However, dependable, recently manufactured factory ammunition is increasingly expensive and hard to obtain, and many users must rely on handloading. Many beautifully-made sporting rifles in 9×57mm caliber, often dating from well before 1939, are still giving their owners good service today. The CIP maximum average pressure (MAP) for the 9×57 is 280 MPa bar (40,600 PSI). Its popularity was gradually eclipsed by the significantly more powerful, flatter-shooting, 9.3 x 62 Mauser cartridge.
It also accounted for many lions and leopards. 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 and German East Africa, where it was widely popular among European farmers and settlers for shooting plains game. The cartridge's low velocity combined with the heavy, poorly streamlined bullet, gives the 9×57 a relatively poor trajectory, which makes it unsuited to shooting at longer ranges. It is currently regarded as a semi-obsolete calibre, although hand-loading keeps it alive.įiring a relatively heavy bullet of 14-16 g (220-250 grains) at a modest velocity of 670–700 m/s (2,200-2,300 ft/s), the 9×57mm 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 m (300-350 yd). Ballistically - but not dimensionally - it is indistinguishable from the 9×56mm Mannlicher–Schoenauer. It uses the identical 57 mm-long cartridge case, with the same shoulder angle, but necked up to accept a 9 mm-diameter bullet. The 9×57mm Mauser is a cartridge based on the 7.92×57mm Mauser.