Several: [150gr/46gr IMR3031/2600fps],[150gr Hornady/48gr IMR4895/2700fps],[175gr/47gr IMR4064/2438fps],[196gr/50gr IMR4064/2500fps]and lastly [225gr/45gr IMR 4895/2245fps]Use with caution and start below and work your way up...........Harold
To start, is this for a production firearm or a military surplus rifle? if it is for a military weapon, first word is CAUTION!!!, make sure of the barrel size first, can range from .318 to the .323 bore!. some rifles were reworked late-warand came over here with .318 or J barrels on them, by the ending of thewar they used what they had on hand.This load is for the .323 or JS barrel. Nosler 180gr ballistic tip, IMR 4064 min load 43gr @ 2410fps, mid 45.0gr. @ 2532fps, max 47.0gr. @ 2636fps. My resipie turned best results with 44.5gr @ 2500fps grouping three rounds in just under one inch, not bad for an old "1939" battle rifle, the only thing I did was recrowned the barrel and floated the stock!.
To start, is this for a production firearm or a military surplus rifle? if it is for a military weapon, first word is CAUTION!!!, make sure of the barrel size first, can range from .318 to the .323 bore!. some rifles were reworked late-warand came over here with .318 or J barrels on them, by the ending of thewar they used what they had on hand.This load is for the .323 or JS barrel. Nosler 180gr ballistic tip, IMR 4064 min load 43gr @ 2410fps, mid 45.0gr. @ 2532fps, max 47.0gr. @ 2636fps. My resipie turned best results with 44.5gr @ 2500fps grouping three rounds in just under one inch, not bad for an old "1939" battle rifle, the only thing I did was recrowned the barrel and floated the stock!.
actually, it's for 3 different Mausers...1 Turkish 98K, 2- Nazi-marked 98Ks that have been sporterized, but kept the 8MM calibre... they all shoot fantasic with production loads, but I believe they can shoot better, especially the 2 German models(stamped 1943) -1 scoped-both in Fajian stocks(un-bedded AFAIK). I appriciate the heads up on the bore! I'll check them all.... Thanks fellas!
Its very unlikely that you'll find a military 8mm that has a .318 bore- almost all of them were converted. A european sporting rifle in 8mm especially built around the turn of the century does have a fair chance at having the older .318 bore.
For handloads, I've settled on a shorter range load that works well in a dozen or so 8mms I've tried it in (other than some rifles don't like to feed it)- 170gr hornady RN, 50gr IMR4064, federal 210 primer, remington brass. Its a maximum load, so the usual warning of working up to it applies. My longer range load uses a 200gr speer bullet with 43gr of IMR 4064.
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Its very unlikely that you'll find a military 8mm that has a .318 bore- almost all of them were converted. A european sporting rifle in 8mm especially built around the turn of the century does have a fair chance at having the older .318 bore.
For handloads, I've settled on a shorter range load that works well in a dozen or so 8mms I've tried it in (other than some rifles don't like to feed it)- 170gr hornady RN, 50gr IMR4064, federal 210 primer, remington brass. Its a maximum load, so the usual warning of working up to it applies. My longer range load uses a 200gr speer bullet with 43gr of IMR 4064.
Briman is correct. One way to find out if your rifle has a .318" bore is, of course, to slug the bore. But the easiest way to find out if your rifle can shoot .323" bullets is to take a fired case that was fired in your gun and see if a .323" bullet WILL DROP FREELY INTO THE FIRED CASE THRU THE EXPANDED CASE MOUTH! If it will, then you can shoot them in that rifle. Maximum pressure doe not occur until the bullet has travelled 4-6 inches up the bore. If the case hasfreely released thebullet on firing, even an oversize bullet will be swaged down to bore size long before the peak pressure is reached.
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Its very unlikely that you'll find a military 8mm that has a .318 bore- almost all of them were converted. A european sporting rifle in 8mm especially built around the turn of the century does have a fair chance at having the older .318 bore.
For handloads, I've settled on a shorter range load that works well in a dozen or so 8mms I've tried it in (other than some rifles don't like to feed it)- 170gr hornady RN, 50gr IMR4064, federal 210 primer, remington brass. Its a maximum load, so the usual warning of working up to it applies. My longer range load uses a 200gr speer bullet with 43gr of IMR 4064.
Briman is correct. One way to find out if your rifle has a .318" bore is, of course, to slug the bore. But the easiest way to find out if your rifle can shoot .323" bullets is to take a fired case that was fired in your gun and see if a .323" bullet WILL DROP FREELY INTO THE FIRED CASE THRU THE EXPANDED CASE MOUTH! If it will, then you can shoot them in that rifle. Maximum pressure doe not occur until the bullet has travelled 4-6 inches up the bore. If the case hasfreely released thebullet on firing, even an oversize bullet will be swaged down to bore size long before the peak pressure is reached.
You guys are right and wrong!, I personally have a Spanish Mauser 1936 with a bore size of .320, Ive been told, but dont know for sure, that the VK98, the last ditch rifle, had some come with the .320 bore. As far as the U.S. factory ammunition goes, they use the .323 bullits but bring the powder charge down to keep the presures below 37000 c.u.p. in case the bullits are shot through the smaller diameter bore. This ofcourse sucks due to poor performance of factory ammo, so we turn to reloading, slower burn-rate of powder and a higher charge make the rifle preform to its potential!, NOW WE NEED TO BE SURE OF BORE SIZE!!!, 45,000 c.u.p. to 50,000 c.u.p. will undoubtably destroy a smaller bore rifle not to mention what will happen to the shooter!. That is why YOU NEED TO BE SURE OF THE BORE SIZE!!!, nothing but SAFETY!!!.
Hello Rem11. The K98's are the only actions which are generally accepted by the experts to fire in the 50,000 CUP region. This is because of the superior steel the Germans developed for the K98. You darn right you can reload and greatly exceed factory ammo as it is so anemic. I load the 8mm Mauser 150gr bullet with 51 grains of IMR4064 which produces 2892'/sec; my 180gr load is 48gr IMR4064 at 2630'/sec.
Now, the Turk is a different story....they were made in Oberndorf and in Turkey. If you can find an expert on Turks that could verify it was made in Germany then procede with caution. If it's a Turk, I would get rid of it as max loads are out of the question unless you want to go to the trouble to have it heat treated and pressure tested.
The last group are the modern actions like La Coruna and Zastava. These commercial actions are heat treated and pressure tested at the factory....I would toss the late model Sako's and Belgium varients into this catagory.
The bottom line is that commercial ammo is anemic because the manufactures consider the shooting public to be stupid and fire a .323 bullet in a .318 chamber...go figure. Good luck and regards, Rick.
The 8mm Mauserhas every bit the terminal power of the venerable '06. I love them both and have taken deer and Elk with both for the last 50 years.....thump, thump.
8MM Mauser suggestions wanted....
