BRAND-NEW Mauser 25 Max – Believe the hype

The Mauser 25 seeks to benefit from the brand’s legendary reputation alongside a new action design that offers rapid reloads. The rifle is currently available in .308, but a broader selection of calibres will appear soon, all using the same action length and 128mm of total bolt travel.
The .308 on test features a free-floating, 20” (510mm) cold hammer-forged barrel with a 17mm diameter muzzle and a plasma oxide coating to ensure corrosion protection. The muzzle shows a neat crown and a thread cap concealing a 15x1 thread for a moderator.

A different action concept
The barrel swells to 24mm where it enters the cylindrical 34mm diameter extension, which screws onto the rectangular action chassis that’s hidden within the stock. The rear of this extension forms the locking abutments into which the bolt head enters, and here’s where it’s really interesting. The bolt has a push-feed face with a single extractor claw and twin-sprung ejector pins, but a pair of locking lugs open vertically (one up, one down) into the abutments. Mauser advertises that these lugs offer 66mm² of surface contact (250 degrees of the bolt circumference) between the bolt and breech, which is 10% more than the legendary Mauser 98.
The bolt has steel rails overlapping the edges of the steel receiver to give an effortless linear slide for the mechanism, and there is a hammer recessed within the base of this receiver to activate the striker within the bolt carrier. This is cocked as the carrier reciprocates back and forth over it.

Safety details
There is a two-position safety catch recessed into the action tang. Move it forward for fire and rearward for safe (with the bolt locked). There’s a small button within it to unlock the bolt for safe unloading, but it isn’t a de-cocker. The single-stage trigger features an 8mm-wide, smooth blade with medium curvature. It broke crisply at 800g and is adjustable from 700 to 1,700g.
The bolt handle extends down 58mm to the right of the action and features a 22mm ball tip that sits just ahead and above the trigger blade, ensuring fast access and superb ergonomics. The handle rotates a few degrees to unlock the action, yet is unbelievably light and instantly encourages the bolt to draw back for a fast reload. The base of your thumb is automatically in the correct position to nudge the bolt handle forward again, stripping a round from the magazine to chamber it. I will try to say this as few times as possible, but it’s unbelievably smooth at any operating speed. Going slowly is quieter, yet minimal physical effort is needed to open or close the bolt, which makes it hard to resist the lightning-fast reload.

Strip down
There is a small bolt release catch recessed into the stock on the right side, and pressing this down allows the bolt to slide fully rearwards and lift off its rails. You do need to lower or remove the adjustable cheekpiece to do this, though.
Twin T30 Torx screws span the magazine well to hold the flat-bottomed receiver in the stock inlet, which is neat, with small brass pillars to prevent compression. The trigger guard and magazine well are polymer, which I really don’t have a problem with, and there is an assertive square lug to transfer recoil forces from the action to the stock.
A three-round polymer magazine is supplied, although five-round versions are also available. It is a single-stack unit, so it needs to be removed from the gun to load it. In use, it feeds smoothly without any snags or meplat damage to ballistic-tipped projectiles. A backup round dropped on top of the magazine follower will chamber directly, and because the rifle has an open-top action, you enjoy ample chamber access, both physically and visually.

Mounting options
The scope mount, be that a rail mount, Picatinny rail or Blaser-style saddle mount, is screwed onto the barrel. My early review gun was supplied with a rail mount, which is the most common choice for premium optics in Europe, but in the long term, I’d opt for a Picatinny mount for its greater versatility.
The rail mount is the least likely to be used in the UK, but in case you do use it, the underside T20 Torx screws are accessible through the magazine well, and the third tensioner is via a dial, accessible with a slim Allen key inserted through the lateral slot.

Beech laminate
The Max stock is a beech-laminate thumbhole design with excellent fore-end rigidity, ensuring reliable zero retention from a bipod or other accessory. You will find sling studs front and rear, and the furniture features lateral chequering, too. The finish is non-reflective and contrasts with the black rifle mechanics and black polymer adjustable cheekpiece, which is held securely by two Allen screws.
The length of pull is 359mm/14.1”, with extension spacers available to customise it from 349-399mm/13.7”-15.7”. The rifle weighs 3.6kg (7.9lbs), but the Pure and Extreme versions are lighter at 3.2kg. It’s not a super-lightweight rifle, but it’s built to shoot, and, wow, it was accurate and addictive.

Straight to the range
The rifle arrived assembled with a Sauer titanium moderator. I adjusted the eye relief with the Minox scope and ran a cleaning/inspection routine on the bore that rang no alarm bells. It was bore-sighted accurately, and I was shooting cloverleaf groups from the start.
Velocities were perfectly acceptable from a 20” barrel, and the gun was comfortable to shoot with good cheekpiece/scope alignment, a generous length of pull, and a crisp, predictable trigger. It was almost hard to be calm with the gun, as the reload procedure from the action is so light and fast that you really do need to slow yourself down. It’s stunningly smooth with effortless ergonomics. This includes the bolt shroud remaining low and slim, so it doesn’t bump your nose/face even with a 128mm stroke.
The barrel demonstrated excellent thermal stability and performed flawlessly with copper and lead-core ammunition ranging from 150 to 168gr on my 100m range. The following day, I shot out to 270m. The rifle performed superbly, with group sizes only affected by my impatience to reload and fire again before the gong had stopped swinging.
It’s critical to mention that the mechanism doesn’t convert linear to rotational forces, so there is correspondingly less mechanical loss from friction. This lack of required effort, combined with the shooter’s linear physical input, means the gun’s point of aim is disturbed less, allowing follow-up shots to be notably faster and more accurate.

Spot your impacts
I had the rifle reloaded and ready to fire again, with the reticle back on the aim point to spot my impacts on steel at 270m, which, for a .308 sporting rifle, is impressive.
It’s almost a bit weird to have to do so little to have the gun ready to fire again so quickly, there’s such a minuscule disturbance to its position.
It was addictive, almost an epiphany. None of the speedy mechanics seemed to negatively impact functional accuracy or create ergonomic downsides, and this is a hunting rifle, not a target gun. It’s just so refreshing.

A step ahead
Describing a rifle as a straight-pull is a bit of a mixed blessing, as some might focus solely on the speed at which it will operate or the magazine capacity for use in countries where semi-automatic rifles are not allowed. There is so much more to a sporting rifle in my mind, and the accessibility of getting the most from the action is a key factor.
The Mauser 25 has, to my mind, only one slight design compromise, and that is that the single-column magazine cannot be loaded while in the rifle. But otherwise, this rifle has massively impressed me and lived up to all that the brand has promised. In my opinion, it is now the focal point at which other makers must set their sights. When it comes to manually operated rifles, I have shot pretty much everything in the UK market, and this sets a new benchmark. It may not have the barrel interchangeability or deluxe options of a Blaser (my former benchmark), but I can shoot it faster.
Hats off to Mauser because this rifle is going to see more use, and I really want to get the Picatinny option to assess scope mounting in more detail. I’d love to try one of the larger calibres to further assess its recoil character, but the bolt travel is already satisfactory for the longest .300 Win Mag option.
Mauser has significantly moved the goalposts because the speed is there without the detrimental mechanical/ergonomic compromise that many other straight-pulls struggle with, and you can even have a true left-hander for no additional cost. GM

Photography: David Land Fieldsports