9.5x57 Mannlicher Schonauer

Anybody reload for one of these? Its a Mannlicher model 1910 take down in 9.5x57 Mannlicher Schonauer, or in English, a .375 Nitro Express.

To me the 9.5x57 looks like an 8mm Mauser case blown out to seat a .375 bullet, with only a little shoulder.

Can't find any actual reloading data anywhere, but building on what the previous owner had done I have fired and chronographed the following loads:

235 grain Speer with 42 grains 2207 = 1996 fps (looking for 2300 - 2400 fps)
235 Grain Speer with 52 grains 2208 = 2000 fps ( "" )
270 Hornady SP with 50 grains 2208 = 1965 fps (looking for 2150 fps)


All very mild, rounded primers, backed out a bit. Very low pressure looking. Mild recoil.

Anyone use any other powders/ bullets? So far the Speer 235 grains feed perfectly in the spool magazine, but the Hornady spitzerswill jam it up.

I was just going to keep putting powder in until I get the velocity I want or it looks like I am getting some real pressure signs. Any thoughts?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

Anybody reload for one of these? Its a Mannlicher model 1910 take down in 9.5x57 Mannlicher Schonauer, or in English, a .375 Nitro Express.

To me the 9.5x57 looks like an 8mm Mauser case blown out to seat a .375 bullet, with only a little shoulder.

Can't find any actual reloading data anywhere, but building on what the previous owner had done I have fired and chronographed the following loads:

235 grain Speer with 42 grains 2207 = 1996 fps (looking for 2300 - 2400 fps)
235 Grain Speer with 52 grains 2208 = 2000 fps ( "" )
270 Hornady SP with 50 grains 2208 = 1965 fps (looking for 2150 fps)


All very mild, rounded primers, backed out a bit. Very low pressure looking. Mild recoil.

Anyone use any other powders/ bullets? So far the Speer 235 grains feed perfectly in the spool magazine, but the Hornady spitzerswill jam it up.

I was just going to keep putting powder in until I get the velocity I want or it looks like I am getting some real pressure signs. Any thoughts?

---

Greetings @JohnDuxbury,
You lucky devil. The 9.5x57 has fascinated me for ages but I have never even seen one. Frank Barnes listed 44 grains of IMR3031 for 2,150 fps in an old COTW. He also listed 47 grains of the same powder for 2,330 fps with the 235 grain and 43 grains for 2,070 fps with the the 270 grain in the very similar 9.3x57 Mauser. I will see what else I can find and post later.
Regards Grandpamac.

All I can help with, im afraid.

Greetings,
I have news. I have turned up some data on the 375 Express on Load data dot com. This is based in the 444 Marlin case which is basically a straight sided 8x57 case with a rim. The data largely supports the Barnes Data for the 9.5 and 9.3x57 rounds with 47 grains of IMR3031 producing2,300 fps with the 235 grain Speer and 43 grains of the same powder producing 2,087 fps with the 270 grain Hornady RN. Looks like IMR3031 is in the Goldilocks zone for the cartridge. The nearest powders from ADI are likely BM2 and BM8208.
GPM.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...cher-load-data

Forums.NitroExpress.com

Thanks guys, I am trying to source some IMR3031 down here...

I would use the same data as for 9.3X57 ,looks like the case capacity is about the same.

748 looks close to N-203B so that might be a good place to start.I used to use 203B in my 9.3×53 which has the same case capacity at 9.3X57.

Win 748 I can get.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

Win 748 I can get.

---

Here is the section of the burn rate chart that is relevant.

Thanks. I picked up some Benchmark:

I shot some loads in the 9.5 this morning:
I tested the chrony with some .22 match ammo which is very reliable velocity wise, and was within a handful of feet of stated velocity.

With Speer 235 grain bullets and 47 grains of BM2 I got 2056fps
49 grains for 2177fps
52 grains for 2304 fps

The rifle has a long throat, and as I have experienced with many 7x57’s with long throats it takes more powder to get higher pressure, from 3 – 4 grains more powder to get the same velocity as others.

Accuracy looks good, have to register a new rear sight to get the POI where I want it though, and do the checkering job.

We’d love to see pictures of the beast

OK - 9.5x57 Mannlicher Schoenauer model 1910 take-down rifle, in a custom stock. (Known in the UK as the .375 Rimless Nitro Express.)

