Can anyone tell me how many 8mm styles were made? The reason is someone had an 8mm here to sell-I haven't seen it yet only talked on the phone. The seller doesn't know squat about it but shot all his bullets and didn't keep a sample. It's a military surplus firearm and I'm a little interested in it. The gun shop only knew about 8mm rem mag. I bet it's not a remington if it's mil. surp. Any suggestions? If it was a remington I'd buy it in a second just for a plinker.

the chef

there are dozens of mil surp guns in 8mm.anywhere from the 1888 mauser to an fn 49 and probably many more after that.

Do they all take the same cartridge? That's what I need to know.

thanks!!

the chef

no they dont.if its nice,buy it if its cheap,pay a gunsmith $25 to tell you what it is

Chef:

The 10th edition of Cartridges of the World lists 11 different military 8mm cartridges. Bullet diameters can vary from .318" to .329". Then there are a host of commercial and wildcat 8mms that it could have been rechambered or rebarrelled for. As suggested by JB, an expert examination is called for.

Cheers, Al

All that said, most surplus 8mms that you'll run into are the 8x57mm Mauser cartridge, used originally by Germany since 1888 and adopted by many other countries.

Even the 8x57 mauser comes in two different claibers .318 on the early ones like the 1888 and .323 like the K98's M48's ect. To Top that off the .318 has a lower max pressure than the .323 versions. See:

http://www.cruffler.com/Features/JUL-01/trivia-July01.html

That said , if in any doubt whatsoever, get a Pro to cast and measure your chamber.

Just browsing the Reloaing Die list at Midways I count 14 different 8mm offerings ..

http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.exe/browse?TabID=1&Cat...=9315***731***702***

It would be pretty easy to tell you if you could tell us a little more about the rifle. It is 96.3% likely that it shoots the most common .323 bullet. American loadings are whimpy, but still perfectly good for shootin and huntin.

There is a slight chance that you might stumble accross .318 bore mauser, but very unlikely.

Your only sure bet is to have a chamber cast made that is long enough to let you measure the case and bore. Another way to narrow it down would be to id the rifle. That will give you an idea, but a cast would confirm it.
BTW I wouldn't use the shop that only knew of the 8mm Remington Mag. Sounds like they wouldn't have the expertise!

In all probability, it is chambered for the 7.92X57mmJS cartridge, as are all German and many other countries' "8mm" military rifles made following the Gewehr 1888 "Mauser & Commission" rifles developed by the Germans and originally chambered for the 7,8X57J cartridge.

This old round, the 7,8X57J, used .318" bullets instead of the .323" bulllets used in the later 7.92X57JS cartridge. 7.92X57mm JS rounds should not be used in the M1888 rifle, or any commercial/custom-made rifle having a .318" groove diameter.

I know of NO MILITARY MAUSER M98-type RIFLES made after 1905 with .318" groove-diameter bores, as even the M1888's had .321"-.322" groove bores, despite the fact that they shot .318" bullets in them. My understanding is that the only Mauser rifles ever made with .318" groove diameter barrels were made by commercial concerns and civilian gunsmiths, not those made by the German Ordnance Department for use on military weapons. There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this.

(In the early days of smokeless powder arms in Europe, many rifles were used with bullets smaller than the rfle's groove diameter-such as using .318" bullets in .321"-.322" groove-diameter barrels!)

Of course, it COULD BE CHAMBERED FOR ONE OF THE TONS OF OTHER 8mm cartridge, like the 8mm Lebel (France, the 8X50R or 8X56R (Austria-Hungary), the 8X64 (Sweden), the 8mm Danish Krag, or one of the 8mm Siamese rounds. But not likely!

Right on, El D -

Also it is worth noting that U.S. Commercial 8x57 (or 7.9x57) ammo using .323" bullets is loaded to low enough pressures that it is quite safe to fire in .318" bores. And it is done on purpose for expressly that reason...they never know which bore the ultimate purchaser may use it in.

That does NOT hold true with surplus military ammo, though. It may well produce somewhat excessive pressure when fired through a .318" bore.


If everyone thinks back to the origins of the .30-06, as it evolved from the .30-03, it was because the Germans had moved to .323" bore diameter with the Spitzer geshoss no later than 1905, that the U.S began experimenting with the same "pointy bullet" concept.

That resulted in our going to the 150 gr. spitzer-type bullet from our .220 gr. round nose, and the recalling of U.S. Springfields for shortening of the barrel and re-chambering/rethroating.

Anyway, it was about 1905 that the Germans began using exclusively the .323" groove diameter in their M'98 production, just as El D states.

Many '98 sporters were made up by small German shops from old .318" bore military rifles, clear up util the 1930 era, but reportedly not new military M'98 rifles.