ORIGINAL: Swampdog
Guy here at the house has a old rifle.Says"MAUSER MODELO ARGENTINO1891" Manufactura Lowe Berlin .He said he thought it was a 7.62 of some sorts I tried to stick a 7.62 x54 in the chamber no go tried a .308 no go .It does not have the piece running down the bolt like for crf on regular mausers and Winnies.Any Ideas what this is or caliber ...........SWAMP Told him I would give a $100.00 BTW it does not have a floor plate like a Mauser but looks like a Nagant on the bottom.
As mentioned above, the cartridge it uses is the 7.65X53mm or 7.65X54mm Argentine/BelgianMAUSER
rimless round. This cartridge is entirely different from the 7.62X54R, the rimmed round for the Mosin-Nagant! You cannot shoot Russian rifle ammo in these Argentine rifles! The Argentine rifles, both the M 1891 and the M1909, are much finer rifles than anything ever made in Russia (well, except maybe for stuff made for the Tsar himself!!) They were made when German military rifle craftsmanship was about the best anywhere.
I've seen the cartridge nomenclature for this rifle expressedboth ways, ie., X53 or X54. They are the same cartridge. There was some poorly made Argentine ammo floating around several years back that had a head-to-shoulder lenght that was too long, and it would not chamber in rifles with tight chambers, resulting in a rumor that the Argentine Army & Navy usedtwo different rifle cartridges. In effect, they did, but it was NOT intentional, as all their rifles were chambered for only the one cartridge. (I got this info straight from anArgentinian naval officer!)
The bore diameter of these rifles is about the same as the .303 British or 7.7X58 Japanese, and the FN Belgian and FM Argentine ammo I have has .314" bullets-the Belgian stuff's bullets weigh 174grains, the Argentine bullets weigh 185 grains. But I use .308" diameter, 200-grain bullets in loading for mine, and get excellent accuracy.
I have made some ammo for mine using .308 cases, but they are actually too short by 2-3mm. Graf's sells ammo for this rifle.
http://www.grafs.com/ammo/240
This cartridgeis every bit as good as the .308, and in the Model 1909 Argentine rifle, which is merely a version of the M 98 Mauser, this round can be loaded to nearly .30/'06 level performance especially if you leave the barrel 29" long! BUT, you have to keep pressures lower for ammo used in the M91's-they aren't as strong as the 1909's....