauser a LOT faster than I can make a fully carved and engraved American Longrifle or German Jaeger. I will someday finish my 28 cal flintlock squirrel rifle too, but that will take me about 450 hours from start to finish. I can do a Mauser in about 100 hours. I work 60-65 hours a week, 6 days a week. So at 12 hours a day it only takes me about 9 days to do a Mauser. If I work on my own Mauser only 4-5 days a month I can still get one done in 2 months (I hope)

Here is the 9.3X57 so far. I turned the bolt down for scope use and I installed a scope safety. I made the sight base for the rear sight, turned the barrel and chambered it, as well as doing the installation. I need to make the trigger guard, nose cap and grip cap. I will zero it with the iron sight at 100 Yards with a temporary front sight and then before I finish it, I'll make the real F. sight. I will install a recoil pad I think, but I am toying with the idea of a steel butt plate too. I'll come to that when I start the rough shaping of the wood.
I need to make and install a barrel loop and a lug for the sling swivel too. In many ways its going to be like the 8X57 I made last year.
https://flic.kr/p/WsWuFb
https://flic.kr/p/VMi3qs
https://flic.kr/p/VMi3kh
https://flic.kr/p/WNBPpy
 
W

Wyosmith

New member
OK Possum, it's nearly time to start finish work. The last of the metal work will be to make the swivel for the front and a swivel and stud for the back. Next I'll put a scope on the rifle and find an accurate load. Then I'll remove the scope and using that load, I'll zero the rear sight at distances from 100 to 500 yards. when the zero is perfect I'll make a bead style front sight of the perfect height for that load.

That will complete the metal work expect for the polishing.

I'll then sand and finish the wood. When the stock is 100% done I'll polish the metal, do the engraving and then blue.
Then go out and see if I can use it to fill the freezers. Deer elk and antelope. Should be fun.


OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by Steve Zihn, on Flickr
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by Steve Zihn, on Flickr
 
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huntfisheat

Moderator
looks very nice u have similer tastes like i do i love early to mid centry german sporters can u list some of the parts used and what make actions im trying to get a list togetter for one id like to build but money short i just finnished a 1891 arge with a j.p sauer barrel given to me in 8mm mauser with a tru 8mm bore
 
W

Wyosmith

New member
HuntFishEat, that one is made on a 98 military action and magazine. I turned the old style barrel from an ER Shaw blank and did the chambering myself. I made the stock from a blank of Bastogne walnut. Also the nose cap and the grip cap are hand made from "german silver" sheet. I uses an old checkered steel butt plate with a widows peak. The trigger guard is forged and filed to shape. I used the old military trigger and just set the 1st stage back about 60%, cleaned up the pull and when it's done I'll make an over-travel stop so the trigger will have no backlash.
The rear sight has a hand made sight base in the style of the Suhl made Mausers of the 1920s, but I could not find an original Sporting Mauser sight with the windage adjustment, so I used one from a Krag. Because the rifle is for me and I admire the quality of the Krag sights, I don't mind that deviation from "proper" recreation. Besides, I am old enough now that my eyes are not capable of using iron sights as well as I'd like, so I installed a set of Leupold scope bases and it will have 30MM rings and a Vortex scope. Not 1920 styling there either, so the use of a Krag sight was not too much of an obstacle for me. The scope will clear the rear
The front sight is just a Williams base and I'll use a fiber optic sight, again in concession to my old eyes.

I also made the swivels from bar stock, but I have not photographed them yet. I'll make a simple "belt style" sling for this rifle when it's done.
 
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