Every now and then I get the urge to shoot a Mondragon rifle. Sometimes it’s for information and other times just for fun.   Here is the Mondragon rifle at our local rifle range and some results of firing this 100-year-old semi-automatic rifle in 7mm Mauser.

Auto loading Mode

Firing in the autoloading mode is like any early autoloader from the WW1 or WW2 era.  Lots of parts are moving, its noisy, the muzzle is kicking, brass flying….it’s great!

The trigger is a very heavy two stage trigger and does not lend itself to accurate fire.    Accuracy is typical military “minute of person.”

Manual loading Mode

Why would you use the Manual mode instead of auto?   With this gun it’s obvious that the accuracy is a whole lot better.

In manual mode the action is very smooth and minimal pressure is required to cycle a new round. It’s probably the smoothest straight-pull I’ve ever handled.  The trigger is still heavy and hurts really accurate fire but with some target hand loads and some tweeking I think I could get them all in the X ring.

The left grouping of brass below shows the abuse the brass cases take while being fired in semi- automatic.  You can see the deformation of the mouth and neck, splits, case dents and sooting.  The cases on the right were fired as a manual bolt action rifle.