... I have derived a couple of pragmatic methods for getting most milsurps to shoot better that a lot of people think they can:

1) CLEAN FIRE CLEAN FIRE CLEAN... some of those rifles haven't been properly cleaned for nearly a century, and have the history of ammunition expressed in sedimentary layers in the grooves. In fact, my serial no. 9xx Brazilicon Mauser didn't have visible grooves any more, and was sold as a "shot-out" wall hanger.

2) Check the muzzle crown. Unless your milsurp is genuinely mint, chances are the crown is not as good as it could be. Years of cleaning with a gritty Enfield pull-through or those terrible aluminium-link chains that the Mauser fans find so trendy (aluminium oxide is a really good abrasive!)may well have worn a part of the crown lopsided (I have read that the Swedes issued cleaning rods with sleeves to preserve the crown). Bores that are very shiny may in fact have been cleaned to death. Have the crown touched up before doing anything complicated like bedding. It is probably the MOST cost-effective action you can take on an old military rifle.

3) Get the right bullets. Forget SAAMI-- Sorry Yanks, but the rest of the world never heard of SAAMI, which was set up in 1926, long after a lot of our milsurps were made. The LEAST cost-effective action you can take for a non-American milsurp is to buy a set of SAAMI headspace gauges and, for instance measure your beautiful Swedishicon Mauser with them.

In general, military rifles were made so that the Tommy, Landser, Poilu or grunt in the local language could drop his ammo in the mud, pick it up and wipe in on his dirty battledress, load it and fire. We are NOT talking benchrest here. The fired cartridge cases from my M1896 Swedish Mauser will jam hard 1/2" out of the chamber of my Schultz & Larsen match rifle. Both are excellent rifles, but for different purposes.

Military chambers tend to have long throats. So long bullets with a good cylindrical section often perform MUCH better than modern boattails. The good old 174 gn flatbase bullet as used in Britishicon 303 ammo is also good in 7,62 Argentine Mauser or Russianicon Mosins (NOT Finnishicon Mosins, which often have tighter bores). Flatbase bullet that are open at the bottom can actually obturate better to fit the bore.

I have acquired a couple of rifles that were sold as unusable because they couldn't hit the target at 50 meters with "off the shelf" boattail-loaded ammo, thanks to the above effects. And they all now shoot properly.

Summarizing: your milsurp ought to achieve 2-3" groups at 100 yards if you attend to the 3 items above- clean, crown, suitable (often flatbase) bullet. Only then is it worth while to go through all the work of bedding the action. But those 3 items must be attended to first.

Patrick
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