Argentine 1909 Mausers

[leecork]

During the last couple of months, I have found and purchased a couple of Argentine 1909 Mausers. One of them is the carbine rifle and the other the longer regular rifle. These are beautiful, all matching rifles in great condition. I am amazed at this old German craftsmanship.

I finally got to shoot them a few days ago. Both of them shot very high, about 1 foot high at 100 yards. While the elevation was way off, the windage was perfect, no problems. I have the rear sights (slide) set as far as possible to the lowest setting.

What gives here ? Is it normal for these rifles to shoot that high. Has anyone else experienced the same problem, and what were you able to do with it ? Thanks for the help.

[dave]

The sights are not set up in yards but rather meters, which is about 39" per meter. The rifle's lowest setting is 300 meters and the short rifle is 200 meters. So yes, at 100 yrds. they will shoot very high! You can install a higher front sight but don't do anything that can not be put back to original. You will ruin any collector value.

[Art]

Americans complain about this problem all of the time. The issue is that the "battle sight" is set so that by holding at about the belt line a hit can be made on a target the size of a man out to the farthest possible range. With the 300 meter setting which is sort of the default position on your rifle that beltline hold should produce a disabling hit on a standing man (between the knees and the head) out to about 400 yards. If you think your Mauser's shoot high just use the battle sight on an M1903 rifle. The battle sight on those rifles is set for a completely unrealistic 547 yards :eek:.

These weapons weren't really set up to "punch paper" but to kill human beings on the battlefield with as few adjustments as possible.

[jon_norstog]

+1, Art.

You can buy taller sights that will fit the front dovetail on your mauser. What I used to do a lot was mount two targets on a frame, one about 8" higher than the other. A 6 O'clock hold on the bottom target would get you in the black on the upper one.

Have fun with those old Mausers. I wish I had kept my '09.

jn

[spanner1751]

Its easy to put a dab of black epoxy on the front sight and file that down to get the right elevation.