Since buying some decent surplus rifles (Ross re-chambered to 30-40 krag with lyman peep, Finn M-39s and Yugo 24/47s), I have pretty much quit using scoped rifles for anything but groundhog and squirrel hunting. It is fairly easy to get a hunting bullet to correspond with the sight gradations on the mil-spec rifle with hand loading out to a couple hundred yards. Using cast bullets driven fast is even more fun. The 160 grain lyman mould drops a bullet that when loaded right will put a bullet dead center of a hundred yard target with the 200 yard setting.

The neat thing about the combat sights on these rifles is that they are just like the stadia on the newer hunting scopes. Your rifle is zeroed at some range at the minimum setting, figure out that distance, and exactly where it hits on the next couple of notches out and you can hit items for quite some distance. Only works for me if I have a laser range finder, am bad at estimating range.

I have killed a few deer with the 7x57 and hornady soft nose bullets. Have a few boxes of old Hawk and Norma bullets in the 200 grain range I might try on deer next year in the 8x57. A buddy of mine kills deer every year with 24/47 and the S&B 196 grainers that have the stepped point. They seem to open quickly and put it on mr. deer in short order.

We could flute the stepped barrels! That would make for some interesting Geometry. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
We could flute the stepped barrels! That would make for some interesting Geometry. roger

Well I have 3 8x57mm two are in Mil configuration G98/40's and one is an RC K98 that now sits in a Choate Synthetic stock and is my walk around rfle! Still sporting the mil sites! I reload the 185 gr Rem around 2400 fps not a top load for sure and I wouldn't think twice about shooting anything I hunt with it! I see no difference between it an my '06 in game performance! I also run a 205 gr Cast load thats and absolute thumper on game!

The 8x57 has long been a favorite of mine, it will walk past the 338 Feeble, the 308 Win and with the right load it will equal or better the venerable 06.
I have loaded the 185 grain bullet to nearly 2500 fps, this wasn't a top load but will drop anything it gets into.

I load 200NP's in my 8x57jrs, to 2,550fps and they are very accurate,



I've taken everything from the biggest big game, like moose and bear,



To medium big game, like numerous white tails,





To smaller animals like coyotes and javolina,



Even on the smaller animals i get some bullet expansion, and in all cases i get the deep penetration that i much prefer.

DM

A war souvenir 8mm Mauser was my only rifle back in the day when I had time to hunt but no money. The Rem CoreLoct load performed splendidly on deer at normal hunting ranges. I shot bear and moose with the WW load although I feel it is too hard for deer. My cousin used the same load to good effect on Kudu and to anchor a zebra that was poorly hit with an arrow. I feel I could hunt anything but the biggest and baddest with an 8mm.

This past deer season, I decided to use a sporterized M98 Mauser I acquired a few years back and had not used it to take anything larger than an armadillo. I collected a 7 pt buck @ 100 yds with a load of 150 Speer bullet loaded over 51 gr IMR 4064 powder. 1 shot-DRT. Following day, I used same gun/load to shoot a feral hog.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikelravy:
The Rem CoreLoct load performed splendidly on deer at normal hunting ranges.

I guess that green and yellow round is why so many folks underestimated the power of the 8MM. It just didn't ring the ears like a good 270, lol.

OTOH, one could say Remington was ahead of the times by introducing the first "reduced recoil" load so many years ago!

Tiggertate
That is the way I see it. Handloading is a necessity to get the maximum out of the cartridge, but the factory loads work well for what most people will use them for. Although the Rem loads don't look like much on paper I don't really see how they could be improved upon for deer at normal ranges. I might dust off the old club and shoot something with it this year myself.

quote:

I guess that green and yellow round is why so many folks underestimated the power of the 8MM. It just didn't ring the ears like a good 270, lol.

OTOH, one could say Remington was ahead of the times by introducing the first "reduced recoil" load so many years ago!

