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Jesse's Hunting > Gun Room Articles > The Gun Room > Taking a Walk with the Old Man
Taking a Walk with the Old Man
Andy Moe - JHO ProStaff
- Frozen Wastes of Montana
December 15, 2006
When the fall winds hit I am instantly transformed. Like all seasonal creatures, I sense the shift in the climate and suddenly my priorities change. I go from a rabid varmint shooter to, well… I’m not sure. I’d like to say that I become a big game hunter but that would be far too general, and not entirely truthful. I have always enjoyed small game hunting more than big game hunting. I guess the best way I could describe the result of my fall transformation would be to say that I become decidedly “retro” in my shooting habits. Almost overnight I yearn for the sulfurous stench of black powder smoke or the sweet smell of beeswax bullet lube. It hits me like clockwork, every year, and I can never predict where my interests will lie. Last fall it was black powder. This year it’s something different.
There's something about a classic
The Mauser sporter by German gunmaker C.G. Haenel exemplifies the classic lines and functionality of the turn-of-the-century European hunting rifles. |
I have always had strong attraction to the trim, bolt-action, hunting rifles produced in the UK and Europe around the turn of the last century. The world was a couple of decades out of the black powder era and the bolt-action repeater was the king of the battlefield and the black forests of Europe. Gun makers in Europe and Britain produced trim little sporters that were used to protect livestock and take game -on farms and estates- from Sutherland to the Serengeti. These rifles are most often found chambered for the (then) military cartridge of their homeland and many lacked any caliber designation; though most were assembled from reworked military barrels and receivers. Not all were marked with a maker’s name and few were stocked in anything other than straight grained walnut.
The most common of these rifles, often referred to as “estate guns”, were plainly dressed though routinely found wearing express sights and some small bit of decoration. The better of the breed were fitted with double set triggers and scope mounts. Perhaps there was a bit of inlay or a small amount of checkering to the wood or metal but these were definitely a working rifle. Games keepers and farm managers used these rifles as tools of the trade. The fancy rifles stayed at the main house while these guns dealt with the day to day work.
Over the years I have been fortunate enough to find a few of these rifles. My two favorites are European in origin and both chambered for the 8x57J cartridge. The “J”bore designation means that the groove diameter is of the early 8mm Mauser pattern measuring .318 inches instead of the later and more common .323” diameter for the present 8x57 “JS” cartridge.
This also means that current US manufactured factory ammunition shouldn’t be used in these rifles. In deference to these tighter bored eight millimeters, US makes have long loaded 8x57 to very mild pressures so you’d probably get away with it, but it just isn’t a good practice. There are commercial .318” bullets available for reloading, but being a cast bullet shooter, I am amply prepared for the odd groove diameters encountered in old rifles and choose to make my own bullets. Besides the convenience and versatility of casting my own bullets, there’s the need for that whiff of bullet lube that I just do without.
This season my focus is on the grandfather of my group of estate guns, a very old Mauser sporter that fell into my lap sometime back. It is a very plain rifle chambered for the 8mm J-bore cartridge and built on an 1888 Commission Mauser action by the prestigious firm of C.G. Haenel out of Suhl, Germany. There is no date to be found anywhere on the rifle but judging by the almost total lack of finish left on the metal, this rifle has certainly been around for some time and has seen serious use. The stock has been repaired twice and one of the leaves for the express sights is missing. The wood has dings aplenty and except for a small band of decorative checkering around the receiver ring is it is devoid of decoration of any kind. Amazingly, the bore is pristine. Obviously someone held this rifle in high enough regard to make sure that it took no harm from the corrosive priming used in those early commercial 8mm cartridges.
As always, the first thing I did to this rifle was a muzzle to toe inspection. The stock repairs to the tang area and heel were Ok. Finding a chip gone out of the tang is very common with guns of this age because this where all the oil seeps to when the rifle is left standing vertically in a rack or gun cabinet. The wood becomes oil sodden and eventually chips or cracks at this point when shot. In this instance the tang repair wasn’t pretty but it was serviceable. The metal exterior was cleaned and then decades’ worth of copper fouling was removed from the barrel using an electric de-plating unit. What normally takes 10 minutes in the average sporting rifle took 30 minutes with this old Mauser but when it was done, the bore squeaky clean and free of copper fouling, making it ready for cast bullet shooting. A soft lead slug driven into the barrel, slightly past the muzzle, measured .3187 inches, verifying the “J-bore” configuration. I figured a .320 -.321” cast bullet would work just fine -which was good as I had a number of molds and sizes dies in that dimensional vicinity.
