Hello,
Ended up with a bench full of Mausers/VZ24's and some G33/40's and am in process of fitting Argentine bottoms, low swing safety, new action screws, box full of like new military barrels, and general "clean up" of the actions and been giving thought to subject caliber and would appreciate any feed back, good or bad, others may have had with this caliber.

Have rechambered and owned the 8mm-06 and don't know of any down side other than possible magazine length trying to seat long bullets out too far.

FYI! With one 8mm-06 that was rechambered for me there was a piloting problem and the new chamber was a hair off center from the first. Maybe even slightly angular. This was witnessed from fired cases as the neck end of the X57 case was evident on the X06 case neck more on one side than the other.The 8mm06 chamber neck diameter was close to .002" smaller than the original. Bolt handle lift was somewhat harder than you would expect with reasonable loads.

A friend of mine in Alaska still carries one I rechambered and sporterized for him in 1968. roger

Driver

When I was a kid about the only rifles I could afford were surplus mausers. There was no way i could afford to have them re-chambered so they stayed as 8 x 57. Nothing at all wrong with the 8x57. Same bullets as the 8/06 at nearly the same velocities and now that good brass is available even that problem is gone. JMHO

BTW, those 33-40 actions are worthless. Send them to me and i'll dispose of them for you, for free.

Ray

Hey Cheechako,
Well, you make a good point ( for a cheechako!!!) about the 8x57 and been wondering why I want to alter a perfectly good rifle/caliber. Helps to bounce ideas around at times, but I have decided to use those 33/40s as door stops since everyone tells me they are not good and just send them on.

Thanks for the feedback and will start hording my stash of 8x57 brass and bullets. I have many pounds of powder both civilian stuff as well as military surplus so should work out good.

PS Spent few winters in the mountains of Arizona on construction and mining equipment training facility. Highlight of the year back then to get away from the snow and winter weather for 3-4 weeks.

Well, I like the standard 8x57 too, but I've already got a couple, so I've got a vz24 that's gonna end up as an 8mm-06 AI. Coupla reasons:

You can ream it without removing the barrel
It'll clean up any throat erosion
Figure if I'm gonna do a wildcat, might as well use AI---same cost and amount of work.

I'm interested in the 8mm-06 AI, as I've seen some load data that's supposedly stepping on the heels of .338 WinMag. There's now quite a variety of 8mm bulets available for reloading, to experiment with.

driver-you can certainly send all those worthless G33/40's my way.

Mark D