Very odd those US loads were! Here in Yurrup the standard military load Germany fought WWI with was a 154 grain bullet at 2,900fps!

Yet US cartridge makers were still all "hung up" about older pre-S Bore rifles!

DM, that drilling looks like some serious artillery. How about some close up pix.

quote:

Originally posted by enfieldspares:

quote:

I guess that green and yellow round is why so many folks underestimated the power of the 8MM. It just didn't ring the ears like a good 270, lol.

OTOH, one could say Remington was ahead of the times by introducing the first "reduced recoil" load so many years ago!

Very odd those US loads were! Here in Yurrup the standard military load Germany fought WWI with was a 154 grain bullet at 2,900fps!

Yet US cartridge makers were still all "hung up" about older pre-S Bore rifles!

I was introduced to the power of the 8MM when I bought my Hakim and 1000 rounds of surplus 8MM de-linked machingun ammo. I can't recall what country it was from (probably Turkey?) but it was fast and accurate out to 800 yds or so.

Turkish ammo was all the same. It is the same as s designation German, or light ball. It is real hot!
I bought a case at an estate sale a couple years ago. No one knew what it was, so they did not bid.
When I saw 7.9 Ankara, I knew. I waited till the last second and grabbed 1600 rounds in a sealed case, bandoliers on chargers for $110.00. I also grabbed a sealed 600rnd case of Greece .303 ( labeled 7.7) for $100.00. Reloadable brass!!


My 1st "Big game" rifle, relative to New England, was a sportered 1916 Danzig GEW98 8x57 w/ the original stock, cut sadly, a Lyman receiver sight and original front sight. It was a tack driver. I was hooked!! I use to use Egyptian Military ammo to target shoot and plink with. $2.00 for 60 rounds. I was at the pit one day and a guy came in w/ a model 70, scoped, in .30-06. I was shooting milk jugs filled w/ sand at 100...300 yards. He asked if he could take a few shots at them (w/ his rifle). He was proud to come close or hit a few. Kinda made the jugs move a bit. He was chuckling and said, show me what you got. I had 3 of 3 at 100, 200, and 300 and the jugs exploded. His mouth was hanging open and he asked what the hell is that thing.
I still get that response 20 years later.
I loaded 175gr Sierra pro hunters at 2700+-fps for years. Still do. Outstanding slayer.

Sadly, I sold the Danzig to a freind that needed a good deer rifle. It will be back some day though.

When I was in my early twenties I bought a nice Mauser sporter with claw mounts, Goertz scope, etc., etc.. From an old traditional gunshop. the sort now long gone in England.

(In fact I had a straight Colt 1911 with a "C" prefix from there too for US $180 equivalent as well. Plus the usual Webley Mk VI in 455 for US $35 equivalent).

For about the equivalent of US $150! When a new P-Hale was US $300 equivalent. Ouch! Nobody really much though anything here about these things they were considered relatively "worthless"!

Anyway it was "S" bore but the only FMJ amunition was military surplus. German. Cheap. All mixed up in drums.

You tried to get as much as you could of the same headstamp and didn't much bother whether the annulus was black, blue, pink (really) or whatever! As long as the headstamp matched.

Tried it at my range on mild steel 3/8" falling plates at twenty five yards whilst some Lee Enfield guys were using their 303 rifles. Theirs knocked the plates down.

My Mauser? Kicked like a mule - the rifle was about 6 1/2 pounds weight - knocked the plates down and made clean holes straight through them at the same time!

Next time attention got paid to the headstamps!

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

Here's the wrinkle.....once one chooses to rebarrel it just makes so much sense to use something like a .270, a .280, a .30-06, a .338-06, a .35 Whelen or a 9.3 X 62.....

