Some time back, an Evil Reader read my constant chatter about the wonderful 7x57mm cartridge, and sent me an email saying that he was making space in his ammo locker for more ammo, and as he didn’t have a rifle chambered for the 7mm Mauser, would I like the few boxes he had on hand?
Well, I didn’t (and don’t) have a rifle thus chambered either, but who turns down free ammo? So a week or so later, there it was.
Which means that ever since then, I’ve been looking at 7mm Mauser rifles, and moaning piteously when I found one because NO MONEY.
This Ruger M77 in particular caused some heavy sighing:
…because it is exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for: but I don’t have a spare grand floating around, and I don’t have any “spare” guns lying around that I want to sell, either.
And here I sit, 7x57mm in Ye Olde Ammoe Locquer and no gun to shoot it with.
Sometimes, I wonder if it’s all worth it. [exit, kicking the cat]
Hey, leave the cat out of it; this is a problem of your own making. You sure you’re not a politician?
[Exits, dodging bullets, none of which are 7×57…]
I have a good friend and shooting buddy who retired very comfortably and has plenty of money to purchase his latest gun, when I meet him at the range a time or two each month he often has a different gun, pistol or rifle I have not seen before, I help him sight in his new acquisition and we shoot a bit and then a month or two later he tells me he sold that gun and has a new neat firearm to work with. Gun dealers like working with him because he is will to take a few hundred dollar loss to keep his gun safe from getting crowed and then he makes a deal with me for his ammunition he no longer needs, he never keeps ammo that he cannot shoot and I have become the benefactor of hand me down ammo like 30-06 which I seldom shoot but have two rifles in storage and don’t want to get rid of them. Within the last year he decided to try shooting skeet with us and bought a nice new 20 ga. o/u and a couple of cases of ammo, a month ago he sold that shotgun and early this week sold me his excess 20 ga. for a third of the going price and then threw in a box of 6.5 Creedmore which he no longer needed and since that is what my son uses in Colorado he gave me that box of ammo and I will pass it along, kind of like being a poor second cousin getting hand-me-downs, or something.
By the way, I tend to hang on to stuff I don’t need, I have owned a couple of 7x 57 rifles in the past and I think I have a couple of boxes of that stuff in my catch all ammo box so when you come down to San Antonio again let me know and I will meet you for coffee and give you my left overs, maybe one or two boxes. I don’t know.
Sounds like a nice cartridge. I have no experience with it. I bought a 30-06 Ruger 77 Mk II 20 years ago and didn’t look back. I bought it with open sights on it because I didn’t have the funds for a scope and a rifle at the time. I put a peep site on it for a while and eventually put a Burris Fullfield II on it. It doesn’t get a enough range time so I try to avoid buying more rifles.
JQ
You want to be careful with a Ruger in 7×57. They have been historically long-throated. I’ve read about it with both the M77 and the No.1. The long throat means the bullet has a longer jump to the rifling which is a problem for lighter weight (shorter) bullets, but it might shoot fine with longer, heavier bullets. I don’t know if this holds true for more recent production rifles.
FWIW whilst going through the gun locker a while back I came upon what appears to be a sporterized Mauser in 7mm.
Damn thing has a beautiful light-walnut Monte Carlo stock – that’s a LEFT-hand Monte Carlo stock – arrrggghh; receiver is marked DEUTSCHE WAFFEN-UND MUNITIONS FABRIKEN BERLIN with a 3 digit s/n and what looks like the Chile coat of arms. Been re-blued during the build and the sights replaced.
No idea where it came from. I have no recollection of ever buying a left-hand Mauser. Maybe came out of an estate sale?
Short version here is if you are interested I’ll see if I can generate some pics and send them to you. I have a 6.5 Swede, a 7-08, a 7mm mag and a .260 Rem. I really didn’t need to find this one…