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Top view of the Siamese action with breech cover closed. Breech cover is independent of the bolt and must be moved manually by grasping the small hook at the right rear of the cover, pulling it out slightly then moving the cover. The spring snap hook locks the cover in either position. The cover can be completely removed by sliding it forward off of the receiver. Below—Action with breech cover open.
7.62mm Russian This is the old Russian military cartridge with rimmed case, and is not to be confused with the more modern 7.62x39mm Russian or the 7.62mm NATO cartridges. The 7.62mm Russian case has a rim of .564” and is loaded to an overall length of just over 3.00”.just short enough to fit in the magazine of the 8mm Siamese action. The several samples of this cartridge which I have in my collection fit perfectly. Norma has loaded this cartridge for several years and it is a good round for big game hunting. If you want to build a 30 caliber rifle on this action, then the 7.62mm Russian is a good cartridge to choose.
Other Cartridges
I found that the 30-40 Krag and the 348 Winchester cartridges are both quite suitable for the Siamese Mauser action. In fact, the 30-40 cartridge with a rim diameter of .545” fits this better than the 303 British. My opinion is that the 30-40 cartridge would be a much better choice than either the 303 British or 7.62mm Russian. Many wildcats have been developed on the 30-40 case—the 6mm Krag, 25 Krag, 35 Krag and the 30-40 Krag Improved. If not loaded to the extreme, any of them would be OK in this action.
The 348 Winchester is also well suited to this action. Its rim diameter of .610” requires the bolt face recess to be enlarged, but other than that, the 348 functions perfectly in this action. There are also some very fine wildcats based on this case—30/348 Improved, 35/348 Improved, 40/348 Improved, 44/348 and 450 Alaskan.
Gunsmithing
Because it is a basic M98 Mauser action, most gunsmithing work that has to be done, or can be done, on a regular M98 for sporting rifle use can also be done on this oddball Siamese Mauser. For example, the bolt handle can be altered as usual by heating the shank and bending it down, or forging it in bolt handle bending blocks, or by cutting off the handle and welding it or a new bolt handle into the new position. Low scope safeties made for the M98 Mauser can also be fitted to this action. Several commercial M98 adjustable single stage trigger mechanisms will also fit, though on some it would be a good idea to heat and bend the finger-piece of the trigger back so it will position better in the trigger guard bow.
The breech cover can be removed and discarded, its guide rails ground off level with the receiver, and almost any top scope mounts made for the M98 Mauser can be fitted to the receiver. A receiver sight for the M98 Mauser will also fit this action. The breech cover can be retained and used with a receiver sight, but if this is done, the hook on the breech cover catch should be made longer. The breech cover cannot be used if top receiver scope mounts are used.
Stocking the 8mm Siamese action rifle is going to be the biggest problem for the amateur gunsmith, but if he can make a stock from a blank for any other centerfire turnbolt rifle, he’ll be able to manage this one. In stocking the rifle the separate tangs can be discarded.
This chapter may look a little bare; not having all of the usual detailed pictures, parts lists and other specifications. However, except for the hinged magazine floorplate and floorplate latch, the component parts of the 8mm Siamese Mauser are essentially the same as the M98 Mauser military action— covered elsewhere in this book.
Russian Mosin-Nagant Rifles FdH
Russian Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifle, caliber 7.62mm Russian.
RUSSIA WAS NOT the first nation to adopt a smokeless-powder cartridge for military use, but they were ahead of the United States by one year; they adopted the 7.62mm Russian cartridge in 1891, while the U.S. adopted the 30 Gov’t. (30-40 Krag) cartridge in 1892. The cartridges were similar; both were based on a rimmed bottlenecked case, were of the same caliber (bullet diameter .308”), and loaded with round-nosed full metal-jacketed bullets. The 7.62mm Russian cartridge has a larger body diameter than the 30-40 Krag round, thus the Russian cartridge was the more powerful of the two. While the 30-40 cartridge was not much improved during the brief time the Krag-Jorgensen rifle was the official U.S. military shoulder arm, the 7.62mm Russian cartridge was improved from time to time and loaded with a great variety of bullets to adapt it to various military needs. Improvements began as early as 1908 when the Russians adopted the 150-grain spitzer bullet and loaded it to equal the ballistics and range of other military cartridges in use at that time.
As was the usual practice of most nations when major changes in a shoulder arm and cartridge were considered, the Russians, about 1883, appointed a committee to advertise for, study, test and make recommendations for the adoption of a new rifle and cartridge. After a few years of study two rifles remained under consideration. One was designed by a Belgian inventor and arms manufacturer named Emile Nagant, the other was designed by Sergey Ivanovitch Mosin, a Russian military man connected with the arsenal in Tula, Russia. After much study, experimentation and testing, the committee decided to use the Mosin bolt and receiver design and couple it with the Nagant-designed magazine. The final result was the Model 1891 Russian rifle, later to be known as the Model 91 Mosin-Nagant.
In 1891, and even later, Russia lacked adequate facilities to make the new rifle in sufficient quantities. As a result, the first M91 rifles were made at an arsenal in Chatellerault, France.
Russia eventually began producing the rifles, but they apparently could not make enough to meet their army needs, so large contracts were placed abroad. Shortly before 1917, two U.S. firms made around 1,500,000 of these rifles. Remington Arms Company, in Bridgeport, Conn., made over 750,000 and New England Westinghouse, in Springfield, Mass., made the rest. Remington and Winchester loaded many thousands of rounds of 7.62mm military ammunition for Russia during this same period. Smith’s The Book of Rifles states that the SIG firm in Switzerland and the Steyr arms factory in Austria also made M91 rifles at one time. These figures, plus the far greater quantity that Russian arsenals made in the intervening years, indicate that many millions of Mosin-Nagant rifles were made.
The Model 91 and the later Mode 91/38 Russian rifle are quite plentiful, as they have been since the 1920s. Before Remington and Westinghouse had completed their contracts with Russia, and with many thousands of the new Russian rifles still in the U.S., the October revolution in Russia came and the contracts were canceled. This resulted in no small financial crisis for the firms making the rifles and ammunition. The U.S. government softened the blow by buying a great quantity of these rifles (one book says 600,000), many of which were later shipped to Russia. The U.S. was also short of rifles at our entry into WWI, and over 280,000 of these government-purchased Russian rifles were used for training U.S. troops during the first part of the war. Eventually, this last bunch of M91s were sold to NRA members through the Director of Civilian Marksmanship for less than $3.50 each. Many of those made by Westinghouse were sold to private firms who resold them “as issued” or remodeled and converted to the 30-06 cartridge.
After WWII, surplus arms dealers found more Russian rifles abroad and apparently imported a great many into the U.S. They were regularly offered for sale all through the 1950s and 1960s. Probably few Russian rifles were taken home by American servicemen during WWII, but veterans of the Korean conflict considered them prizes.
The M91 Mosin-Nagant rifle was used by the Communist forces in Viet Nam. It seems that the preferred sniper rifle
