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The 7.63×25mm Mauser (.30 Mauser Automatic) round was the original cartridge for the
Mauser C96 The Mauser C96 (''Construktion 96'') is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937. Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 2 ...
service pistol. This cartridge headspaces on the shoulder of the case.Wilson, R. K. ''Textbook of Automatic Pistols'', p.247. Plantersville, SC: Small Arms Technical Publishing Company, 1943. It later served as the basis for the 7.62mm Tokarev cartridge commonly used in Soviet and Eastern Bloc weapons.


History

This cartridge was based on the 7.65mm Borchardt of 1893, the most successful semi-automatic pistol cartridge in production at the time, due to its use in the
Borchardt C-93 The Borchardt C93 is a semi-automatic pistol designed by Hugo Borchardt in 1893. The design is based upon the Maxim gun's toggle lock model. Borchardt developed the high-velocity, bottlenecked 7.65×25mm Borchardt cartridge for the C93. His ...
pistol. The 7.63mm Mauser is sometimes confused with the later 7.65mm Parabellum (.30 Parabellum), also a bottlenecked pistol cartridge used in the Luger Parabellum. It has been manufactured from the 1890s until the present by various ammunition manufacturers. Firearms chambered for the 7.63mm Mauser cartridge include the pistol for which it was designed, the
Mauser C96 The Mauser C96 (''Construktion 96'') is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937. Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 2 ...
in all variants and copies, the
Astra Model 900 The Astra Model 900 is one of many Spanish copies of the German Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistol. It shares the same caliber, magazine capacity, and holster type and is generally very similar to the German handgun. Machine-pistol variants The Bas ...
and variants, the
Schwarzlose Model 1898 The Schwarzlose Model 1898 was a full-size, locked-breech, rotary-bolt, semi-automatic pistol invented by Prussian firearm designer Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose. It was chambered for cartridges such as the 7.65×25mm Borchardt and 7.63×25mm Ma ...
, the 1911-pattern
Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
models A and M, and a handful of pre-World War II submachine guns such as the Swiss Bergmann M/20 exported to
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
and SIG's unique MKMO. Several Soviet pistol and submachine gun developments of the late 1920s were designed to use the 7.63mm Mauser cartridge. The Mauser cartridge thus became the basis for the 7.62mm Tokarev as officially adopted by the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. Although the case dimensions of the two cartridges are nearly identical, the 7.62mm Tokarev has a stronger powder charge and is generally not suited for use in
Mauser C96 The Mauser C96 (''Construktion 96'') is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937. Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 2 ...
pistols or other firearms chambered for 7.63mm Mauser. However, the slightly less powerful 7.63mm Mauser could be used safely in firearms chambered for the more powerful 7.62mm Tokarev. This became important later during World War II on the Eastern Front when the Germans began using captured 7.62×25mm weapons, notably the
PPSh-41 The PPSh-41 () is a Soviet submachine gun designed by Georgy Shpagin as a cheaper and simplified alternative to the PPD-40. A common Russian nickname for the weapon is "''papasha''" (), meaning "daddy", and it was sometimes called the "burp gun" ...
and PPS, and fed them with 7.63mm Mauser rounds. During the Finnish-Soviet
Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
and World War II, the cartridge was issued by Finnish and German forces for use in captured Soviet submachine guns, due to its inherent substitutability for the Soviet 7.62×25mm round. According to Finnish military archives, the Finnish Army ordered one million rounds of 7.63mm Mauser from FN for this purpose.


Contemporary usage

Some 7.63mm Mauser ammunition is still manufactured by Fiocchi,
Sellier & Bellot Sellier & Bellot is a firearms ammunition manufacturer situated in Vlašim, Czech Republic. It is a subsidiary of the Brazilian company CBC. Foundation Sellier & Bellot was founded on August 5, 1825 by a German businessman of French ...
, and
Prvi Partizan Prvi partizan ( sr, Први партизан, Prvi partizan; abbr. PPU) is a Serbian manufacturer of ammunition and handloading components, based in Užice, Serbia. The company produces ammunition for civilian and military consumers in a varie ...
. Reloadable boxer-primed cartridge cases can be formed from
9mm Winchester Magnum The 9mm Winchester Magnum, which is also known as the 9×29mm, is a centerfire handgun cartridge developed by Winchester in the late 1970s. The cartridge was developed to duplicate the performance of the .357 S&W Magnum in an auto-pistol cartr ...
by simply resizing and trimming. Alternately, they can be formed from 5.56mm NATO with the additional step of inside neck-reaming. These cases bulge slightly on firing, and proper Mauser stripper clips are squeezed in a vise in order to secure an adequate grip on the smaller rims. For the Mauser, the use of .311" or .312" bullets produce the best accuracy - the Hornady 85 grain .312" XTP being a particularly good choice, but Tokarev TT-33 and Czech CZ-52 pistols have tighter barrels and chambers and function better with .310" bullets of the sort intended for the 7.65mm Luger and
.30 Carbine The .30 Carbine (7.62×33mm) is a rimless carbine/rifle cartridge used in the M1 carbine introduced in the 1940s. It is a light rifle round designed to be fired from the M1 carbine's 18-inch (458 mm) barrel. History Shortly before World W ...
rounds.


Synonyms

*.30 Mauser Pistol *.30 Bore - Pakistan Ordnance Factory (used for both the 7.63mm Mauser and 7.62mm Tokarev cartridges).


See also

*
7 mm caliber This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the caliber range. *''Length'' refers to the cartridge case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a fir ...
*
Table of handgun and rifle cartridges This is a table of selected pistol/ submachine gun and rifle/ machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load (e.g. the highest muzzle energy might not be in the s ...


References

* Barnes, Frank C. ''CARTRIDGES OF THE WORLD'' 3rd Edition pgs 152–177, 1972 Digest Books,


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:7.63x25mm Mauser Pistol and rifle cartridges Military cartridges 1896 establishments in Germany