I bought a 1902 that looked like it had been unfired and was in such mint condition that I thought it was a reproduction. I took it out and fired it and had difficulty getting the brass out of the chamber and when I looked close the chamber was very badly cut. One side of it was quite a bit bigger than the other side. You need to look close at this model rolling block.

There is a difference in 7mm's. One is the Spanish 7mm and the other is the regular off the shelf one. The Spanish ones are marked 7mm S , I'm thinking thats where all the flap came from on the chambers. Once ammo is fired in the Spanish chamber you have fire formed brass so don't reform it back to the regular case, just neck size.
  Don   rustyrelx

Joel, I have a model 1902 7mm RB, and from what I've researched, it seems that the chamber is longer than a modern chamber.  Before the 1920's, the 7mm case was longer than the modern case, having been changed by SAAMI in the 20's.  The shoulders on my fired cases compared to unfired cases show the cases have stretched to fit the chamber upon firing.  It's important to use a light load in these rifles, and only neck size the cases to minimize stretching.

I have both a rifle and carbine.  Bores on both are pretty good and I get reasonable accuracy.  I use the 175 grain spitzer with 39.0g of 4320. Have used that for many years in several rolling blocks.  A long time ago I learned that case mortality (head separation) was always high with "civilian" brass, even new.    I then started necking down military 30-06 brass and that was the end of the head separations.  Not only is the brass heavier, but necking down makes a thicker neck.  That in turn helps fill the sloppy neck area of the chamber.  I think the original loading was with a 175 grain bullet so that was what I chose.  Now, I mostly shoot a 168 grain cast gascheck bullet.  Cheaper and less recoil.

As for the sights.  A week or so ago I had the rolling block rifle out and found I couldn't see the front sight in the notch.  Came home and widened out the rear sight notch and that really helped.  That is a mighty fine "V" as issued.  The carbine is much wider which helps.

George
Salmon, Idaho

Lo and behold, the archives has an article about how the 1901 and 1902 Remington RB's had longer 7 x 57 chambers (not the Spanish) than current specs for this round that were established in the 1920's.  In the archives, the article is in 2003, No. 5, and entitled:  Will the Real 7 x 57 Mauser Please Stand Up.

My 1902 Carbine had a chamber that was both long and fat. The solution using commercial 7x57 brass was to wrap a single 1/8 inch strip of electrical tape around the head of the case for the first firing. This would both hold the case at the proper headspace distance and keep the swelling concentric to the bore. After the first firing the strip could be removed and from then on the case would just be neck sized. The bore looked well worn but smooth and with 160 grain Norma boattails and 47 grains of surplus 4831 would shoot into 1.25 inches at 100. When I sent the carbine off to Higginbotham to be made into a 50-70 rifle I asked for the old barrel back but didn't get it. I did get a drop dead gorgeous 50-70 buffalo rifle however.

oneatatime wrote on Jun 16^th, 2014 at 6:57pm:


That's a great looking gun! Nice work!