I have a straight pull Steyr M31 chambered in 8x56 Hungarian Mannlicher. I have not been able to find brass for it, so I decided to fire form 7.62x54R brass. I prepared the brass IAW The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions. I used a load of 36 grains of surplus 846, a max load would be about 41 grains. Cast .329" bullets were used.

At the range I had two cartridges fail to fire; the primer sent the bullet into the lands and left unburnt powder in the case and action (probably due to old powder). One round spit out a bit of gas and left the brass partially formed. The next one belched out a flame from the action, singed my face and left brown crud on my shooting glasses. This piece of brass also was only partially formed. The brass was also dented a bit as if there were kernels of powder between the brass and the chamber.

The 7.62 brass is about 0.005" narrower than the 8x56 brass, so it has to stretch a lot to seal in the chamber. I am thinking that I need to raise the charge. Covering the action with a towel and using a face shield might be a good idea too. My third solution would be to give up on fire forming and wait until I can find real 8x56 brass.

Opinions? Thanks.

WTF!!!???

You're gonna blow yourself up Bud!!

New 8x56R brass is readily available and inexpensive.

I just sold a couple hundred rounds.

Try Grafs for starters.

Make sure you totally dissasemble, degrease, relube, and reassemble the rifle before using.

They were packed in some very aggressive preservative which may be clogging up the bolt internals.

Graf's has excellent quality, new, Boxer-primer, 8x56-R brass....or did quite recently. You might want to give them a call.

Thanks guys, I forgot about Graf's, have not ordered form them for a while.

Not knocking grafs brass, but.... it was (may not be anymore) made in serbia at the PPV Partisani company, and the 7.62 X 54R and the hungarian 8 X 56 bot had really deep primer pockets. The 8 X 56R wouldn't fire in one of the older steyrs.

But I would still buy that brass, especially since the boxer primed 7.62 X 54R is so hard to find, I would hate to waste it on a 8 X 56R

I have used the Hornady loaded ammo and brass in 8 x 56R and the product is top notch. The 90 year old carbine shot as well as anything new out to 200 yards.

The advice is correct on using the new 8 X 56 R cases. The simple fact is that there is just too much base expansion using the russian cases for anything light loads. They might last forever, but your Hungarian loads can be as powerful as the 8 mm Mauser safely with the right cases.

quote:

Originally posted by murkan mike:
Not knocking grafs brass, but.... it was (may not be anymore) made in serbia at the PPV Partisani company, and the 7.62 X 54R and the hungarian 8 X 56 bot had really deep primer pockets. The 8 X 56R wouldn't fire in one of the older steyrs.

But I would still buy that brass, especially since the boxer primed 7.62 X 54R is so hard to find, I would hate to waste it on a 8 X 56R

Must have been some learning curve lag when Prvi Partisan first began turning out the boxer primer cases, and maybe the deep primer pocketed ones were early ones?. I have in hand 300 Graf's cases by Prvi Partisan, and the primer pockets in mine appear quite normal. Perhaps that is because mine are relatively late ones bought 2 or so years ago? They fire every time just fine in my early carbine. (Or, perhaps it is vaguely possible it could be a gun mainspring problem? I have owned a LOT of Mannlichers, and many of them I bought required a new firing pin spring before they were totally reliable with any primer which came along. That goes for all three of Mannlicher Steyrs, Mannlicher Schoenauers, and straight-pull Mannlichers.)

While I was there getting brass, I also got several hundred of the 205 grain .330" diameter SN jacketed spitzer bullets Graf's sells, and the .329"/.330"(depending on alloy) Lee mould.

The jacketed bullets are a joy to have just in case in a "gun-looney" fit of passion I ever take the carbine across the road onto the hill for elk which have moved in here in the last 3-5 years. Of course for playing slavic soldier, I will use the cast bullets...