Greetings and a question

[6.5x55M03]

Hello M03 fans:

I have an M03 Arabesque (2006) with three barrels in 6.5x55 Swedish and 30-06 and .338 WM with associated bolt heads and magazines.  My favorite by far is the 6.5x55 Swedish which shoots (at least when they made them!) Norma factory loads with 140 gr. Nosler Partitions at 1/4 MOA (I think my math is correct, 1/2" groups @ 200 yards...not lying, I'm far from a great shot, but this was from a lead sled).  I love my Mauser M03.  I'm preparing to take the 30-06 on an Elk and Bear hunt in New Mexico this fall.  I do handload but if anyone has any factory load suggestions for big game in 30-06 I'd love to hear about them.

The purpose of my post is to say hi to everyone and to ask for some suggestions on finding M03 "stuff" (bolt heads, magazines, square mounts, new barrels, etc...).  I only bought a single square mount rail with my original purchase, and it dawned on me (I'm a bit slow) that the purose of this M03 business is to swap out barrels AND scopes easily, and to do that, one needs multiple mounts with scopes for each barrel (I really prefer not having to sight in the same scope for multiple calibers, etc.).  So I bought recently a second square mount with 1" rings (1" Steel Low Rings Mount M03403) from Europtic.com in the US.  I'm looking for another rail (in either 1" or 30mm) and can't seem to find any in the US.  It seems like Mauser has abandoned the US market (not sure about the EU/UK).  Not sure what really happened in the Blazer purchase of Mauser...

Do any of you have any online stores that you know that carries M03 "stuff" and is reputable for international purchases?

Thanks for any input from my M03 friends.

Mark

[Jan]

Hi Mark,

I know only about Optics-trade in Europe.

https://www.optics-trade.eu/en/mounts/shopby/suitable_for_mauser-mauser_m03.html

https://www.optics-trade.eu/en/shipping.html

But shipping outside the Europe is pricy.

If you want try not origin picatinny mount from Denmark http://hgfirearms.dk/shop/mauser-picatinny-rail-128c1.html it costs 1/3 of mauser price, but I don't know shipping cost to US. I have bought one some weeks ago, here are some pics:

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mauser-m03-blog-discussion-forum/XPSn5AdqAS8/V7SKKJiVEgAJ

Hope it helps,

Jan

[cole]

Hi Mark,

I hear you about feeling abandoned by Mauser here in the States. I imported my M03 Africa 416RM when I returned back to the States after 15 years of military service overseas. I find that is very hard to get anything here for it. Specifically, I was looking for an Africa 300wm barrel so I could actually use it on something on this continent. But, alas, Mauser has stopped making that barrel. :-( This means I might be able to help you. I'm about to move back to the UK and am not going to export the Mauser. It's just to dang hard and expensive. I am planning on selling the M03 in the very near term. 

I have two scopes for it. One is a Ziess Conquest 3-9x40 on low rings. The other is an Aimpoint Hunter 34L on a Picatinny rail. When I sell the gun I am only going to include one of them. If you are interested in either scope, let me know. I would much prefer to see it go to a good home. I'm in Texas, btw. 

Kind regards,

Cole

[Rick - Mauser M03 Blog author]

Hi Mark. What a great post you've added here. Thank you. :-)

When I was buying my M03 system I formed the same view as you; having a scope for each barrel would work well and make life easy. The scope can also be tailored to the optimal use for the barrel. However, sometimes I do use one scope with two barrels and adjust the scope with each changeover; i.e. when I swap my 6.5 x 55 and 243 Win barrels and use a Kahles 624i with both.

Jan has included a link to the third-party rail mount he's using. Looks good.

Here are a couple of 30-06 loads I'm getting good accuracy with through my M03 barrel.

- 180gn Nosler Ballistic Tip with 56.5gn of ADI 2209 (or use IMR 4350). RWS primer. It's a kind of punchy load, so work up to it. Seated close to the lands - only 20thou clearance. Here's a link showing test shots. 

30-06 M03 barrel with 180gn Nosler Ballistic Tips

- 180gn Remington Core Lokt with 55gn of ADI 2209. RWS primer.

ADI 2209 is very versatile and temperature stable powder made in Australia. It's closely equivalent to IMR 4350. Here's a link to a page listing 'equivalents' to ADI powders. Quite handy!

ADI powder equivalents

Regards, Rick.