Mauser chambers

[George Stringer]

Harley, I'm looking for a definitive source that would tell when the 8mm Mauser chambers where changed from a 20deg 48min shoulder to the 19deg shoulder and what rifles it affected. What I've found so far leads me to believe that any rifle produced after 1905 has the 19deg shoulder but I can't really point to anything and say that's it. Do you know of any such source? George

 

[Harley Nolden]

George:
Sorry, don't have it George

HJN

 

[James K]

George, wasn't that done at the same time the bullet diameter was changed from .318 to .323? That was 1905, IIRC.

Jim

 

[George Stringer]

Jim, that's what I believe too. But Forster is putting out an info sheet to anyone who asks that says the transition took up to 30 years. Of course their earliest reference of a 8mm chamber with a 19 deg shoulder is dated 1980. I've got one date 1963 in my copy of Roy Dunlap's gunsmithing. Like you I think that once they went to the S bore, in 1905, any rifles made after that had the 19 deg chamber. I just can't prove it yet. While I'm not exactly obsessed with it I would like to find some straight scoop on it. I get asked the question "which chamber does my rifle have?" more and more frequently and I'm getting tired of not being able to give an answer. George