7.92×57mm Mauser
The 7.92×57mm Mauser is a rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. The 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge was adopted by the German Empire in 1903–1905, and was the German service cartridge in both World Wars. In the first half of the 20th century, the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge was one of the world's most popular military cartridges. In the 21st century, it is a popular civilian sport and hunting cartridge in the West.
Development
Parent cartridge ''Patrone 88''
The parent cartridge, upon which the 7.92×57mm Mauser is based, was adopted by Germany in 1888 as the Patrone 88 or M/88. It was a first-generation smokeless propellant cartridge designed by the German Gewehr-Prüfungskommission, as the new smokeless propellant introduced as Poudre B in the 1886 pattern 8mm Lebel had started a military rifle ammunition revolution. The M/88 cartridge was loaded with of single-base smokeless powder and a relatively heavy,, round-nosed ball bullet with a diameter of. The M/88 bore originally had lands diameter and grooves diameter. The M/88 barrel bore specification was changed by 1894–1895 to lands diameter and grooves diameter to improve accuracy and reduce barrel wear in M/88 chambered arms.8mm ''S Patrone''
German government driven efforts to further improve on the performance of the military M/88 ammunition and the service arms in which the M/88 was used after several development steps eventually resulted in the official adoption on 3 April 1903 by the G.P.K. of the dimensionally redesigned 7.92×57mm Mauser chambering. Besides the chambering, the bore was also dimensionally redesigned because the new bullet with a shorter cylindrical part had reduced bearing surface, which necessitated increasing its diameter and deepening barrel grooves.The 1903 pattern S Patrone was loaded with a lighter, pointed Spitzer of diameter and more powerful double-base smokeless powder resulting in nearly 38% higher muzzle velocity and 27% more muzzle energy. The operating pressure was. With the improved ballistic coefficient – of approximately 0.321 to 0.337 of the new bullet, the 1903 pattern cartridge had an improved maximum effective range and a flatter trajectory, and was therefore less critical of range estimation compared to the M/88 cartridge.
In the German military service the Patrone 88 was replaced in 1904 and 1905 by the S Patrone. Many arms originally chambered for the Patrone 88 could be and were adapted for chambering the S Patrone by reaming out metal from the chamber as it required a wider chamber throat to take the differently shaped and thicker brass of the new S Patrone. Other military arms chambered for different 8 mm cartridges were also converted to the S-Patrone.
The rimless cartridge case has been used as the parent case for several other necked-down and necked-up cartridges, and as the 8x57IS, has produced a rimmed variant, the 8x57IRS, which has also been used as a parent case for other cartridges with varying necked up or down diameters.
Military use
Due to restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, the Germans were not able to develop or sell any military equipment after World War I. In the post-war years, 7.92×57mm Mauser chambered Gewehr 98 pattern rifles were produced in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Mexico, Austria and China. This, and the cartridge's high performance and versatility, led to the 7.92×57mm Mauser being adopted by the armed forces of various governments. These included: Spain, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Iran, Turkey, China, Egypt, Yugoslavia, former German African colonies. This made the round the most widely used military rifle cartridge in the world during the inter-war years.During World War II it was one of the few cartridges used by both the Axis and Allied powers, a distinction that it shared with the 9×19mm Parabellum pistol round. Apart from being the standard rifle cartridge of the German and Polish armed forces, it was also used by the armed forces of the United Kingdom in the Besa machine gun, which was mounted in some of their tanks and other armoured vehicles, as well as being extensively used by the Chinese, especially early in the war. After World War II, it was used by the early Bundeswehr of West Germany. It saw limited uses by the various units in East Germany before being completely phased out of service in the 1960s. Later, when Egypt decided to manufacture the Hakim rifle, a licensed copy of the Swedish Ag m/42, they redesigned the breech to accept the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge rather than use the original 6.5×55mm Ag m/42 cartridge. Its military use continues today in some former Yugoslavia republics. The Zastava M76 sniper rifle, M48 bolt-action rifle and the license-built copy of the MG 42, the M53 Šarac machine gun use this cartridge.
