PEAX Equipment

7mm-08 vs. 7x57

VAspeedgoat

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I am a reloading novice. I reload for my .270s and my 7mm-08 but don't experiment much and am a novice on cartridge history as well. My question started because of the old 6mm vs .243 debate and has evolved into comparing the old mauser case to the 08 case. My question is which of these two has an advantage over the other if any? It appears the mauser has similar capacities but a longer neck which should mean it would be a reloaders dream right? I know that factory ammo for the mausers have to be at a lower pressure because of older gun designs, but if loaded to similar pressures, is it able to achieve higher velocities? Also, to take advantage of the mausers long neck do you have to rework the action or box because its a little longer shell? Curious what you guys would have to say.
 
They’re ballistic twins. In a modern rifle, you can use 7mm-08 load data as a starting point, and get very similar velocities. The difference is that the 7x57 is a long action, there’s no need to “rework” anything. It is short for the action length so what you can do is throat for longer bullets and take advantage of the case capacity and longer/heavier bullets.
 
They’re ballistic twins. In a modern rifle, you can use 7mm-08 load data as a starting point, and get very similar velocities. The difference is that the 7x57 is a long action, there’s no need to “rework” anything. It is short for the action length so what you can do is throat for longer bullets and take advantage of the case capacity and longer/heavier bullets.

JR got it, but you can put the 57mm case in an intermediate action as well as a long action.
 
What is an "intermediate" action? I thought there was just long and short.

They are less common, but around:

http://www.brownells.com/GunTech/The-Long-and-Short-of-Mauser-Actions/detail.htm?lid=11029

The next size larger is the so-called “intermediate” size action of which there are several examples. The most common of these are the 1893-1895 Spanish Mausers and the 1894-1896 Swedish Mausers. These are the pre-98- style, small ring Mausers that have the long, non-rotating Mauser extractor, familiar ejector box on the left side (rear) of the receiver and the enclosed staggered-round magazine.

They lack the third (safety) locking lug at the rear of the bolt near the bolt handle root and they @#)(# on closing. The bolt shroud at the rear of the bolt does not have the gas deflection flange of the M98 shroud. These actions have an overall length of about 8.5".

Slightly less common intermediate size actions are the 1910, 1924, 1936 Mexican, and the 1924 Yugoslavian. These are also about 8.5" long but have the features of the true 98 pattern action. They @#)(# on opening, have the rear safety lug, and have the 98- style “flanged” shroud on the bolt. The 1910 and 1936 Mexican actions are small ring actions while the 1924 Mexican and Yugoslavian actions are large ring. Parts on all four of these actions are for the most part interchangeable; bolts, bottom metal, firing pins, etc.
 
The 1st rifle I bought with my own paper route money was a 7X57 M93 sporter. My dad thought it was just a pop gun, but put up with my youthful zeal, even to the point of helping me load up some 139gr spire points. He never did really back the idea though, probably thought I'd see the light and get myself a good ol' '06 when I grew up & started thinking straight.

There is no doubt that the surplus small ring Mausers are the fail of the current damand for the 7X57. They just were not made to handle today's pressures. Toss in that the only commercial ammo you could get was usually a 175 roundnose at something like 2500fps (out of a 26" barrel) didn't have the hordes of flocking to the stores demanding boxes & boxes of ammo! The 7mm08 came out early enough that it caught on to over shadow the 7X57 by the time good quality rifles were more available.

The truth is, the 7X57 can handle the heavier weight bullets a bit better than the '08, but not by much. And that's somewhat of a moot point, these days, because bullets quality is light years ahead of what it was just 20 years ago, let alone 40yrs. A good 140, or 150 grain bullet today will absolutely out perform... out penetrate, out mushroom and retain just as much weight , or more, as a 1960-70's 175gr anything. And they are good enough there is really no need to go heavier.

If you really do need more gun than a 7mm08, you need ALOT more gun !!
 
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