The original 8x57J cartridge utilized a 227 grain round nose bullet at 2099 ft/sec. My efforts to duplicate this load with cast bullets fell short due to the lack of a suitable mold. I had two different bullets in this weight category but both cast .326” in diameter and didn’t take sizing down to .320” very well. The better of the two designs was too long for the magazine, anyhow. I settled on two bullets designed for the 32 Winchester Special and 32-40 lever guns. Both weighed in the neighborhood of 170 grains and both were flat points. An as-cast diameter of .323 inches made these bullets much better suited for the journey to “J” bore dimensions. In the end, a 169 grain LBT gas check design got the job of putting the old Haenel back into the field. I was eager to get this bullet on paper as the hunting season was drawing to a close, but just as pressing as its accuracy potential was the question as to whether or not it would feed.
The early 1888 Mausers employed a charger magazine system. The cartridges were loaded into a spring-metal charger clip that was inserted completely into the fixed magazine from the top of the open action. When inserted fully this clip latched to the charger release button, holding the stack of cartridges against the follower arm. When the bolt is cycled the cartridges are stripped off of the charger and when the last round is fed the now-empty charger drops out of the bottom of the magazine. This is the Mannlicher system and was used in Italian Carcanos as well the Commission Mausers. It loads fast but if you have no chargers you are shooting a single shot! My rifle came with two chargers that were commercial remakes of the originals so I was covered for this year’s retro indulgence. Designed for round nose bullets, I was worried if the “Old Man” would feed the flat points I was preparing to feed it. I made up some dummy rounds using the LBT bullet and was pleased to see that they fed as well as the repro chargers would allow. These chargers are made of very thick steel and –constrained by the walls of the magazine well- didn’t seem to spring open wide enough to let the cartridge feed smoothly. Still, they work and look like they will last forever.
My bullets were cast of 20% linotype and 80% wheel weights. Normally I would heat treat hunting bullets and drive them at “highway speeds” which, for this cartridge, would be around 2400 ft/sec. Since I would be brush hunting with this rifle I left the bullets as-cast and loaded them over 48 grains of Accurate Arms XMR-3100 powder. This would generate 2000 ft/sec with pressures that offer little danger of leading with this relatively soft alloy. I was counting on that soft alloy and the flat on the bullet’s nose to down any deer unlucky enough to be within range of this old rifle and my old eyes.
The load proved to be quite accurate. At 40 meters, using the single sight leaf available to me, I shot a two-inch 10 shot group from an elbow rest. This might not sound too impressive but let me tell you, it took all of my concentration to shoot it. This rifle kicks! To get my eyes into line with the sights I was forced to screw my cheek bone hard onto the comb of the stock. After 20 rounds I was bruised and sore. I can only imagine what the full 227 grain loads kicked like! The bullets shot directly above the point of aim which was good enough for me.
So the “Old Man” and I took to the field. I concentrated on some scrubby, broken, bottom area behind a friend’s farm that had been teeming with deer all fall. The deer were there but none were close enough for the old eighty-eight’s iron sights. About the closest I got was 150 yards and the sights were far too coarse for that kind of shooting, especially at twilight.
Shooting a deer would have been a great ending to this story but like I mentioned, I am not an avid big game hunting enthusiast. I am a hunter though, and like this aged Haenel, am willing to take to the field for whatever game is in season. This year I was just glad that I got to give this old 8mm yet another hunt.
Some friends and I are already discussing the possibility of stalking the river bottoms along the Big Horn river next season to jump-hunt whitetails. I don’t know what I’ll be playing with when the next yearly cold snap hits but I’m thinking that by then the old Haenel will be ready for that kind of adventure. And I’ll be happy to oblige. There is something about a fine old hunting rifle –finish worn to a patina and wood showing the scars of a thousand hunts- that kindles a warm glow in my heart. They are the most basic of modern hunting firearms; made to be carried far and shouldered quickly. These are the guns used by the likes of Karamojo Bell. To me, they represent the Golden Age of hunting.
Author’s note:
All used rifles should be viewed with suspicion. Take your rifle apart and do a thorough inspection before attempting to shoot it. If the caliber is at all in question, cast the chamber to verify it. In the post WWII era with a shortage of commercial 8x57 brass, many 8x57’s were made more “serviceable” by running an 8mm/06 reamer into the standard 8x57 chamber. Some weren’t restamped. Firing an 8x57 cartridge in one of these chambers is exceedingly dangerous! If you aren’t comfortable with doing a good tear-down inspection of the metal and wood, take it to a professional gunsmith. Your safety is worth the price he or she will charge.
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