charlie brown

OK, I just bought an 8mm Mauser VZ24 yesterday. I am going to have the headspace checked on it to make sure everything is in good working order. I will spend the next few weeks that I can' t shoot collecting all of the reloading components for when I can shoot.

What bullet size should I use? The gun will be used for deer mainly, but I have read reports of it being used for short range elk.

I read somewhere a while back about using .30-06 to convert to 8mm brass. This should work, as they have the same headsize. Has anybody done this, or is it a waste of time? I have plenty of .30-06 brass around, so making 8mm brass would be no problem if it is logical.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Vapodog

Sorry Charlie, the .30-06 and 8mm don' t have the same headspace.....you need to rechamber to convert your gun to 8MM-06.

There' s nothing wrong with the 8MM mauser....load it up and shoot it.....

charlie brown

No, Im not talking about rechambering, just using .30-06 brass to make 8mm Mauser brass. I decided to just buy 8mm Mauser brass anyway. I will be waiting for the dies to come in for a week or two, had to special order it.

What would be a good bullet weight to start with?
170 grains seems to be good, would this be good for deer and such, If I were to use it for deer?

handloader1

I think I would go with a 200 gr. Nosler Partition for both deer and elk. Good luck.

eldeguello

Charlie, you certainly CAN make 8X57mm cases from .30/' 06 brass. First trim them to about 58 or 59mm O/A length. Expand the necks to 8mm, then use an 8X57mm full-length die to size them. Adjust your die by screwing it into the press' s die station a little at a time, setting the shoulder back JUST to the point that the the rifle bolt will close with the application of just a little force. This indicates that your case' s shoulder is contacting the shoulder of the chamber. You next trim the cases to 2.240" , and load them with a starting load. Upon firing, the case will fireform to your chamber, and have a slightly sharper shoulder than the .30/' 06 has.

Vapodog

My apologies....I misread you....I read that they both have the same headspace.....you said they both have the same headsize.....and you' re right.

yes you can make 8mm brass from .30-06...However, I' d prefer to just buy 8mm brass up front.....It' s always good to have the correct headstamp on the ammo.....

Big Ugly Bald Texan

I handload for the 8mm Mauser a lot and I REALLY like the 220-grain Nosler Ballastic Tips. The grain size you use depends on the individual rifle. You need to tinker a bit and find which kind of food your rifles prefers. It can make a big difference.

For example, I have an Ishapore Enfield .308. When I switched from 150-grain to 180-grain the group sized dropped from about five inches to less than two inches. I can' t use my Mauser as an example cause that pet shoots everything gooooodddd.

Gives you an excuse to spend a whole day at the range with a handheld loading press, building and testing rounds using three or four or five or six different types and sizes of bullets.

Briman

The load that seems to shoot really well in all of my rifles is:
Rem brass
federal 210 primer
Hornady 170 gr interlock Roundnose
50.0 gr IMR 4064

Work up to this load as its close to the maximum loading already. You might find that the RN bullet will not feed very good- it feeds flawlessly in 7 of my rifles, but is not reliable in the other 3. Make sure you can load the entire magazine and still be able to feed without jamming. If it jams, Take the extractor off, and polich the underside of the claw(the side that faces the bolt face) this will often times fix feeding problems, if not, the Feed ramp and one or both of the receiver rails needs polishing or slight modification, but have a gunsmith do it- its too easy to ruin your receiver.

8mm brass- its probably not worth your time to mess with trying to make 8mm brass from something else if you can buy it for Around $25 per 100 from Grafs, or or other suppliers- if you go to a gunshow, you often find brass vendors that will sell it for this price for new brrass and you won' t need to pay shipping charges.