I have nothing against the 8 X 57...it's everything it's owners claim.....but I'd never rebarrel to that when for the same money I can have more.....maybe not much.....but clearly more!

with that frame of mind, i guess you believe the Scholarship Rifle, ForrestBs' g33/40 and a whole host of other m98 rifle builds should not have been rebarreled to 7x57 ...
people seem rather fond of those Winchester factory .257rob. 6.5x55 and 7x57 Featherweights, pitty there was no 8x57 version.

The last few years I have been nursing a hankering for 358 or 338-08 til one day I was playing with some cast 8X57 and went wait a minute, I have the gun I want right here in the 8X57 and have all I need to load it except some coated projies.

Cast will likely handle most any use I have around here.

quote:

with that frame of mind, i guess you believe the Scholarship Rifle, ForrestBs' g33/40 and a whole host of other m98 rifle builds should not have been rebarreled to 7x57 ...
people seem rather fond of those Winchester factory .257rob. 6.5x55 and 7x57 Featherweights, pitty there was no 8x57 version.

Since I'm a guy that owns a couple 7 X 57 rifles I guess you might be wrong about what you think my frame of mind is.....

Let me repeat.....If I own a 8 X 57 and have chosen to rebarrel it, and I'm paying for it, and I'm the customer then I'll opt for something on the .30-06 case. If I'm keen to own the 8 X 57 then I'll find a way to retain the original barrel!

What others do with their money is fine with me!

I have two 8x57s, and both have new barrels. I couldn't find one with an original or factory barrel that I wanted to mess with. Of course there is the 700, but by the time I bought all the replacment parts to convert it to suit me, I might as well start with a Mauser '98.

Anyway, I got a CZ 550 action from Brownells, and bought a take off American style stock, and had PacNor install a stainless barrel. A gunsmith finished it out, inlettted and bedded it, and a little other tweeking. It's a very good shooter.

Another is on a Mark X Interarms action, and some commercial pre-threaded, pre-chambered barrel that I got off gunbroker, estate sale, so I don't know who made it. I got it cheap, so I took a chance that I was wasting my money, but it worked out well, and shoots acurately. I don't know what make the barrel is, but I do know what it is not. It's not a LW, Shaw, Adams & Bennet. The main thing is that it's accurate, and has a good contour, and it cleans easily with little fouling.

Frankly, I'm much more satisfied with these two rifles than I figure I could ever be with mil-surp stuff.

Also, somehow along the way, good deals now and then, I have acquired the parts to make four more 8x57s. I don't know if I'll actually ever have them finished, but they are ready for a gunsmith's attention. I have one Douglas SS #4 barrel, and two Shilen #3 SS barrels, which are threaded for a Mauser '98, and pre-chambered. I have one CM Lothar Walther barrel, pre-threaded, and pre chambered. Of course there are '98 actions with all the upgraded parts too, however I might use a Ruger SS MKII action with the Douglas barrel. I think that would be a good combo. In summary, all the parts are there for four complete assembled rifles, stocks and all. I like the cartridge so well, that it's hard to imagine having too many 8x57 rifles, but at least one of them is going to become a 8x60S.

I really like handloading for the 8x57. Right now my CZ is sighted in for the Hornady 195gr, and the Mark X is sighted in for the Sierra 175gr, which I plan on using for hogs and deer next chance I get. I'm sure the 8x60S will be much the same, and it's a cartridge that I want to mess with just for fun, certainly not because it's needed, or because it will do something I can't do with a std 8x57 or 30-06. Anyway, the 8x57 is great for handloading. Many powders and bullet combos to choose from, and performance is just plain satisfying - plenty of speed and thump. I'm certain it would whack a moose or brown bear with authority, with a stiff load in a good strong commecial action, like those I have, and using a bullet like the 200gr Swift, or the 200 Barnes TSX, or the 200gr Nosler AB or Partition.

KB

With the same style bullets in each, anything You can do with a 308 or a 30/06 you could do with an 8x57.

There are some very old 8x57's [most with .318 bores] that should not be loaded to modern 8x57 standards, but in a modern rifle is is the equal of the 30/06.