9x57mm Mauser

The 9x57mm Mauser is a cartridge based on the 7.92x57mm Mauser. It uses the identical 57 mm-long cartridge case, with the same shoulder angle, but necked up to accept a 9 mm-diameter bullet. Ballistically - but not dimensionally - it is indistinguishable from the 9x56mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer. It is currently regarded as a semi-obsolete caliber, although hand-loading keeps it alive.

Performance
Firing a relatively heavy bullet of approximately 220-250 grains (14.25-16.2 g) at a modest velocity of about 2,200 - 2,300 ft/s (670-700 m/s), the 9x57mm is low in noise and recoil, pleasant to shoot, and regarded as accurate and effective on all but the very largest, most dangerous game at distances out to 250 - 300 yards (228-275 meters).

The cartridge's low velocity combined with the heavy, poorly-streamlined bullet gave the 9 x 57 a rather poor trajectory, which made it unsuited to accurate shooting at longer ranges. This calibre was popular as a large-deer cartridge in Germany and Central Europe; and also in German spheres of influence in Africa in the early 20th century, such as German West Africa | Namibia and German East Africa | Tanzania, where it was widely popular among European farmers and settlers for shooting plains game. It also accounted for a many lions and leopards. Its popularity was gradually eclipsed by the significantly more powerful, rather flatter-shooting 9.3 x 62 Mauser cartridge. The CIP Maximum Average Pressure (MAP) for the 9X57 is 2800 bar (40 600 PSI)

Firearms using the 9X57
Many beautifully made sporting rifles in 9x57mm caliber, often dating from well before 1939, are still giving their owners good service today, but dependable, recently-made factory ammunition is increasingly expensive and hard to obtain, and many users must rely on handloading.

Many of these Mauser rifles were made from de-militarized WWI small ring M98 rifles by many gunsmiths throughout Germany, and usually these are rebored (oversized from 8X57). When barrels eventually wear out, 9x57 rifles are generally rebarrelled in other, more modern calibres.

The cartridge was popular around the world and was even chambered in Remington Model 30 and Winchester Model 54 rifles.

Commercial production
The Eley-Kynoch 9 x 57 cartridge manufactured by the company at its Birmingham, England factory up to the 1950s used  fully-jacketed and  soft-nosed, round-nosed, flat-based bullets weighing 249 grains, with an average muzzle velocity of 2,250 ft/s. Factory-loaded ammunition is now increasingly hard to come by, and most users handload, using either fire-formed 9x57 brass or modified 7x57 or 8x57 cases necked up to accept 9 mm diameter bullets.

There is also a derivative caliber popular in Sweden, the 9.3X57, which is quite similar but has slightly different case dimensions and for which Norma of Sweden is still manufacturing ammunition.

Categories
Cartridge:rifles