My dad asked me to ask you all what loads you're using in your 9x57's. His is a 20inch barreled Mauser carbine that he's rigging for my sister. It's going to be her elk gun.

There's not a lot of data for 9x57 Mauser out there -- I know, because I bought one a few weeks ago and have found very little. The good news is, you can start with bottom loads for 200 gr bullets in the 8x57 Mauser, and judiciously work your way up.

HOWEVER -- the bore may not be .358, like most 35 caliber bullets available in America are. You can buy .355 or .356 bullets for Euro 9mms from Hawk, and probably some other semi-custom bullet makers. If a dummy round loaded with a .358 bullet will chamber and extract easily, you probably won't have any problem shooting bullets that are .002 oversize. If the throat is tight and loads with .358 bullets are pinching, you will probably need to go to the smaller diameter bullets.

Be a little careful -- this is not a proposition that tolerates carelessness. But it's a great old round, and worth the effort.

Incidently, I have a liine on Kynoch 245 gr ammo -- in large quantities. Unfortunately, the quantities seem to be a little to large for my needs. Maybe all 9x57 shooters in the US should go in together to buy this stuff. There must be at least six or seven of us...

To determine absolutely whether or not you can use .358" diameter bullets, take a fired case and try to drop a .358" bullet through the case mouth and into the empty case. If it enters and falls through the neck easily, you can use these bullets. However, if the bullet WON"T go into the fired case, you will have to use a bullet that will. I have loaded ammo for two 9X57's that had .354" grooves, but would shoot .358 bullets with no problem at all.

I was loading for Texas deer hunting, so I used the Speer 180-grain flatpoint. The load I used was 51 grains of 4320, and it appeared to be VERY MILD, giving 2550 FPS!! For elk, of course, you will probably want to use a 250-grain bullet. IMO, you could use .358 Win. STARTING loads, since the case capacities are comparable, probably a lot like the difference between the .243 Win. and 6mm Rem, 260 Rem. vs the 6.5X57, etc. If you have a .358 Win. empty, you could compare the capacities of the two cartridges.

[ 05-02-2003, 19:47: Message edited by: eldeguello ]