Two Great Hunting Rifles

We live in an era where technology rules. If you do not believe that, witness that you are reading this on a computer screen and not in a magazine. Yes, words about classic things should be on slick paper with pretty photos, but times have changed. Or have they?

Hunting rifles have certainly come a long way. We have stainless steel, even titanium, barrels and actions. Of course no hunting rifle is complete without a synthetic stock, muzzle brake, a very large telescope, and an ultra super-magnum cartridge. These things are necessary to have an accurate rifle, with extra power that will allow you to take a buck or a bull. Or are they?

Over the last few months, I have had the privilege to hold and shoot two hunting rifles that we could call, by today’s standards, zero technology. They are only two of many similar rifles that I have fired and even hunted with, but they seem to demonstrate the theme I am about to thrust upon you as well as any I know. Both rifles have surpassed the century mark and could be called “antiques.” They both come from Europe and both have their roots in the genius of Ferdinand von Mannlicher. They are pure sporting/hunting rifles based on turnbolt actions with a military heritage. One is from England, the other from Germany. And of course we know that these are quaint old things, even curiosities, but ones that can no longer hope to be effective, let alone “competitive” with our technologically-advanced rifles. Or can they?

The first would be recognized by most collectors as a “sporterized” 1888 “Mauser.” While this is close, the rifle is really not a Mauser at all. It is an 1888 Mannlicher 7.9mm Infanterie-Gewehr 88 (Infantry Rifle model 88). Notwithstanding some patent infringements I will not bore you with, this was one of the first smokeless powder military rifles, chambered for the familiar 8mm “Mauser” cartridge. Its ammunition is very similar to what you can buy today in red or green boxes. We can bring all of this to something many of you will recognize when I say that an Austrian by the name of Otto Schoenauer was one of the leaders in the refinement of the original rifle design. Steyr was the original patent holder, so we have Steyr-Mannlicher-Schoenauer, the makers of some of the most elegant and in-demand sporting rifles ever created. But those are very modern by the standards of this tale.

This first rifle is based on the 88 action and no maker’s name visible, but with German proof marks and a tiny “Herm.Weihrauch” beneath the forend. To call it a sporterized military rifle would be incorrect; instead, it is a pure sporting rifle, using the 88 Mannlicher action. The chamber is for 8x57mm. It is an archetypical Continental hunting rifle—slender, light (7 pounds) and elegant. The wood stock is plain straight grained walnut that has no fat on it at all. The forend wood is perhaps less than half the size we would find on a modern Remington or Winchester. It has a 23 1/3-inch barrel that transitions from octagon to round and has a full length rib. The triggers are classic Continental double-set; pulling the back trigger “sets” the front for a pull less than a pound. The barrel has a sight that is adjustable for elevation and a second folding leaf for 200 meters, with a simple bead front sight. There is a folding peep sight behind the action and it wears a scope in detachable mounts. The scope is an original Walter Gerard (one of the earlier scope sights), with adjustment for elevation but not windage. The reticle is a post with a pointed top and a single cross wire. In the grand tradition of Continental gunmakers, the scope and mounts were fitted by hand, filed and zeroed at the time the rifle was made. (Hold that thought for a moment, because it becomes important later.) The scope has an elevation wheel, marked for 100, 200 and 300 meters. Back then they turned the wheel to zero the scope at the desired range, or more likely to suit the shot they were taking at the moment.

This rifle, like a majority of German arms that survived the destruction at the end of World War II, probably came to America in a GI’s footlocker or duffle bag, for most of the arms that were surrendered were driven on by tanks or otherwise destroyed. Now we fast forward to 2008 when the rifle came into my possession. It was greasy and dirty, untouched and unmolested, probably not fired since the war. There was a crack in the wood pistol grip and a splinter of wood missing from the forend. After some gentle cleaning and degreasing, the original color case hardening and engraving on the receiver reappeared. The wood was repaired with a special marine epoxy, after which all of its many parts were reassembled. The bore was clean and lightly oiled with the old German formula Ballistol. The moment of truth had arrived.

I loaded some ammunition with a proven recipe, using 195 grain Hornady bullets and took the first shot, with the iron sights, from a sitting-hunting position at 100 yards. The bullet smacked the target dead center, just touching the top of the bead. Two more rounds made the group 1 ½ inches. I clipped on the scope and fired the fourth shot, which landed an inch above the iron sight group and then put one more in the middle with the aperture tang sight. Later, I tried the scope’s settings at 200 and 300 yards and every shot would have hit a milk jug.

At first you shrug and say, “Well, yes, but you did not shoot any half-inch groups.” Yes, but after a century, with a slender WOOD stock and a rust-blued steel barrel, after traveling halfway around the world and having been completely disassembled and reassembled and fired over a lightly oiled bore, IT PUT ITS FIRST SHOT DEAD CENTER!!! And then it hit the same place with its scope and its aperture sight. Every round out to 300 yards would have hit a deer in the vitals—all with sights and scopes that were zeroed before most of us were born. This is a hunting rifle, one that is the product of skill, not technology!

Our second rifle is by pure coincidence based on the second of the “modern” Steyr actions, the 1892. These, like the earlier ’88, use a clip to hold five cartridges in the magazine. They are handy in a lot of ways, not the least of which is that the touch of a button ejects the loaded clip out of the top of the action. This system allows the rifle to be easily loaded and unloaded and offers an almost instant change of ammunition. The change from soft point to solid bullets could be done silently and in seconds.

The 1892 was also originally a military rifle, this time for Rumania/Dutch/Portuguese forces and chambered for the 6.5x53mm rimmed cartridge. This one was barreled and finished by the English gunmaking firm of William Evans and is chambered for one of the first .375 caliber smokeless cartridges, the .375x2 1/2” flanged nitro. This one used 40 grains of smokeless cordite and 270 grain bullets, driving the jacketed solids or soft points at just under 2,000 fps.

The Evans .375 has quite a lot in common with the German 8mm. The stock is nice walnut and can be described as absolutely minimal. It has a slender pistol grip and an almost invisible forend, no cheek piece, and a steel butt plate. Our .375 has a 26-inch barrel and is now up to a whopping 8 pounds. The sights on this one are fun. The front is a small bead, but it has a big folding night sight, that when flipped up offers a 3/16-inch white aiming point for shooting in very low light, perhaps at tigers. The rear sights are for 100, 200 and 300 yards and all fold flush with the barrel, so you can use the original Lyman aperture sight that is on the cocking piece. Yes, our American “peep” sights were often fitted to British rifles. The shooting of this one was not quite as perfect as the 8mm. After its century of life the first two shots were fully two inches left at 100 yards and an inch apart. Yes, its point of impact had shifted two minutes over its long, hard-working life, and the cure—tapping the back sight over a little—took less time than a scope adjustment. From the look of this rifle I am sure it spent much time in Africa or India. And while the world’s great modern un-authority on rifles and hunting would call it anemic, I would relish a cape buffalo or anything else behind its sights!

In the end I am not suggesting you rush out and try to buy an ancient rifle. Instead, these are classic examples that illustrate what you do not need to have a great hunting rifle. Or said another way, should you desire a pretty wood stock and a slender blue barrel, perhaps even worse a set of iron sights, you are not going to be unarmed. In fact, you are not even handicapped; you might even be ahead of the camo-plastic and stainless crowd. You certainly will deserve extra style-points and perhaps appreciate the buck even more. Yes, rifles and hunting are about passion and fun, not necessarily about technological advancement.

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