The Modern Day Mauser:

When OutDoor Sports LTD offered to send me down this ‘modern’ Mauser several months back to do some pest control and hunting with, I jumped at the chance. I have long had a keen interest in military Mausers, so I was very keen to see how the modern offerings from the company stacked up against the selection of new sporting rifles available here in New Zealand. The rifle that got sent down was the Cerakote Tungsten M18 chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. I had only used the 6.5 Creedmoor as a target cartridge previously, so I was keen to see how it went on the goats, pigs and fallow deer that run around the back blocks of Taranaki and Whanganui.

The magazine is a flush fitting detachable five round example. This is a welcome change from the Tikka magazines I’m use to that protrude from the bottom of the rifle when using a five round mag, or the none detachable internal box magazine like in the Howa 1500 series of rifles. The double stack mag is ejected by a button that is recessed into the stock, and when it is pushed it pops the mag out nicely allowing for quick mag change for pest control, or if you decided to run this rifle in field or hunter style shooting competitions.

Initial inspection of the rifle showed up a couple of major differences from older Mauser rifles. The biggest difference is the departure from the use of the conventional two lug ‘Mauser’ type bolt head, to a modern three lug bolt head with a 60-degree bolt throw. This type of action took me a box of ammo to get used to how it cycles, as the majority of my rifles have a 90 degree throw, but it soon became second nature to run the bolt fast for a quick follow up shot when required. The magazine is a flush fitting detachable five round example. This is a welcome change from the Tikka magazines I’m use to that protrude from the bottom of the rifle when using a five round mag, or the none detachable internal box magazine like in the Howa 1500 series of rifles. The double stack mag is ejected by a button that is recessed into the stock, and when it is pushed it pops the mag out nicely allowing for quick mag change for pest control, or if you decided to run this rifle in field or hunter style shooting competitions.

The factory Cerakote is another great feature for keeping the elements at bay, especially when hunting in New Zealand where it rains nine out of twelve months a year. Not having to worry about corrosion on the external surfaces of the rifle while hunting, is one less thing to worry about when in the field...plus the tungsten colour scheme looks super sweet.

The rifle has a lightweight contour barrel and the setup as a whole doesn’t weigh a hell of a lot, with the bare rifle coming in a hair under three pounds. So if you keep the weight down on your scope and suppressor choice, it could be a good lightweight option for those long trips into the hills, where weight is at a premium.

Grams = pounds, and pounds = pain.

The one thing I don’t like about the rifle and it is a very minor gripe, is when you put a loaded cartridge into the open extraction port after you run the magazine empty, you have to clip the cartridge down into the magazine before pushing the bolt forward. This is reminiscent of the older K98 Mausers of the past and I’m not sure why they kept it this way, but it is a very minor inconvenience that I don’t imagine will concern many shooters.

How did it shoot?

To be honest it’s hard to write an article concerning the 6.5 Creedmoor, and not repeat what’s already been said time and time again concerning the inherent accuracy of the cartridge, and the great factory ammunition available, so I’ll keep it short and sweet.

First things first was accuracy, I bought several types of factory ammunition to run through the rifle, and I soon settled on the Hornady Match 140gr ammo. This shot five round groups sub MOA with ease, and I have had good success with the ELD-M projectiles in the past on game, so I was happy to use this ‘match’ ammo for hunting. Also worth mentioning was the new Sako 130gr Gamehead Pro ammunition, this gave excellent results on both paper and steel out to distance, but I wasn’t able to secure enough at the time to do more involved testing.

All of the time on the range was spent shooting practical distances inside of 500 meters, as this would be the limit for me with this cartridge on game. As you can imagine the rifle preformed as expected accuracy wise. I had no trouble putting shot after shot on a 10” gong at 500 meters. I even went so far as to practice cold bore shots at distance, as this would most likely be something I had to do when out in the field.

Now the main purpose of me having this rifle was not shooting steel plates, but seeing how it goes in the field. So I took it on a dozen or so pest control and hunting trips to see how it felt slung over the shoulder, and how it shot when there was a living breathing animal in the cross hair, and not just a piece of steel hanging off a rubber strap.

The first 40+ kills with the rifle were all feral goats, these are plentiful in Taranaki and between the three property’s I do my long range shooting on, there is an abundance of the buggers eating all the land owners grass. So I was happy to knock back the numbers ever so slightly, and the M18 didn’t miss a beat once, even when putting several mags through the rifle when the mobs of goats were larger than normal.

Now that I had shot my fair share of goats, it was time to test it out on some fallow deer...or as luck would have it a feral pig! The sow was spotted at bang on 400 meters, so I quickly set up the Mauser, held 6.5 MOA in the reticle and put a shot in her neck, before she decided to disappeared over the ridge. The shot was good and the pig dropped on the spot, exactly the result you want when hunting game. Later on I took two fallow deer at 430 and 460 meters in a similar situation, both shots resulted in the animals dropping on the spot, and a quick humane death.

So the question is, does this rifle stack up against New Zealand’s go to rifle, the Tikka T3/T3X? Yes.

Accuracy between the two is on par, triggers are both superb, stocks are both well designed and lightweight. I do think the Mauser edges out the Tikka with a better magazine design, and best of all the M18 is cheaper with a RRP of $1,299.

So this will leave you with a little extra coin to invest into a better optic, or more ammo to practice with before you go bush.