It’s at the far end of the spectrum where the old Mauser becomes something completely different, and the ’08 can’t follow. Experts once called the 7 x 57 a ballistician’s delight. When you take a long, heavy, round-nose soft point and send it out at modest velocity—say, 2,600 fps or thereabouts—some strange things happen. The creaky old .318 Westley Richards is a good example. In all the ways that count, it’s the equivalent of the most widely lauded cartridge on earth, the .30/06, yet it’s dead as mutton today. How can that be? It’s that long, heavy bullet and mild velocity. Faster must be better, especially to gun reviewers splitting hairs or manufacturers selling new cartridges. Who wants a slower round?
Well, we do. At least 90 percent of game is taken under 300 yards, a surprising amount at 100. Within those ranges, the Mauser cartridge has accuracy and trajectory comparable to modern hunting rounds, whose zippy velocity (and the blast and recoil that go with it) really becomes an advantage only outside normal hunting range.
At average hunting ranges, the special ballistics of that long projectile come into play, turning it into something most people have never seen, don’t understand, and refuse to accept. Were it not for Bell and his sub-caliber bullets whining off into the mopanes after exiting an elephant’s skull, that secret might have been lost forever.
But there are more factors at play than just the shape of the projectile. There’s spin—not the kind that sells magnums, but twist. Many commercial rounds today have a barrel twist of 1 in 10 inches or more, but many 57s have a twist of 1 in 8 inches, some even less. “Mechanical cruelty,” Colonel Whelen called it. Do the math. One and a half turns to the foot at 2,600 fps. That’s a theoretical 3,900 revolutions per second. Putting aside the fine detail, it’s safe to say that long slug is spinning hell-for-leather when it leaves the muzzle. At modest velocity, and with this kind of ferocious rotation, projectiles don’t need to be high tech. They just work.
There has never been a more successful recipe for penetration than a very long round-nose projectile, launched at medium velocity, with a high rate of twist. And penetration is exactly what Bell was after. So was Hemingway, who wrote so confidently about the “far shoulder” theory. In fact, a whole generation of African hunters argued—are still arguing—that complete penetration of vital organs and bone, along with a splashy exit wound, makes the difference between success and failure, or in some pursuits, life and death.
Ask Jim Corbett, a 7 x 57 fan, who used one in 1926 to take down the famous man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag. Ask the handful of Boer commandos whose 7 x 57s gave the British Empire so much grief with withering long-range fire. Ask Jack O’Connor, who shot the 7 x 57 a lot. Ask the Scandinavians, who’ve been happily tipping over moose with the 7 x 57 for a century, using their excellent ammunition. The heavy soft points may not offer modern dazzle, but they offer penetration in spades, along with a low report and recoil so negligible, Queen Elizabeth owns one. Shot it on safari, too, and at last report had no plans to give it up. Then there are the professionals of the modern era: Mike Rowbotham, Peter Johnstone, Finn Aagaard, Jim Carmichael. In more recent times, Craig Boddington has declared openly that he wouldn’t hesitate to tackle an undisturbed Cape buffalo with a 7 x 57. It would be a brave man to suggest these people don’t know what they’re talking about.
There is a point that must be made with these two Mausers: They aren’t restorations, nor are they an attempt to re-create the Bell rifle. It’s still around, by the way. It was bought by Bob Ruark, who gifted it to Harry Selby’s son Mark, who took it to Botswana in fairly recent years.
No, a strict museum-style re-creation would be a little lame, but a project in the spirit of the thing is another proposition altogether. Keep the action, keep the enigmatic old caliber, keep the simplicity. Above all, keep the charisma. As any gal will tell you, charisma counts.
Why bother? Because these pieces are a tribute to the best and most enduring love affair in the rifle world. Because they honor the great hunters of the past. Because they work, and work on a level most people can’t even comprehend. Because one of these rifles has already been to Africa, and the other has just come back.
That’s why.