NGD - Churchill 7x57

Finally picked this up today, Churchill 7x57 Mauser. Looks like probably someone in the late 60s/early 70s thought they were going on a hunting trip and bought a rifle, trip got cancelled and sat in their closet until now. I know these were "made" in England using M98 variant actions, not sure exactly which kind though. It does have the thumb cutout for stripper clips suggesting military action. It also has a Fajen stock. If any of you have further knowledge of these rifles, I'm all ears. I've been looking for something like this for a long time, got lucky on this one. I have a few boxes of the S&B 150 grain Exergy copper that I'm hoping it shoots well, also have some run of the mill PPU 139 and S&B 173 to try. Not sure what twist rate it would have. Scope is Bushnell Scopechief V Lite-Site, already swapped that out though this evening. It may have been halfway decent back then but pretty sad now.

Great rifle and caliber, i’m jealous, one of my favorite calibers, 2 of my 7x57s were a bit finicky, took a while but finally found the right load and they both are now tack drivers, my other will just about shoot any load under 3/4”, excellent gun, have fun, if you need any brass let me know, i just got 500 once fired from a friend

It’s a great caliber, built many a stalking rifle in it.

There is a 7x57 stalker w high end wood for sale on an african hunting site right now for $9500, wonder if its one of yours - its as pretty as they get

Link?

Sorry , it was a Dakota model 10, africahunting.com classifieds

There are few threads about these over on Africahunting and most of what I know comes from them. There is a man who was park ranger or something in India and used it on a tiger and various other things. He said Churchills were sold as barreled actions all over the world, that's how I'm thinking this one wound up in the USA (upstate NY) in a Fajen stock. I don't think this one is worth that much, I'd put it in the same barrel as a classic Remington 700 or something like that but above all cruder Mauser sporters you see floating around where they just trim and sand the stock. It's hard finding something decent yet affordable in 7x57 so that's why I'm excited about this one. I'm thinking this is an Interarms import, apparently they owned Churchill at one point.

The action looks very similar to the 98M I am currently building on... looking at the bolt shroud safety, if is flips up toward the scope, it is likely the same. If you take the action out of the stock, it should be cleaner than most military production but likely doesn't have markings indicating where it was manufactured. Mine came with an brown painted stock and when I took the paint off I found a plain maple stock underneath.

It has a two position flag safety, trigger looks to be original two stage military trigger. It looks like it was full length bedded, if I ever remove it from the stock I'll be sure to look for other markings. Looking at old Fajen catalogs, it looks like it's either the Sportman's model or the Hunter-Target, need to measure forend when I'm home but I'm thinking Hunter-Target based on the heft.

Yes... likely the same action... I replaced the military trigger with a Timney designed for the 98M. Very smooth. The bolt shroud was replaced by a three position Gentry. The Gentry is a 3-position horizontal safety similar to the Winchester M70, except easier to install. Mine was "made" in New York and had an ugly brown painted stock. Under the brown paint was a plain Maple stock that I am reworking just for fun. Congratulations on the find !

was wondering about the M98 triggers. the only one I handled seemed to have a LONG first stage with a very heavy break point. super nice rifle here. strip and refinish the stock.

Went and shot it at my uncle's farm yesterday, shot the 150 grain the best and that's what I sighted it in with. I'll fine tune it at a proper range soon but it was good enough to kill a hog. Shot the 139 and 173 grain decent too and I think groups will tighten up with fouling since I gave it a very thorough cleaning to start. It will put two in one hole and then the third a little off, seems par for the course for lighter sporter barrels. Got a Harkila sling sent over from England for it.

That is a very nice looking rifle !! Congratulations on the range work and the hog !

Thanks, it's definitely a fun shooter. Looking forward to seeing how your 6.5x55 turns out as well.