Oviedo Model '93 Mauser, Caliber 7mm, Mfg. 1927

[jmoore]

Meanwhile, did the '93s ever get a sight upgrade for ammunition other than 175gr RN?

It would seem my two 7mm rifles require completely different ammunition from a ballistic standpoint.

[jmoore]

Some more photos that have to do with the lack of bedding on this rifle.














And some measurements to ponder:

Top of action ring to trigger guard housing bottom near front screw is 1.363" in AND out of the stock! No wood compression going on up front...
Tang to trigger guard measures 1.905" in the stock and roughly 1.869" free state out of the stock.

Recoil lug depth ~0.248" but the recess in the stock is only 0.220". No surprise that the bottom of the lug is the only contact at the front of the receiver.

NO up pressure at the fore end tip no matter how you position the receiver (without getting silly) and with the bands and handguard removed. The front IS pretty well captured by the front metal though.

The inserts installed at the rear of the inletting actually aren't enough, as the tang is drawn down from the position shown in the free state photo above (the inverted one).

If there was a tube at the rear at one point, it would have made the situation worse, I think, as the entire action would have had no real clamping forces against the stock. The rear face of the recoil lug does not appear to contact the stock at all.

[vintage hunter]

JM, is there any evidence that suggests the stock and receiver are original to one another. It's weird that the patch stayed put all those years and all of a sudden came loose, unless the glue deteriorated over time or your cleaning agent broke it down or a previous owner replaced the stock and ''forgot'' to install the liner. just thinking out loud.

[jmoore]

It's a mixmaster, near as I can tell. Unless the inked on numbers are assembly numbers rather than serial #s. Regardless, I don't think that stock fit ANYTHING properly.







Oh, well, it's money well spent just for the educational value alone. I still would like to fine one in "pretty" condition, but the only Spanish rifles I ever see are ratty carbines or scary recalibered things. Maybe an FR8 would be fun, but otherwise I'm only interested in the original '93 model.

I don't think this rifle had been apart beyond removal of the bolt for 50-60 years, judging by the crust that had built up.

[jmoore]

After some head scratching it was decided to do a temporary plate for the front of the receiver. A 0.040" thick bit of Kydex was formed into a 90 degree "L" in order to move the action up and forwards. The front action recoil lug screw extention still bottomed out in the trigger guard boss recess, so a bit of tin from a .303" SAA crate liner was used to raise the front another 0.012". Just right!


Flat tin shim not yet added. It was sandwiched between the Kydex and the wood. In actual fact I was inspired by Finn metal plates used in similar fashion on Mosin Nagants, but they're nailed in place.

The flexible rear shims still seem to work OK. If there was any hope of getting upwards tension on the fore end tip, it might have been a different matter, but the only reasonable way to approach it would have been to do some fairly extensive metal cutting on the magazine box and front trigger guard internal screw boss. Otherwise, the rear of the action would be sky high!

Going to leave the patch off for now. It had some damage before I got it, which was noted during the cleaning process. The glue looks like it might be resorcinol type, but not positive.


Note that even with a 0.040" plate utilized to move the action forward, there is only ~0.010" clearance at the tang. The patch was further relieved to remove old damage, so hopefully no more dramas in this area after a reglue.


It'll be a while before test firing, so y'all have time to comment.

[vintage hunter]

Looks good from here. Any gap between the magazine box and receiver bottom?

[jmoore]

The gap is very small, probably 0.005". A little more at the rear.

[Calif-Steve]

Gosh, I remember back to my high schools days. M93 Spanish Mausers were $9.99 all day long. All milled parts and a lifetime before full rust sets in. Nice Enfields were $9.99 and a bargin even then. I worked in a cannery and made $1.45 per hour for hard factory work, so $10.00 was half a day's work for me. You had to think about any purchase.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Thanks to Calif-Steve for reminding us that the nostalgic sentiments such as "I can remember when they only cost peanuts" usually blank out the fact that "those were the days when I only earnt half a peanut".

JM, don't despair! KISS - Mausers shoot fine without any upward pressure at the fore-end. In my experience, any pressure on a Mauser fore-end turns it into a thermometer, with the temperature being indicated by the position of the shots on your target!

If the barrel front end has a few tenths of a mm clearance all round between it and the front band/bayonet boss that is fine. If nobody is looking over your shoulder to scream "not original", then I recommend a slight opening out the band if necessary to make sure that this is so. A piece of woven electrical insulating tape (modern duct tape may be too thick) can then be discreetly placed between the band and the barrel in such a way that it is invisible, but stops metal banging against metal when the rifle is fired. This not only stops the finish from being damaged, but dampens the barrel whip that is caused by the ignition shock wave travelling up the barrel (at the speed of sound in steel) and vibrating the muzzle end before the bullet has got there! I.e. it is relevant for good shooting!

Patrick

[jmoore]

Thanks for the pointers! If fabric electrical tape inside the top of the front band works, then it will made life ever so much easier. I reckon that if the system has good repeatability, then it doesn't matter if it's different from that used by other weapons types. I may get another band to mod, even though this rifle isn't much of a collector's prize. I don't like making permanent changes if possible.

As far as costs go, it seems that I bought more cool and interesting stuff back when i didn't have much money at all. (Fortunately, I have managed to hang onto some of the old buys and swaps.) Now, it's hard to find even plain vanilla rifles that are worth having, unless you are willing to do the internet auction madness, and rely on a few usually less than optimal or detailed photos.