"Ask the Rabbi" by R. Mermelstein
QUESTION: Dear Rabbi
Mermelstein:
I have one 1895 model 7mm Mauser Rifle and one carbine. What do you
think about these rifles, are they worth fixing up, or should I just
hang them on a wall with their bayonets mounted as historical relics?
Their actions are really smooth, they are still in their original
stocks and they're fun to shoot, but the carbine's sights seem to be
off center. Also, when my son was shooting the rifle very rapidly for
about 100 rounds, the barrel really got hot and the oil started coming
out of the old wooden stock. I have never fired that many rounds out of
a rifle in a short time before, except my heavy barreled AR-15, and the
AR-15 didn't heat up like that. Is it normal for an old rifle like the
Mauser to get really hot like that, to the point that you can't touch
it?
Regards,
Peter Yore
9 Oct 1999
ANSWER: Dear Peter,
First things first. Have a
competent gunsmith check the headspace of your Mauser. There's no
reason to relegate it to wall hanging status if all checks out
perfectly. Due to the porosity of wood stocks and any attendant
humidity, a hot barrel will cause it to slightly warp. Especially so if
a wood stock cannot be relieved and free floated to allow the insertion
of a dollar bill all along the barrel channel. Brownells at http://www.brownells.com/
sells chemicals to remove excess oil from wood stocks. Rapid fire, for
a duration of 100 rounds, will heat up any barrel. As is well known, it
is not bullet friction that causes barrel heating. Rather, it is the
gases generated by the burning propellant as it progressively consumes
itself while forcing the bullet through the bore. The thinner the
barrel, the less surface area to radiate the heat.
Many tricks have been used to allow barrels to shoot cooler for longer
periods. Milling flutes around the circumference of the entire barrel
is one of them. There's no reason to spoil the traditional look of your
Mauser rifle with such bells and whistles. My routine is to fire no
more than 15 rounds through any rifle without cleaning. This "down
time", combined with the cooling action of solvent soaked patches,
keeps my rifles shooting to the same point of impact. Many DCM matches
don't allow for any cleaning. DCM competitors regularly fire up to 70
or 80 rounds between cleanings. Such rifles, though, generally sport
barrels of larger diameter allowing for better heat dissipation.
Fired rapidly enough, any centerfire rifle barrel will become hot to
the touch. Heat is generated in direct proportion to the quantity of
propellant burned. Many cartridges that are considered to have
"overbore" capacity cases, or contain more propellant than can be (or
thought to be capable of being) efficiently consumed inside the bore,
will show a tendency to heat up a barrel with fewer rounds than a
non-magnum cartridge. Smaller diameter bores, even magnum .30 caliber
chamberings, will become hot to the touch from a string of rapidly
fired rounds as few as a magazine full. Here, I refer to sporter
hunting rifles holding no more than five rounds. It's quite normal.
If the original sights cannot be adjusted to allow the rifle to shoot
to the point of aim, consider the installation of a receiver sight from
Williams or Lyman. A gunsmith will need to drill and tap the receiver
for such a sight, for a nominal charge. Different diameter apertures
readily screw into these receiver sights, making for a very versatile
arrangement. They are available from Midway (800-243-3220). See their
web site at http://www.midwayusa.com/, or call them for a free catalog.
Sincerely,
R. Mermelstein
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