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Welcome to Nitro Express

Great way to start here - and a really cool classic hunting rifle in a great caliber.

How does it shoot?

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Thank you!

She shoots very well, just a little bit high - I'm still waiting for a taller front sight -
Best thing is with the front and rear sight perfectly in the middle she shoots bullseye - and that with this huge sight radius! So no ugly adjusting ''till the sights fall of the base''. (Been there, done that, not fun)

Only downside is she does not feed blunt round nose softpoints very well, the first round of a full magazine tends to hit the sharp edge of the chamber on the left side. She feeds incredibly smoothly and totally reliably with pointy softpoints and FMJs though, so no big deal.

Edited by Woldan (23/03/20 01:07 PM)

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Welcome to the Forum, Woldan, and congratulations on your classic rifle/ammo combination.
Which game do you / will you hunt in Austria?
Louis

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Thanks! Maaaaaybe, red stag or boar, one day. Caliber should work nicely I think and shots around here in this heavily forested mountainous area are all within 50-120 meters so open sights would be absolutely ok, especially a good peep.

Sadly hunting is very costly around here, and I'm so poor I have to build my own rifles from kits!
Someday in the future.-

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Good looking blue-nose rounds.
Loading four in the mag and one in the chamber should give 4 rounds more than necessary.

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I like the way you think! Since it has a hinged floorplate I could load one in the mag, chamber the round and then dump 4 through the bottom into the magazine.

Edited by Woldan (24/03/20 08:24 AM)

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Hope you don't mind me asking the price of the kit. I've never seen a "Kit" such as this before. I did not know they were even a "thing". Looks like a model 96 action by the length of the firing pin housing and pin protrusion.

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Not at all - I bought it for 390 Euros. (Euros and Dollars are pretty much the same as far as I know). The company that sold them closed a gunsmith's shop and they found a couple of those kits in some dusty corner, made by Santa Barbara in the 70's in various calibers. Mine was the last they sold, and I immediately jumped on it despite having never done much work on a gun.
As a huge Mauser fan I just had to have it!

Its a true large ring Mauser 98 action, it is identical with the commercial FN Mauser 98 action.

Good thing they sold them all but mine, I would have bought them all!

The barreled action:



It also came with a certificate from the factory, it was inside the box. Date 1975!
With it came a manual in English that described the steps to finish the kit.

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There’s got to be a formula that explains the visual quality of a bullet to case length ratio.
These are dimensionally similar to my 220gr 30’06 loads or 160gr. 6.5 Dutch loadings.
They just look right!

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Yeah I agree, the 175 in the 7x57 are just about right! Can't explain it either, but long bullets are awesome!

Once I had a .300 Winchester Magnum that really liked 240 grain SMK's, it would shoot them into groups not bigger than the nail of my thumb but with a velocity of 2650fps. Crazy rifle, with those long bullets it was a spear thrower! Loved loading those on my press.

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Not at all - I bought it for 390 Euros. (Euros and Dollars are pretty much the same as far as I know).

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Congratulations Woldan on making a fine rifle from a kit. I have never seen a kit for a centerfire rifle before but, I would have grabbed it just as you did.

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if I had lived back then I would have built me a Mauser rifle every three months in every caliber possible.

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If you could set the 'way back machine' to 1939... :

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Citizen of the Cherokee Nation

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I'd like a couple of the No.8 actions, 'cause they should be Kurz, and a couple of the No.20 of course, 'cause they should be double square-bridge.

Damn! Now where did I put my keys to the time machine...?

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Don't forget to pack along some pre - 1940 U.S. currency :



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Citizen of the Cherokee Nation

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If you could set the 'way back machine' to 1939...

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Yeah, that time, I'm not sure if I wanted to do that if it was possible, especially around here. I really love Mausers and all and I like the idea of being issued a brand new all numbers matching K98k, but to be honest I don't like em enough to freeze to death in some eastern country with it.

But if any of you want to go back I'd really appreciate it if you would send me a couple .416 Rigby 98's my way.

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If you could set the 'way back machine' to 1939...

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Yeah, that time, I'm not sure if I wanted to do that if it was possible, especially around here. I really love Mausers and all and I like the idea of being issued a brand new all numbers matching K98k, but to be honest I don't like em enough to freeze to death in some eastern country with it.

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Many in the United States of 1939 were blissfully unaware of such things:



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Citizen of the Cherokee Nation

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".39-96,"

Do you mean .30-06 ?

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No, a new cartridge I have created, case almost four (4) inches long ie 96 mm, and unique .39 calibre. Called the .39x96 Nitro Express. I know a confusion of terms of imperial and metric systems. Or the .39 Creedmoor. But even though a Creedmoor, for the first time, not duplicating or copying a better cartridge existing already for a hundred years.



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John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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