Essentially this is an 8x57 case blown out to hold a .375 bullet of 270 grains at around 2200 fps. It recoils about like a .30/06 with 180 grain bullets.
The cartridge is sort of known as an ""African cartridge" but it's not really: it is a version of the earlier .375 flanged Nitro express 2.5 inch, which was a straight wall cartridge with the same ballistics chambered in double rifles and was a favourite for hunting red stags and boar in the UK and Europe at the turn of the 19th century. The 9.5x57 MS was an attempt to adopt the same cartridge performance into a repeating magazine rifle: the Mannlicher and the Mauser which were the new darlings of the sporting world. (The 9.3x62 was born the same way - an update of the older 9.3x74 to fit into a Mauser action.)
Of course English and German people took it to the colonies and shot African lions and things and to India to shoot sambar and tigers, as one does, but the Austrians intended it for shooting red stags in the Austro-Hungarian empire.
So that is what it is again, I will use it for stags in the roar.

The stock is custom, and all credit to Nakihunter who is a member on here and the figure in the walnut looks better in real life than in these photos. The rifle retailed from CB Vaughan in London and has the 100 year old case. It seems that it spent it's life in Ceylon on a tea plantation before coming to NZ.

I have now fitted a replacement rear sight and the stock is ready to be checkered once I source some more tools, which are hard to get nowadays. The pattern will be a standard Mannlicher Schoenauer pattern from the period, and done in flat top checkering, because it seems right and because that's how I roll.


https://i.ibb.co/MRDq87D/20240604-160748.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/g3Qp8ZK/20240604-160908.jpg

Beautiful... absolutely beautiful. Much better for you than dirty wee twoforfree. I'm still in shock over that one lol.

Makes the current plastic rifles look quite plain doesn't it.
Grandpamac.

Good to see you are enjoying the rifle.

How is the rear sight fitting your cheek position and sight picture?

I couldn't go lower and was planning to solder a piece of brass on the foresight to lower the impact point. For me it used to shoot very high.

I have plenty of checkering tools but never learned to checker! :P

I'll email you photos.

BTW - seeing your photos just pulled on my heart strings. I spent several hundred hours over 7 years to do that stock.

Ashok you created a beautiful stock!

As for the sights, I speculate that when you shot the rifle you may have been holding the front sight bead level with the tops of the V rear sight? With open sights with a bead, I shoot with the bead held deep into the bottom of the V, so that you can only see the round ball of the bead in the bottom of the notch. This would account for it shooting high for you.

For me shooting it with bead low in the V, the rifle was shooting 12 inches low at 100m. So I replaced the rear sight and then shot it in, "regulating" the new sight with a file until I had the POI where I wanted, which is an inch high at 50m and bang on at 100 metres.



(Change of user name because I just got a new computer and I have no idea what my old passward is or what email I was using for it.)

I actually had the bead at the bottom of the V and struggled to get my eye line low. I have a long neck and the stock is a bit too straight, though it helps tame the recoil.

I am really glad you are enjoying it and making improvements and will hunt with it. I took it goat shooting and fired twenty or so shots but never hit anything! LOL!

For those interested in the oil finish on the stock, below is what I did.

* Sanded stock down to 400 grit.
* Used boiled Linseed oil mixed with Danish oil as Danish oil has the drying agent as well as some Carbauna wax for making it waterproof. Linseed oil is not waterproof.
* I got some Alkanet root for the red colour of the classic old English stock finish (available on Trademe for $12 at that time and used for colouring craft soaps, candles etc.)
* Just infused the oil with the Alkanet root chunks - 1 tablespoon for 100 ml is way more than needed. Internet research will give different methods including grinding the root to very fine powder
* I also tried infusion of the Alkanet root in Mineral spirits and IPA.
* All of them worked and in the end I just mixed the whole lot so that the linseed oil was diluted thin and easy to sand into the wood.
* I then put a few drops of the oil on the stock and sanded into the grain- 240, 400, 600 and finally 1000 grit. The first couple of coats used 1 teaspoon+ of oil for the whole stock. Just use finger dipped in oil and rub on the stock and then sand in. Sand the oil with the grain and make a slurry of the sawdust and keep it wet. Allow to dry and wipe off the excess across the grains. The early coats were dried for a day or two. After 10 coats I allowed it to dry for up to a week or more. Once in a while I would add another coat and switch to 600 grit. Finally 1000 grit for about 3 coats. Total about 20 to 25 coats.

The wood just glows in your hand and the light colours flash like dull gold. The oil finish is in the wood and not on the wood like polyurethane. I then gave it a coat of furniture wax and buffed it. Not sure if it helped.

I am a sucker for nostalgia and the classic finish of great walnut grain really pulls at my heart strings. I'm going to cry. LOL! :D

I bought the walnut blank form a guy in Waihi and it is from a real old tree and he still has some blanks left after 15+ years. I spoke to him a couple of years ago.