Just bought a rifle chambered in 8x57RJS. Anyone here have experience with the round?
I've fired an express rifle in this caliber and really liked it!

Anyone have a set of dies they no longer need?

8x57 dies should work fine, just use a larger shell plate for the rim.

Rusty,
I haven´t any experience with the 8x57IRS, but here in Germany the 8x57IS and IRS are the classic round´s like the .30-30, .270WCF or the.30-06 in the USA. It´s adequate for deer size game up to wild boar.
In the last years, we, the gun smith´s, can see, that the 8x57 is re-born. Many hunters, especial young hunters will select this round for buying used and new made rifles. All the great German gunmakers will chamber new rifle for this rounds. Ammo is made from RWS, Norma and S&B. Bullet weight´s are made up to 225grs.



Martin

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
Just bought a rifle chambered in 8x57RJS. Anyone here have experience with the round?
I've fired an express rifle in this caliber and really liked it!

Anyone have a set of dies they no longer need?

Isn't that th rimmed version of the 8X57JS? If so, the same set of dies would work for both. The RCBS #26 shell holder is the correct one for this rimmed round. I have an 8X60RS which was a 8x57JRS before being rechambered.

think you are supposed to load it down by about 10-15% in a double rifle. good luck. speer has pretty good bullet selection.

Rusty,
A friend used to have a beautiful double rifle chambered for that round. I was fortunate to shoot it a few times. I thought it was a great round, ala 30-06 as stated above. Be careful as I know that is a .318 dia.round, not the .323 dia. that many 8mm's are. You may want to check to be sure! Just wouldn't want you to have a possible injury situation!

Enjoy!

375er

In Crtridges of the World the bullet Dia. of the 8x57JRS= .324" and all demesions other than the rimms,case length( 2.24"/2.25" ) and cartridge length( 3.17"/3.55"???) are the same. roger

Roger,
That round was originally .318 dia. (late 1800's?)and later changed to .324. Depending on the age of Rusty's gun it maybe .318. Most "newer" rifles were .324 as you stated. The one I shot was .318 and probably an early 1900's vintage piece. I tend to be hyper- cautious when dealing with older guns. Never hurts to check.
375er

if it uses .318" bullets, its called IR or JR

quote:

Originally posted by Steffen-9.3:
if it uses .318" bullets, its called IR or JR

The S on the end of IRS or JRS signifies the .324 dia. roger

The actual bore diameter doesn't matter much. The S is for a spitzer bullet, which has minimal bearing surface compared to the original round nose bullets designed when the bore was .318. A light .323 spitzer bullet will travel down a .318 bore just fine, and many early .318 bore rifles were converted for use during WWII simply by rechambering.

What does matter is the neck diameter of the chamber. Putting a .323 cartridge in a .318 chamber may cause the bullet to stay in the case when fired, creating catastrophic overpressure.

Bottom line: If you have a .318 rifle you can rechamber for the 8x57IS (or IRS) and use lightweight .323 spitzer bullets. However, do not use heavy round nose bullets.

All rifles build in the last 50 years have the .323 diam caliber! The 8x57IRS is together with the 9,3x74R the european "standard" in DR for driven hunts for red deer and wild boars. I use a 8x57IRS in a Chapuis DR with great success, using factory Norma load with the 196grs Vulcan-bullet at +-2500fps. It has not the punch of the 9,3x74R, but because of lesser recoil, you are much faster with the second shot!
If you have an old 8x57IR (.318), don`t use this stupid reduced light .323 loads, these can be dangerous! You can buy RWS or Sellier&Bellot ammunition in the old caliber or load your own ammo with .318 bullets from RWS, Sellier&Bellot, Woodleigh, Degol...., but never put .323 in a .318!

quote:

The actual bore diameter doesn't matter much. The S is for a spitzer bullet, which has minimal bearing surface compared to the original round nose bullets designed when the bore was .318.

The bore size is very importend! The "S" is for spitzer bullet and more Pmax. Never use a .324" bullet in a .318" bore. There three different .318" rounds. The 8x57I, the 8x57IR and the 8x60. The 8x57I, "I" stands for Infanterie, was made in 1888 for the Mauser 88 infanterie rifle. Bullet weight was 226grs and a round nose FMJ. At ~1900 the bullet design, weight (~156grs) and pressure was changed. For service many different bullet were made, "sS", a heavy spitzer for machine gun´s, a "SmK", spitzer with steal core and many others. Many older rifles would be rebarreled or rechambered to .324". This round´s called now, 8x57IS, 8x57IRS and 8x60S. The older "I" rounds are nearly out of production, only the 8x57IR is made by RWS (very expensive) and S&B.
I mean to remember the pressure of the 8x57IRS is nearly 200bar over the 8x57IR.

Martin

Thank you gentlemen. I should have stated that it is a .323 caliber. 8X57JRS is stamped on the barrel! It is a Bernardelli Express 2000, double trigger ejector O/U Express rifle. Not much paper work with the rifle. I don't even know what ammo it was regulated for. I've got an email off to Bernardelli to obtain information.

I had an opportunity to fire a nice O/U on a recent DRSS event and thought it was a wonderful round. I've sent the guy who let me shoot it a bill! It's all his fault!

I'll try to post some pictures when I get a chance.

Rusty,

Whyn't you have a look @ the Nitroexpress.com forum's Reloading & Gunsmithing section (you need to be logged in to view it) - there's a recent discussion about the 8x57JS, i.e. the rimless version and some experiences with that.
For all intents and purposes, the comments there apply to the rimmed round, as well.

Bob F. who also posts on this forum seems to hold it in very high regard (amongst others).

It appears that both 200 and 220grs bullets work very well in this caliber.
You'll find factory ammo from all the European manufacturers; but at quick glance the American companies seem to offer factory ammo only in the rimless version.

Rusty,

You are going to fall in love with this round. It is my favorite whitetail caliber.

I think it is one of the best proportioned rounds of all the medium calibers.



I do not have dies for it yet but have found the 196 grain Sellier and Bellot rounds to be plenty accurate at 100 yds.