How accurate can a 8mm Mauser be?

[Lovesbeer99]

I haven't seen or heard of anyone using a match grade 8mm, but I did notice that some bullet companies offer 8mm match rounds for reloading. I'm trying to get my mauser project together and wondering if I should keep it an 8mm or convert to a .308 (actually I'm also considering the .338 fed).

Also has anyone taking an old milsurp and just did work to the barrel (recrown, rechamber or anything) and gotten good results?

Thanks and shoot safe (I do)
Lovesbeer99

 

[ZeroJunk]

I shot one that belonged to a friend back in the early 70's. It had the stock barrel with a sporter wood stock. It would shoot a 2 inch group at 100 yards. Not tack driving, but not bad.

 

[vector248]

I have never rechambered or rebarreled a mil-suplus, but if i was going to a mauser action (assuming it was a 98 action) is a good place to start. that said i think you could buy a good savage or a used remington 700 in your desired caliber for less than it would take a gunsmith to redo the mauser.

 

[jlacy]

I think the 8X57 can be as accurate as any armature reloader can make any other round.
I have a Old non matching turk that I draw filed the contours out of the barrel, Cut down to 26", Re-crowned, Welded on a new bolt handle, B-Square mount and cheap 6X BSA Scope. Reworked the original stock and bedded the action, full floating barrel. $29 for the rifle, another $50 for parts not including the scope and a lot of my free time.
With standard hand loads and "regular bullets" it will do 2 MOA (2") for 5 shot groups at 100 yrds.
With weight matched cases, neck sized only and MatchKing 200gr bullets it will do 1 MOA pretty constantly. I think with this scope that is the best I can ask for.
The 200gr MatchKings are a hard to find. When I find some I buy a few boxes.
This rifle just seems to like the 200 gr bullets, where as many of my other 8X57 like the 140-160grs.
Load development is always the key.

 

[dakotasin]

Also has anyone taking an old milsurp and just did work to the barrel (recrown, rechamber or anything) and gotten good results?

yeah... in my mauser experimentation stage about 3 years ago, i beat the snot out of some mil-surps, just to see what they could handle (and i clearly remember setting one of the mausers out in the grass on a 105° day, and unboxing the ammo and letting it also sit in the sun for about 30 minutes, then ran 60 rounds through the beast as fast as i could just to see what would happen - it was fun, but the gun survived).

i had a czech 98/22 that i spent a lot of time w/ running factory loads over a chronograph and tracking the results at 300 yards (after i had a 'smith d&t and do bolt handle work). the results were surprising, actually. i started w/ the as-issued long barrel, shot it, then had the 'smith crown it, shot it, then had 2" cut off and crowned it, shot it, then 2 more inches etc etc etc until i reached 16.5". then, i did it again w/ some poor turk rifle. then one last time w/ a vz. bottom line... the military barrels were capable of acceptable accuracy (roughly 3 moa) by just getting rid of a couple inches of barrel and putting a decent crown on. then came load development... so, yeah, i've played a little. in the end, i had a full-blown custom built from the 98/22 and chambered for '8mm mauser'. the 17" shilen barrel will shoot under moa w/ handloads (175 sierras) and a good rest. and, the tubb final finish system took one of the 2 moa mausers and turned it into a 4 moa mauser... fwiw.

 

[stolivar]

got an old turk 38

Bent the bolt, lowered safety, scope mounts and nikon scope on it. It will do 1/2 inch groups with reloads.



steve

 

[GD]

Of all the mausers I own, the 3 Czech M98/22's that I have are the most accurate. I average 1-2 MOA (the best I can generally do) with all of these rifles. Except for my Swedes, my other mausers average 3-4 MOA. The sights on these rifles start at 400 yards so they shoot 6-10" high at 100 yards. I found all of these rifles for $100 or less. I've notice lately they have gone up considerably in price when I find them.

 

[Vaarok]

Lapua makes match 8mm ammo, so I guess somebody somewhere has one that'll shoot well.

Personally, despite the 300m battle sight on my 1905 DWM Gew98, it's far more accurate than I am.