Mauser Guys
Received a beautiful Cogswell & Harrison .242 Express Mauser in yesterday. The rifle has some history and I'm told went to Africa at least once in the 1930's. The problem is the bolt is missing and no one has a clue what happened to it. I have a German commercial Mauser here chambered for .300 Savage (marked .300 US). I tried the bolt and it slid right into the English rifle and everything worked great. QUESTION: How hard would it be to fit another bolt? I don't have the diminutions of the cartridge yet but I can get that. This is a very high quality rifle in great condition so it would be worth getting it running again. Anybody have any experience with the .224 Express??
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I'd like to be willing to give you $50.00 for it.
Out of the goodness of my heart.
Because I feel bad for you.
Oh,...........................................and is it a .224 Express, or a .242 Express? I know you are "Old," but geez. :?0 -
Ricci, That vintage, it's Probably a 242 Manton, aka 242 Rimless Nitro Express. Jeeze, I don't even know where to start.
Cartridge: has a .465 rim diameter, 98 Mauser bolt face is most common cut for the 8x57 at .473, not a huge obstacle. Then the bolt has to be head spaced, "BIG IF" you could find headspace gauges for a 100yr old cartridge, that was a rare chambering by itself. If it doesn't headspace, a smith will have to set the barrel back, that means removing and machining, and is going to change the barrel inlet in the stock, most likely leaving a gap where the barrel tapers from the chamber.
Say all that works out, there's still an ammo problem. There "might be" brass you could form from something else. Say you did, now you have to find bullets in .250-.253 diameter. You would probably have to swage .257 bullets down, there's no other cartridge I'm aware of that uses that bore size.
Best bet, and the most economical in the short and long run, is get another bolt, and have it re-barreled.
Should have posted this over on the ATE forum, nononsense does this kind of work, and could probably better advise you.
Post some pics!0 -
Wow!! That?s a lot of info. Thank you so much!!, 0 -
It's too bad about the oddball rim and bullet diameters, because just looking at pictures of the round makes me believe that it would do very well with modern powders and bullets. 0 -
35 Whelen wrote:It's too bad about the oddball rim and bullet diameters, because just looking at pictures of the round makes me believe that it would do very well with modern powders and bullets.
No offense! IMHO, you would be just reinventing the wheel. But the time you got through screwing with it. All you would have, would be a clone of the .243 Winchester.
I been down this road, to many times over the years. I have never been able to get my money, out of the orphan guns. That I was able to fix and make ammo for. This 242, is just a exstream example. If it would have just been brass and bullets, it might be feasible. But not having a bolt, would be a deal killer.0
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