1904-37 Portuguese Mauser

The Portuguese adopted a very interesting rifle in 1904. It was a strange hybrid. It was part Mauser and part Mannlicher. It was the brainchild of a Portuguese chap, Mr Verguerio.

The original caliber was 6.5x58.

In 1937, the Portuguese rebarrelled their rifles. The rifles were rebarrelled in 8x57 calibre.

So last year I bought a 1904-37. The bore was in perfect condition and I went to the range and shot it with the following handload. 45.0 grains of H-4895, 198 grain PPU full metal jacket bullet, PPU brass and CCI primers.

This load produced 2450 fps and it was surprisingly accurate. This could be a very good rifle for hunting in the woods

I have just the same. It is probably the smoothest bolt action that ive shot.

The only downside, the stock isnt exactly designed for the average sized human in 2026. Stock length is about 12inch

You guys with your Vergueiro Mausers are gentlemen of discerning taste. I've ben using 8x57 Vergueiros for sambar hunting for some 30+ years. 220 grain round nose soft point is very effective on our big brown deer. When I got my first Vergueiro it was still in the factory grease and wrapped in its origonal factory brown paper. Stupidly I sold it after a few years...needed the $s for another bang stick purchase. In hind sight I was an idiot.

I've never noticed any issue with the stock so I may be a bit lucky in that regard.

The biggest issue for me is re-assembling the bolt. It's an excercise in frustration.

The Vergueiros iron sights are the absolute best but due to tired old eyes I am looking into spectacles with the top half being a very low magnification and the lower half plain glass with no magnification. This means that when hunting I am looking through non magnified glass and when I lower my head to aim I see the sights clearly due to looking through the low magnified top half.

Cool rifle. There was a fairly cheap one in my LGS recently. Unfortunately someone has swapped out the bottom metal for a crappy alloy one - shame as it’s the single most valuable component on them (same as a 1909 I believe)