WehrmannsGewehr 
8,15x46R mm
A pre-WWII Mauser Target Rifle restoration project.

The Rifle:

Germany was strictly limited in the military arms they could have by the treaty of versailles. The Wehrmannsgewehr or "service man's rifle" in 8.15x46R mm caliber was classified as a target rifle and exempt.

The Caliber:

8.15x46Rmm is about 8mm, .318" bore, 46 mm long Rimmed case.

It was very common in german target rifles since the Schutzen days at the turn of the century.

Its very weak, mostly for target shooting. On par with a .32-40 winchester.
 

My Rifle:

My WehrmannsGewehr has a Mauser Banner, and was made by the Mauser Werke. Most likely it was a WWI military rifle and after the "war to end all wars" it was rebuilt into a target rifle.

It found its way to the US many years ago, most likely in a soldier's dufflebag at the end of WWII.

Some evil minded but perhaps good intentioned, butcher committed an unforgivable act of vandolism and violence against this rifle. He removed the barrelled action from the stock and threw all the proper stock and metal pieces away. He then tried to remove the barrel (which admittadly is in a weird caliber) from the pristine and desirable Mauser Banner action. He was not successful, but his vice left a permanent record of its visit on the metal of the sight base/barrel shroud.

At some point long ago, my friend Dave H. came upon it. I will have to ask for a re-telling of that story. He had installed the barrelled action in a scrap k98 stock and shot it a little. He told me he also found RCBS dies for it in a gunshop in Pennsylvania in the '60's. He had used .323" jacketed bullets and 30 gr. of 4895.

At one of our weekly matches, Dave commented that he owned this thing and I expressed an interest.  He brought it to the next week's match and I bought it on sight. I then scrambled around to find a stock (not a real wehrmannsgewehr stock, but a close-enuf argentine mauser stock) and metal parts to restore it. Ciro DeGennaro, a mauser collector/dealer in NY was able to provide me with all I needed. This was in '95 or '97 or so.

After an initial burst of interest, it would be years before I got around to working on it and finishing it.
 

My project:

I sanded and soaked and steamed the stock and cut it to fit the slightly different shape of this rifle and the handguard had to be sawn in half to fit in front of the sight instead of over it.

I will finish the stock in linseed and reassemble it.

As I add to this write up, I have put 8 or 10 coats of 50-50 Boiled Linseed Oil & Turpentine on the stock. I warmed the mixture over water and applied it by finger. It only takes a tiny bit, maybe less than a teaspoon per application. Then I let it dry, at first, overnight was enough, now, it takes several days. I sand down the outer layer, wipe with turpentine and start over. I think the layer curing today (20-Oct) will be the last layer.

My ammo:

I start .30-30 brass. I need to trim its length from 51mm down to 46mm. This I can do by cutting about 4mm off then finishing it in an RCBS trimmer.

I need to trim the Rim Diameter from 0.502" to 0.484". This takes a lathe, my friend John C. has a nice little hobbyist lathe. We chucked the sizing dies without expander ball in the lathe and jam the sized (but not necessarily trimmed) case into it and and run the free spinning pilot thing on the head stock into the primer pocket and trim the rim as needed.

On some cases, I also need to thin the rim, ideally this would be done on the same lathe by cutting metal away from the front of the rim. The few that I had that needed it, I did not have the lathe handy so I just sanded the case head.

I get a measurement of .318" on the bore with my calipers. I was not able to slug the bore or do a chamber cast.

Dave left me with a few empty and a few loaded rounds he had made. While he had used .323" jacketed with no ill effects, I'd rather not. I experimented with some ~170gr, .321" lead .32-40 cowboy bullets. They prefer to go MUCH slower than the 30 gr. of 4895 powder the books say works. I found 20 to 22 gr. works good and anything more than that the accuracy degrades considerably as the lead bullet is probably stripping the rifling.

So, that is my current plan. I'll report more as I learn it.

More pictures:

1st Rifle:
Parts, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

2nd Rifle:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

My second Wehrmannsgewehr:

I obtained another Wehrmannsgewehr. It needs to have the wood refinished too, and it has a lousy trigger, I think the striker was incorrectly replaced. It is slightly different than the first, straight bolt, but much more intricate sights. Pics to come: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Also, it has lousy short headspace. It will not chamber my brass for the first rifle, I think I need to thin the rims.
 

Reference:

This rifle is written up extensively in Ludwig Olsen's Book Mauser Bolt Rifles. (Brownells)

The ammo is described in Barnes' Cartridges of the World (DBI) and Donnelly's  The Handloaders Manual of Cartridge Conversions. (Stoeger)