Gewehr 98 shoots inconsistent POI

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Alas, the danger of ordering ammo on a holiday: I got an out-of-stock / no-backorder / cancelled-sale / refunded email from PSA. Project status moved to on-hold. :thumbdown:
 
Try pushing a patch down the bore very slow, checking for loose spots.
OK, I'm sorry, not sure what you're doing here. Looking for loose material in the bore? As thoroughly as it's been cleaned, scrubbed and patched I'm confident there's not so much as a speck loose in there. There might easily be some pitting that's too small to be seen with the naked eye, but only repeated cycles of shooting and thorough cleaning are going to deal with that. For that, I need to get the ammo first.
 
Not loose material, loose spots in the bore, as in bulges that are to small to see. Use a patch that fits snugly and push it slowly down the bore. If you hit a loose area, you will feel less pressure while pushing the patch.
 
Ah, OK, I gotcha. Your explanation makes sense and would account for the behavior. I'll pay real close attention to "feel" next bore cleaning. Next question: would such a bulge be caused by a local buildup that could be remediated by aggressive scrubbing?
 
Ah, OK, I gotcha. Your explanation makes sense and would account for the behavior. I'll pay real close attention to "feel" next bore cleaning. Next question: would such a bulge be caused by a local buildup that could be remediated by aggressive scrubbing?
Bulges in the barrel can not be fixed by cleaning. If the bulges are not to bad, the gun may preform better with flat base bullets.
I have found, over the years, that heavy cleaning of a barrel that has some pitting does not help. Most often it hurts the accuracy. Copper fowling tends to fill the pitting.
 
Bulges in the barrel can not be fixed by cleaning. If the bulges are not to bad, the gun may preform better with flat base bullets.
I have found, over the years, that heavy cleaning of a barrel that has some pitting does not help. Most often it hurts the accuracy. Copper fowling tends to fill the pitting.
100%. I,ve shot some old milsurps to see what the accuracy was like and it was Ok. Then did the soak n scrub routine to get as clean as possible. Some shot like crap. So I adopted doing a routine cleaning to get anything loose out then trying it. If they are in the acceptable accuracy range for the model I leave it alone. Just clean for the shooting I did. I seem to notice this more on the old WW1 models with the real deep rifling. Don't know why.
 
An undersized bullet diameter will affect consistency, but the PPU bullets are (supposedly) "proper" diameter

I'm not a 8x57 expert so I'm not totally educated on when the cartridge changed bullet diameters from .318 to .323, but my first thought was that you might have been shooting the wrong bullets. I see that Prvi offers 2 different 8x57 ammos, IS and IRS. Not much detail as to bullet specs was given, but could there be 2 diameters offered, and you're shooting the wrong one?
 
He answered that but good thought..
The barrel is stamped "S" so it's chambered for a 7.92 x 57 mm cartridge with 154 grain Spitzer bullet of 0.323 in diameter. The PPU bullets are 196 gr and 0.323 in. Do you think the heavier weight is a factor? I'm going to try S&B ammo, but their bullet weight is the same. I don't know what the profile is.
Knew a guy that bought one of the Steyr M95 straight pulls in 8x56R. Shot great with surplus. He tried reloading it and couldn't hit anything. He said he used .323 bullets. But it takes .329 ones. Those darn Europeans.
 
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:rofl::thumbup:
I'm pretty sure the PPU bullets are the proper 0.323 diameter because their bullet catalog matches that diameter with the same weight.

Yes I know you verified it in the earlier post. Thats why I quoted it for the other poster who question if you may have used the wrong bullet diameter.. Some how all was highlighted. I just added the .329 variation of 8mm as another point of confusion.. People need to read the whole thread before commenting. The variations of all the foreign rounds just looped into bullet diameters is very confusing. Good luck
 
I actually read the whole thread before I posted. I've been pretty sure about a lot of things in my life that turned out not to be true.

For example, measure the bullet diameter of PPU 7.5x55 ammo. I keep getting about .306" which is also the diameter of GP11. PPU only lists a .308 diameter 174 gr. FMJ in their catalog. Most people only load .308 projectiles into that cartridge. I was pretty sure that Prvi did too.
 
....People need to read the whole thread before commenting. ...
Ha ha!! I've been around message boards and forums since the '80's and I can guarantee you it'll never happen. I'm as much to blame as anyone. So it's best to just live with it, I think. Good luck to you as well. :)
 
For example, measure the bullet diameter of PPU ... ammo. ....
IMO PPU has a rep of not being too particular about their bullet specs. Anything said about what bullet is supposed to be in any given caliber casing is just weighing the probabilities of what's most likely, until it's actually been checked. My calipers aren't good enough to differentiate between the two FMJBT bullets diameters offered by PPU in 198 grains. Worse yet their 8 mm Mauser ammo box specs 196 grains. I just go with what's most likely....the closest match in the catalog. But it's not a certainty. So ... I throw up my hands and wait for some other brand of ammo to try. Meanwhile moving on to some other project........
 
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