At the risk of sounding like Goldilocks

[SA1911a1]

I took three new (to me) rifles to the range today.........

1891 Argentine was a major disappointment. This rifle looks new, with a shiny bore with what appears to be outstanding rifliing, but it grouped all over a foot at 50 yards, and including two keyholes.
I am hoping that it is the results of cheap PPU ammo, but I had nothing else to compare it to.

Turkish Mauser, grouped well, had a nice trigger but had feed problems. I believe it was the results of a weak magazine spring, and have ordered a new one. I was pleasantly surprised about how well the rifle shot and will be very pleased when I work out the feed problem.

The one that was just right.....was my M-1924 Yugoslavian Mauser. Outstanding function, tight grouping, and it just felt right. My son agreed and wants one for himself.

[jimpierce7]

well, if the shoe fits................... as they say.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Obviously an ammo issue I would think, if it was a worn crown you would have discovered that during the initial inspection, you did the "bullet test" right? Try and find some of the FN military surplus ammo, or better yet load some yourself with either cast bullets or something commercial that approaches the real specs for 7.65mm . I have witnessed people shoot very poorly with the Arg Mauser, even someone who sported a marksmans badge, but this was due to a lack of familiarity with the sights and the tendency for these rifles to shoot very high at 100 yards. These rifles all originally were delivered with a test target from the arsenal , and this is one of the near unissued ones if I recall, it should still be good enough to manage 3-4 MOA or better at 100 yards unless something has happened to the bore.

[OLD OUTLAW]

Check the bore and crown carefully. That Prvi 7.65 is highly regarded by others I know who shoot these. Perhaps even have it slugged? JYD makes a good point about those sights. I have heard before they are a bit difficult to master when first shooting one.

As I recall, I think they may be sighted in for 300 meters. So I would expect it to be high at 50 and at 100 yards. But if you try to get it down at 50 or 100 by adjusting point of aim way low, you will wander that group quite a bit. However, a foot at 50
and key hole sounds like a barrel problem to me. Dunno for sure of course????

[SA1911a1]

Wandering all over paper could certainly be attributed to my old eyes, and funky sights, but the key-holing is either the bore or the ammo. If the ammo has a good rep, then the bore may not be as good as it look to me. The crown is nice and the muzzle is tight on the Privi ammo to about 3/8" from the case. I have two other 91s that I haven't shot, so I will beta-test the ammo. The PPU is only about $20.00 a box, There are a couple of other commercial brands, but they push $2.00 per round which is rough on a tight-wad like me. I do not see any surplus ammo around.

If the 91 turns out to be worthless as a shooter, it still has redeeming value as a beautiful antique.

When I pulled the Turk apart to clean, I see what the feed problem is. It appears that someone filed the back of the cartridge follower to allow the bolt to close without depressing the follower, I believe that the new spring and the new follower will make that a fine shooter. Something I found interesting is the 1940s Turk ammo I was shooting grouped well out of this rifle, but when I shot five rounds of expensive commercial stuff to blow out the gunk at the end of the shoot, it was all over the paper.

[Longcolt44]

When I bought my little Argentine 1891 carbine I bought 100 rounds of 7.65X54 original Argentine ammunition from a friend. It has 3 different headstamps so I checked each one to make sure it was the real deal. He recently sold his carbine so I may tap him for more ammo.

[OLD OUTLAW]

OK, long shot but it works nearly all the time. Lets just for sake of argument, say someone had a squib in it. Then fired another round. Not as uncommon as many folks will tell you. Especially in older Military rifles. But, some times they got very lucky. Everything was blown out the barrel.

So, take a clean bore, stiff cleaning rod, and pack it with enough patches you can only get it to barely go down the bore.
Concentrate on the tension when you SLOWLY push it through the barrel. If you feel ANY release of that tension, mark the approximate place on the barrel. Repeat process. If it happens near or on the same spot each time, likely a squib episode happened. This can and does cause a bullet to get "tilted" in the bore causing a keyhole at the target at times.

If you have it slugged, who ever does it will for certain feel the bulge in the barrel. Or better feel it, or they are not looking for any potential problem.

Now, in the past say 50 years, I have found this in an old Finn BearCub, 2 SKS, and one Swedish Mauser years ago. Believe me, it only takes a couple of thousandths of barrel swelling to potentially cause accuracy problems. Not at all saying this is your problem, but may be a part of it along with the sights. Hey, worth a shot and it costs you nothing.

[Jbob]

Looking forward to hearing some results on this rifle as I've shot all cals of PPU ammo and think highly of it. I save all casing for reloading, very good casings.

[entropy]

OK, long shot but it works nearly all the time. Lets just for sake of argument, say someone had a squib in it. Then fired another round. Not as uncommon as many folks will tell you. Especially in older Military rifles. But, some times they got very lucky. Everything was blown out the barrel.

So, take a clean bore, stiff cleaning rod, and pack it with enough patches you can only get it to barely go down the bore.
Concentrate on the tension when you SLOWLY push it through the barrel. If you feel ANY release of that tension, mark the approximate place on the barrel. Repeat process. If it happens near or on the same spot each time, likely a squib episode happened. This can and does cause a bullet to get "tilted" in the bore causing a keyhole at the target at times.

If you have it slugged, who ever does it will for certain feel the bulge in the barrel. Or better feel it, or they are not looking for any potential problem.

Now, in the past say 50 years, I have found this in an old Finn BearCub, 2 SKS, and one Swedish Mauser years ago. Believe me, it only takes a couple of thousandths of barrel swelling to potentially cause accuracy problems. Not at all saying this is your problem, but may be a part of it along with the sights. Hey, worth a shot and it costs you nothing.

Never had keyholing from any of the several pistols I've fired over the years with bulged barrels.....matter of fact it didn't affect accuacy at all. Perhaps with rifles it is defferent, but ballistics is ballistics.....