Mauser No. 2 (1871)

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DocRock said:
Took it back to bare, dry wood. Tried steaming some of the dents out. I think I’m doing it wrong because it didn’t seem very successful ;)
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My method for raising dents is fairly aggressive: four layers of folded wet paper towel over the dent with heat applied directly with a soldering iron. I'll give a dent about a 2-3 second jolt of steam, then let it rest a few minutes while I move on to the next dent. Repeat as necessary, using different parts of the paper towel and never letting it dry out.

You might practice first on scrap wood to get the timing right -- the idea is to force steam into the grain without scorching the wood fibers.
 
So, thanks again @Jim Watson, got some Bertram 9.5x47 brass. Chambers easily. Finger set a 265 grs .378” bullet (for 375 Win) in the brass and it chambered easily. The rim is a perfect fit. The brass has a beveled base, but the bolt face is flat, but has a slight shroud that seals to the rim outside the bevel.

Found some 250 grs pure lead slicks at .365” that I will paper patch. Should be perfect !

CAE9AC48-902C-421D-B329-D216DC85003C.jpeg
 
I love that little loader, explains so much on how you were to load those parlor guns.. many thanks did not know of that before..
 
That is what is known as a "muzzleloading" Zimmerstutzen. The actual 4mm barrel is only a few inches long, and occupies the muzzle end of what looks like a barrel. There is a long rod going back to the hammer.

There are also breechloading Zimmerstutzens with conventional loading at the receiver into a short barrel with a long long freebore for balance and sight radius.

In the day, you could get fixed and separate loading 4mm with diameter selection by the fraction of a millimeter.
 
Loaded up some 250 grs swaged slicks, paper patched with 9lbs onion skin to .373”-.374” over a cardboard wad from a 3/8” harbor freight punch that seats perfectly. Used the 2.8cc dipper and Olde Eynsford 2Ffg for convenience - 44 grs weight. Suspect the final load will be more like 45 grs. Anyway, funny looking little buggers, ain’t they?

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Back when Dr. Mann wrote The Bullet's Flight, one accuracy approach with black powder cartridge target rifles was to use a tapered cartridge with maximum concentricity, in the general manner of the 32-40. These have that look about them.

To me the most curious aspect is the long neck -- reminds me of a scaled up 297/230 Morris Long.
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Dave DeLaurant said:
Back when Dr. Mann wrote The Bullet's Flight, one accuracy approach with black powder cartridge target rifles was to use a tapered cartridge with maximum concentricity, in the general manner of the 32-40. These have that look about them.

To me the most curious aspect is the long neck -- reminds me of a scaled up 297/230 Morris Long.
View attachment 919307
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They do look of a similar design and, I suppose, a similar era. It seems that this chubby base, very tapered shoulder, and looooong neck was an 1870s - 1880s design that gave way to the long, tapered cartridge of the 32-40 and the various 9.3x57r 9.3x72r 9.3x74r etc. before the adoption of smokeless powder. Then, 130 years or so later, the short, chubby cartridge (albeit minus the neck) seems to have returned with the Short Magnum.

By the way, after pondering on concentricity for a bit, I had to look up a definition to see if it meant what I thought it meant. While it appears that I have a vague grasp of the idea, it seems a concept with "too many notes for the royal ear".:D
 
DocRock said:
By the way, after pondering on concentricity for a bit, I had to look up a definition to see if it meant what I thought it meant. While it appears that I have a vague grasp of the idea, it seems a concept with "too many notes for the royal ear".:D
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Big word for a simple concept: a way to insure the bullet is consistently centered in the chamber from shot-to-shot. One of the approaches Mann and others tried was a cartridge and chamber shaped like a long funnel.

32-40%2BWinchester.jpg

I could be wrong, but I believe this basic idea was also part of the rationale for some of the early shouldered cases with long necks.
 
DocRock said:
So. Mystery ensues. It’s not chambered in anything I can identify. Not 9.3x48R as it’s a bottleneck cartridge. The chamber has no clear step for the case mouth, so a little hard to guess how long it is.The neck is strange - almost a coke bottle shape to it - ideal to seal against blowback. Almost like a Coke bottle. The closest I can get is 9.3x47R. The Germans used a x47 bottleneck cartridge for a bunch of mainly single shot rifles starting in the 1880s. Cartridges of the World doesn't give dimensions. But the shape is right.

Where the effing heck I will find x47R brass is another matter...

View attachment 916751 View attachment 916752 View attachment 916754
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This whole contraption you picked up is just so cool.
 
It will be several weeks before collet dies arrive from LEE, but taking a leaf out of Major Ned Roberts book, I have been trying some loads the old fashioned way. I have a 45 Colt Lee Loader set which works to decap and prime just fine. A drop tube to compress and a dowel tyo seat wads is fine. My first loads with 44 grs 2Ffg were not to my liking. Next batch I am breech seating with a plugged case and two loads: 46.1 grs 1.5 Fg Old Eynsford and 57 grs 2Ffg Old Eynsford with the 250grs slicks from Buffalo Arms paper patched to.373"-.374". Both of these loads slightly compress the BP load under a cardboard punch wad when the bolt is closed. Will try them tomorrow and see how it goes.
 
Well, that was interesting. It's remarkable how much more accurate the breech seated 46.1 grs of 1.5 Fg was than the 57 grs 2Ffg load. The sights are clearly set for 100 meters and this load is only slightly high at 100 yards with a six o'clock hold bottom of the black on a standard 200 yard slow fire target. Put all six of the 1.5 Fg loads into the x ring (x2) and the 10 ring (x4). The 2Ffg load was all high and right with some vertical stringing. The 1.5Fg load gave 1305 Av MV and an SD of 10.3, pretty good, albeit on small sample. Those were all unfired cases as well. Definitely worth refining!
 
Yay for Montana Vintage Arms and the fabulous Cheryl! This woman was very helpful and incredibly patient with me finding a tang sight for the Mauserbuchsen. Ended up with the MVA Combo sight on a Marlin/Ballard base. Hole spacing either side of the action screw. Bolt doesn’t hit staff at full travel and, with the sight folded, bolt can be removed for wiping and cleaning. It is just a little tall but a slightly taller front sight should sort that.

It’s on now with a zip tie. That should be fine. Couldn't be bothered to JB Weld it...

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