Need advice on a 1916 Spanish Mauser

Hi all

I recently bought this 1916 Spanish Mauser. took it to the range yesterday after firing 25 rounds I brought it home and I found this crack in the wood just behind the rear site. Its stamped Under the front site 308W and they told me it was 308 but after finding the crack I read online about some having overpreasure problems with commerical ammo. could this crack be caused by the ammo being too hot for the gun I swear the crack was not there when I bought it.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...IMG_0071-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...IMG_0069-1.jpg

Thanks
Gary

The crack was probably there already, just smaller. Shooting high recoil ammo is not going to help you out any, but probably didn't cause it. You can have the handguard repaired if you're attached to it, but if not, just replace it. Remember these are small ring and should only be shot with light pressure loads. It's not actually in .308, its in 7.62 CETME is dimensionally identical to 7.62x51 (what we often call .308) and was loaded with an aluminum core bullet. The long and the short is that you'll need to fire light loads through this gun or you'll beat it up and you'll be skirting the edge of its pressure tolerances. You'll be fine if you just take it easy on it and maybe hand-load or shoot very light powered stuff. It's still a pretty hefty round, so expect a punch either way. Good luck!

Thanks my friend I like this rifle a lot so I'll have to find some light stuff or learn to hand load

Gary

The round I was using is a 150 grain FMJ Boat tail 308 win made by American Eagle. acording to the box its 2820 FPS at the muzzle. Guess thats not really a "Light" load

Gary

For anyone else looking for the CETME round I found some here 480 round can - 7.62 CETME Santa Barbra 112 grain FMJ Non-Magnetic Surplus ammo | SGAmmo.com
looks like a good price

Gary

I had bought of these about ten years ago. Fired a few rouds of .308 ammo in it, then noticed a crack at the back of the receiver. I took it back to the dealer for a refund.

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Originally Posted by RBruce

I had bought of these about ten years ago. Fired a few rouds of .308 ammo in it, then noticed a crack at the back of the receiver. I took it back to the dealer for a refund.

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Thanks my friend. Currently the one I bought is being repaired and tested by a local gunsmith.

Gary

Just picked up the Mauser from the gunsmith and they told me a couple of surprising things. The lockup was too tight as if the bolt had been replaced or something and they had to recut the chamber to fix the headspace and they said the safety test indicated it was safe to use 308-W ammo. Oh and the crack was glued too :-)

Gary

What does happen with these rifles is that the bolt will stretch with using commercial 308 Winchester. The 180 gr. loads are even worse in these rifles. When it happens the head space will change. The primers will start backing out a bit. These are 95 actions and not 98 types. The original 7x57 load was only about 45,000 psi while the 308 can be in the 60,000 psi range. 7.62x51 is in the 50,000 range and the Cetme rounds are in the same area as the 7x57. Down load 7.62x51 levels to at least starting loads and you will find the rifle to be quite accurate and safe to shoot.

What's especially bad is the potential for those that have chamber sleeves soldered in place to have the sleeve come adrift. Then the effective bolt thrust is much worse! There was an old thread showing one of the sleeve chambered and bored out rifles sectioned. The hot gasses had eroded the solder at the front of the sleeve, thus increasing the potential for dramas.