Brass breaking on ammo

[Free Trapper]

Two possibilities:

1: (highly likely) He was shooting the wrong ammo in an 8mm Mauser.

2: (also possible) It was re-barreled in 30-06 when they cut the stock up.

Looks like an 'ol large ring 98, perhaps.

My money is on # 2. That was a pretty common occurance during the sporterixing craze. Wish they hadn't of done that! Lots of good Springfields,Krags,Mausers,etc. around like that, but sure hurts the collector and historic value, although they are perfectly useable guns.

 

[aeropb]

shoot it

 

[joshua74133]

sorry it does say 30-06 and it also says Mod. 98... there is also a number on it 7943, I'm not shooting this gun until i get everything checked out my dad said my uncle Tom did bring this back from the war.

 

[flatwins]

Ah, man... joshua you have yourself a sporterized Mauser. Thousands like this were done in the 50s\60s when no one knew better. Plenty of American rifles were modified as well and they make fine hunting rifles though their historical collector value takes a real beating. My dad did the same thing to a US 1917 Enfield and kicks himself often.

On the brass splitting -as others have said- it could just be metal fatigue from reloading but it's worth having the headspace checked on the rifle. 30-06 is common so most gunsmiths will already have the gauges to check it. That way you will truly know the condition of the bolt face\chamber. After that run some factory ammo though it to see how it does. I'd probably pull a lot of the bullets from your old reloads and try them in new brass.

 

[joshua74133]

Thanks guys, there were a bunch of guns... my late uncles my uncles daughter and her boy friend (cop from Cali) stole (for sure) 5 guns all were pistols from the 1800s... just found out they were my great great grandpas.
these 2 just left for Cali knowing these guns were mine. freaking ticked and i think my hands are tied

 

[Model 70]

As others have already stated, M98 sporterized. When my dad was smithing back in the 70's he did lots of them. Turned down bolt, re-chamber and re-barrel, then the stock would be either replaced or have a roll over cheek grafted on and the Monte Carlo cut in. Let's also not forget the ever popular glass bedding. I wonder if you pulled the stock off if you would find that it was glassed back in the day. There were lots of (thousands and thousands) of actions imported strictly for this purpose too.