We are looking at what could be considered the quintessential "Spanish" caliber. Although it was the German industry – Mauser, who else? – that designed the cartridge, its adoption by the Spanish army (for the Mauser 1892) opened the doors first to military use and then to sporting use. It became known to the American public during the Cuban War, which led to its adoption by many other American armies (Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay...).

In Spain, the leap to the sporting field had to be made through the creation of the "R" version for single-shot and express rifles, because since the 7x57 was considered a military caliber, its use outside this field was prohibited. The incompatibility of grooved cases with rimmed ones allowed for the enjoyment of this cartridge's excellent hunting qualities, first with the 7x57R (somewhat diminished compared to the grooved version) and after its "liberation," with the original cartridge.

It is not easy for a European caliber to hook the North American market, proud as few are of its own products, and the 7x57 has achieved it. Some of the compliments received from prestigious and recognized hunting and sport shooting professionals from the new continent are enough to show this; they have described it as "one of the few cartridges that can be considered perfect," "a marvel of balance and effectiveness," "the 90-60-90 of calibers," or the praise that the brilliant and modern 7mm-08 Rem once received, of which it was said "it is not inferior to the 7mm Mauser..."

Such applause is not unfounded, and it comes from its own merits, achieved thanks to the enormous balance of its design, based on the versatility provided by the 7-millimeter caliber in a case that can hardly offer more performance in so little space. The result: a tremendously pleasant cartridge to shoot, with excellent ballistic data and the necessary energy to cleanly bring down any animal in our geography. What more could you ask for?

• Ballistic data

The ammunition offering is another of this cartridge's many strong points. All European ammunition manufacturers offer different bullet weights and types, from 8 to 11.5 grams (123/175 grains), and few European cartridges are loaded as profusely by foreign companies (Remington, Federal, Winchester, PMC, Hornady...), making the range of available bullets overwhelming.

With 9-gram (139-grain) BallisticTip projectiles, we can achieve velocities of around 870 meters per second (about 2,850 feet per second), and zeroing it at 200 meters would make our projectile hit 4 centimeters high at 100 meters and 19 low at 300.

• Recommended uses

As we have seen, one of the greatest virtues of the 7x57 is its versatility, its multi-purpose nature, which makes it suitable for hunting almost any species in almost any modality, from roe deer - with 8-gram projectiles - to wild boars in driven hunts - with 10, 11 or 11.5-gram projectiles. Outside our borders, "varmint" hunting might be outside its scope of action, as well as, logically, dangerous game hunting (not forgetting that W.D.M. Bell brought down most of his elephants - more than a thousand... - with this cartridge, reloaded with 175-grain FMJ bullets), but neither of these modalities is practiced in Spain, so for everything else it is not only valid but highly recommended. Lovers of double-barreled rifles will have the possibility of enjoying the lightness of the weapon and the low recoil of this cartridge for hunting in our country, and both bolt-action and single-shot weapons are equally suitable for any stalking or waiting hunt within our borders.

By Oliver Prieto