7mm Mauser

Around 1892 the 7mm Mauser, or 7x57mm, cartridge was developed, originally as a Spanish military cartridge for the Model 1893 Mauser rifle. The 7mm Mauser is one of the oldest sporting cartridges still in active use today, and is popular among the foreign cartridge users. When the 7mm Mauser was developed and released it was such a popular cartridge that Mexico and several South American countries adopted it as their service rifle cartridge. Even though the 7mm Mauser cartridge is one of the oldest cartridges it is still gaining in popularity, and is still in active use today.

In between the World Wars both Remington and Winchester worked at chambering rifles for the 7x57mm or 7mm Mauser. Unfortunately, most of them were dropped before World War 2 even started, this left American shooters who wanted to shoot the 7mm Mauser with having to buy a foreign model or they would have to get their hands on a surplus military rifle, but once shooters got their hands on a foreign surplus military rifle they could custom tune it. Even without major commercialization of the 7mm Mauser cartridge it has remained popular through out the shooting sports. Some manufacturers thankfully swooped in to fill the American decline of custom rifles chambered in the 7mm Mauser, like Carriage trade shops like Griffin & Howe who used both Mauser and Springfield actions.

Even in the lack of industry support for the 7mm Mauser in America sports writers have always kept the 7mm Mauser on a kind of pedestal when they would cover the subject. Although I do not believe in this practice of highlighting a certain cartridge above others, this prejudice has kept some interest and attention pointed towards the 7mm Mauser cartridge. The writers high held opinion was not the only thing that has kept the 7mm Mauser in popularity, there has also been a very large quantity of surplus military rifles available all over America for commercial sale at a reasonable price, The pricing along with the world distribution as current even for today as military service arms, has probably been the key to keeping the 7mm Mauser cartridge in the limelight longer than other cartridges wit the same performance, and traits.

Eve though the 7mm Mauser is a semi-rare cartridge, Sturm-Ruger built a No,1 single shot in the 1970's and made a short run of M77 bolt rifles. Later in production the cartridge was listed as a standard chambering in both models and was still in their 1998 catalog. Not only has Sturm-Ruger taken up sides with the 7mm Mauser, but Remington and Winchester have also followed the pack by offering bolt action rifles all chambered in the 7mm Mauser.

For years the only factory loaded ammunition that was available was loaded with 175 grain bullets at about 2400 feet per second that nearly duplicated early military loads. Although the heavier bu;let was good for large game, it was not ideal for developing the full potential of the cartridge. When the choices for loading the 7mm Mauser opened up and other options were available almost everywhere it was discovered that the 7mm Mauser shot better and performed better on a 140 grain bullet and loading the velocities at around 2700 fee per second.

The 7mm Mauser has a very strong reputation that was built on hunting performance, and solid historical facts. Unfortunately some of that performance has been used when pointed at humans too. But life goes on and the world does not stop spinning, and we are left with tons of performance and technical data to keep the 7mm Mauser cartridge alive today.