Rifles formerly manufactured for the Wehrmacht, captured by the Allies and acquired by Israel were important in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Israel did not have a domestic arms industry and could not manufacture rifles but it could produce replacement parts and refurbish weapons. Israel only used its Mauser rifles in their original configuration for a short period, when NATO countries adopted a standard rifle cartridge, the 7.62×51mm NATO, Israel replaced all of the 7.92×57mm Mauser barrels on its Mauser rifles with barrels chambered for the new 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge.
Civilian use
After World War I the Treaty of Versailles imposed comprehensive and complex restrictions upon the post-war German armed forces. According to the treaty the Reichswehr could, on a limited scale, continue using the 7.92×57mm Mauser as their service cartridge. The Treaty of Versailles however effectively ended the civilian use of 7.92×57mm Mauser chambered rifles by German hunters and sport shooters. During the mid-1930s Germany stopped obeying the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and gradually the civilian use of 7.92×57mm Mauser chambered rifles by German hunters and sport shooters was resumed. In 1939 the Normalisierungsverordnung effectively prohibited the production of non S-bore/7.92×57mm Mauser chambered arms in Nazi Germany. In post-World War 2 Germany, the production of the various preceding chamberings is allowed again, but these chamberings have become rare in post-1939 produced arms.The 7.92×57mm Mauser is a common chambering offering in rifles marketed for European and North American sportsmen, alongside broadly similar cartridges such as the 5.6×57mm, 6.5×55mm, 6.5×57mm, and the 6.5×68mm and 8×68mm S magnum hunting cartridges. Major European manufacturers like Zastava Arms, Blaser, Česká Zbrojovka firearms, Heym, Mauser Jagdwaffen GmbH and Steyr Mannlicher produce factory new 7.92×57mm Mauser hunting rifles and European ammunition manufacturers like Blaser, Lapua, RUAG Ammotec/RWS, Prvi Partizan, Sako and Sellier & Bellot produce factory new ammunition. In 2004 Remington Arms offered a limited-edition Model 700 Classic bolt action hunting rifle chambered for the 7.92×57mm Mauser.
The 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge's performance makes it suitable for hunting all medium-sized game such as the deer family, chamois, mouflon, bighorn sheep, wild boar and bear. The 7.92×57mm Mauser can offer very good penetrating ability due to a fast twist rate that enables it to fire long, heavy bullets with a high sectional density.
The 7.92×57mm Mauser cannot be used in countries that ban civil use of former or current military rifle cartridges, though since 2013 is no longer restricted in France.
The rimmed variant of the 7.92×57mm Mauser, the 8×57mm IRS, was developed later for break-barrel rifles and combination guns. The 8×57mm IRS is commercially offered as a chambering option in European break-action rifles.
Cartridge naming
The naming of this cartridge is cultural and epoch dependent and hence not uniform around the world.The 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge is also known by the following designations:
- 7.9, 7.9mm
- 7.9 Mauser, 7.9mm Mauser
- 7.92, 7.92mm
- 7.92 Mauser, 7.92mm Mauser
- Cartridge SA, 7.92
- 7.92×57, 7.92×57mm
- 7.92×57 Mauser, 7.92×57mm Mauser
- 8mm Mauser
- 8×57, 8×57mm
- 8×57 Mauser, 8×57mm Mauser
- 8 × 57 IS, 8 × 57 JS
The 7.92 naming convention is often used by English speaking sources for the military issued 7.92×57mm Mauser and 7.92×33mm Kurz cartridges. Remarkably, both the 7.92 and 7,9 used in these and alike designations do not exactly comply to the actual C.I.P. or SAAMI cartridge, chamber and bore dimensions. All other non-military issued rimless and rimmed rifle cartridges originating from Germany having approximately 8 mm bullet diameter are connected to 8 mm namings.
The widespread use in German military Gewehr 98 and Karabiner 98k service rifles designed and manufactured by Mauser caused the "Mauser" tag, though the Mauser company had nothing to do with the development of this cartridge.
The letter "J" often mentioned by English speaking sources is actually an "I" for Infanterie. A stamped "I" at the cartridge bottom in writing styles used in the past in Germany could be easily mistaken for a "J". Even in the 21st century the "I" is often substituted by a "J" in English speaking communities and German ammunition manufacturers often write "JS" instead of "IS" to avoid confusing customers. The letter "S" stands for Spitzgeschoß, and the English designation "spitzer" for that style of bullet is derived from this German term.