I have shot the 196g Norma bullets pushed by 46g of IMR4064. There was no sign of pressure, and it was very accurate to 300 yards. I shot a big Whitetail doe at 150 yards, and she made 4 off balance jumps and fell over dead.
Shooting 3 shot groups at 100m with a 1903 Turkish Mauser with 200 gr FMJ bullets and IMR4895 powder:
44 gr 2.2" 45 gr 2.25" 46 gr 2.25" and top hat primer 47 gr 1.5" 48 gr 3.3" 49 gr >4" and slightly sticky bolt 50 gr >4" and case base bulge, 51 gr 3" 52 gr 2.25" Very sticky bolt
Some of these loads are too hot to be practical, but the IMR loads in the low 30's for grain of powder are too wimpy to be practical. Old Speer load books would put the load around 49 gr, which is probably the top.
For an 8x57JS. Mine is Chrono'd. I use RP cases with CCI LR Mag Primers and 50 gr of VV150 with a 180 gr. Nosler BTBT. The chrono reads an av. of 2586 for 5 rounds. Reasonably accurate in my rifle. Around 1.25 at 100 meters. Good luck and good shooting.
Speer lists 49gr IMR 4350@ 2208fps starting load and 53.0 (compressed) IMR 4350 @ 2432fps for their 200gr spitzer (24" barrel, c.o.l. 3.20"). Probably be similar to H4350- You may be able to go a grain higher.
Posts: 113 | Location: NE PA | Registered: 27 March 2003
I have some 196 grn fmj millsurp ammo that chrono's @ roughly 2500 fs. Ive considered removing a grain or two and replacing the bullet with one of the hornady 196ers and working it up. The one thing that concerns me about it though is that the fmj bullets are actually .320 instead of .323...
It seems to me that since there are no longer any powders manufactured exclusivly for this round that it is difficult to reproduce its original capabilities.
There is some interesting "old" Norma data in the back of P.O. Ackleys #II. One of those loads shows 49.4 grs of Norma 203 behind a 198 grn bullet for 2624 fs. Just to show what the round was once able to do with the right powder.
Posts: 10188 | Location: Tooele, Ut | Registered: 27 September 2001
Norma claims N-202 is The powder for the 8x57, IMR-4320 does well also, H-414 has been quoted some very fast velocities, it should be easy to exceed Mil-Spec ballistics.
Posts: 3097 | Location: Louisiana | Registered: 28 November 2001
Didn't mean anything by it Mike, it's just that the bullet isn't mentioned in their (Hornadies) manual, and I haven't seen any at the dealers. I guess I'll have to start looking around more. - Dan
Posts: 5285 | Location: Alberta | Registered: 05 October 2001
quote:Originally posted by Major Caliber: Norma claims N-202 is The powder for the 8x57, IMR-4320 does well also, H-414 has been quoted some very fast velocities, it should be easy to exceed Mil-Spec ballistics.
A lot of guys are getting good results with IMR 4064 as well. I havent had time to develop any loads for mine yet. Im hoping to get some speer 200 grainers up to about 2500 fs, I shot a few with some mild loads and accuracy was much better than I got with 200 grn speers from my 06.
Posts: 10188 | Location: Tooele, Ut | Registered: 27 September 2001
Handloader magazine recently (last month?) ran an article about reloading for a rem 700 in 8x57. They found that ~200 gr bullets were much more accurate than the ~170 gr bullets that are commonly available in commercial (anemic) ammo. They commented that Hornady's ammo built around their 195 gr bullet was almost as accurate as the best handload they could come up with. I've tried it in my k98, and it is very accurate. 2475-2500 fps too.
