Aside from the 8mm-06, are there any other rounds that a 8x57 98 Mauser could easily be rechambered to? Obviously, the 8mm Rem. Mag is out of the question, because it is a very long round, and would require bolt face and magazine box modifications, if it could be made to fit at all.

If you go the wildcat route, the 8mm-.338 or 8mm-.300 Win Mag would be viable (these would require bolt face modification and some altering of the magazine rails however).

Lee Martin
www.singleactions.com

8mm-06 Improved should be a good one, it should be able to move the 180's and 200's plenty quick, and punch a bigger hole than a regular '06. Aside from that, the .338 case should work fine and give you a powerful rifle for most game species, but would still require magazine and bolt modification. The '06 Imp. case should get close to the ballistics from the .338 case anyways, so it might be the most simple choice.

Wildcats are not a problem, pretty much any 8mm aside from the 8x57 is going to be a handloading-only proposition. I would, however, like to avoid having to have custom dies or custom reamers made, since that could drive the price way through the roof. Anybody ever heard of/dealt with the 8x64 Brenneke, and if so, does it offer any advantage over an 8mm-06? I'm thinking it might have a little more case capacity, but I can't recall the metric designation for the .30-06. Mainly this rifle would just be a project to build something unique.

How about the old 8x68 ? Just under the 8mmRM in velocity and power. Would be perfectly classic for an M-98.

Regards

The 64mm Brenneke cartridges are just about equal in volume to the 06. The 06 cartridge is 63mm in length.

Regards

The usual and common choices are the 8x60 and the 8x64. Both are excellent cartridges.

Carcano

I went thru the same questions several years ago when trying to decide on an 8mm.

First of all, you can not compare cartridge lengths on paper, as shoulder lengths and body taper are equally important. The 8x64 cases I have are much narrower than the 8mm06 and offer no advantage. I also believe that the OAL for the 8x64 is the same as the .30-06 and requires modification to standard 98 magazines. The 8mm-06 has a shorter OAL to fit easily.

I settled on the 8x60S. It has about the same case capacity as the 8mm-06, but allows you to seat bullets as heavy as 250 gr without compromising powder. There is still RWS brass and ammo out there, you just have to look for it. By neck sizing, the cases will last forever. You can also reform .30-06 brass if necessary.

I currently have two commercial Brno's in the cartridge, a pre-war model A and a post-war 21H.

You can load the 8x60 Magnum almost to the same performance as the 8x64 (DWM and RWS actually *did* it as factory offerings - I recently fired some early H-mantel Magnum loads and they were impressive), but you do it for the price of really high pressures.

Carcano