What happens if a 7.92mm Mauser is fired in a 30-06?

I think it would be an out of battery slamfire mis diagnosed as a locked breech KBOOM

You'd not only have to set a 8x57 bullet back into the case to chamber it in a 30/06 but neck the case down as well requiring some very forceful bolt closing.

As RW said, I don't think you could chamber the 8mm round in a 30-06 chambered rifle but it would be easy to check..... without pulling the trigger.

Hatcher reported a case of a Springfield demolished by cramming in an 8mm.
It must have been a max chamber and a minimum cartridge plus a heavy hand on the bolt.

I don't know about 7.92mm Mauser in a .30-'06, but there is a case where three .35 Remington cartridges were fired out of a Type 99 Arisaka. The shooter had to use a mallet to beat the bolt handle down.

On the third shot, the receiver had enough of this foolishness and blew apart.

The shooter lived to tell the tale, but only after a piece of Japanese steel was removed from his brain.

Be careful out there....

Some may be missing the point that the 8mm cartridge is shorter than an 06 round. I dont think you have to size the neck and all that down.

Somebody do it and see how hard it is.

Malamute said:

Some may be missing the point that the 8mm cartridge is shorter than an 06 round. You don't have to size the neck and all that down.



Somebody do it and see how hard it is.

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It's not that much shorter though.

The neck of a x57 is partially in the neck of a x62 one

It's not that much shorter though.

The neck of a x57 is partially in the neck of a x62 one

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True. Im curious how hard it would actually be to get an 8mm to chamber in an 06 though.

It was supposedly one of the reasons Winchester stopped making the 1895 if I'm remembering my old saved notes correctly.

What happens if a 7.92mm Mauser is fired in a 30-06?

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So, according to Winchester, was the attachments mention, a soft point 236 gr cartridge gave 90.000 psi, and a 227 gr full jacket load gave an estimated 120,000 psi, estimated because their equipment wasn't able to register that level of pressure.

ETA: I found the old articles I was looking for.

Darwin in action if you have to hammer the bolt handle to get it to close.....

Darwin in action if you have to hammer the bolt handle to get it to close.....

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So you've done it? You had to hammer the bolt handle to get it to close?

I wonder how they got the bolt of the 95s to close?

There is this old thread from 2009...
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-433038.html

Anyone who thinks they can make something idiot proof underestimates the ingenuity of idiots.

On the gun room wall of Colorado School of Trades, there is a nice Weatherby rifle in pieces. Apparently someone assumed since it was a Weatherby rifle in 7mm Mag, it was a 7mm Weatherby Mag. So when the round fit tight, they pounded the handle down, thinking it was just tight because it was new. When he pulled the trigger, he experienced a SCLID (sudden catastrophic load induced disassembly). So the gun sits in pieces as a warning. Probably meant as a warning to pay attention to markings, but I thought of it as a warning about the ingenuity of idiots.

I'm not sure that's the actual story of the gun, but that's the one I was told. Stories have a way of changing, but I like this version...

I once read a story of a guy looking to make the ultimate shotgun she'll by loading a 20ga shell (complete) into a 12 ga wad. The action held, but the barrel didnt. About 10 inches or so in the barrel swelled, ruptured probably around 20 inches, and the remaining portion of the barrel was hanging on by a sliver. Now that I think of it, it was not at all unlike the gun on display at conservation camp when I was a kid. The difference between the two failures is that one was loaded intentionally, the other was a true accident. In neither case the shooter died, but if I remember correctly both had a date with a surgeon and a metal detector.

MountainBear,
Your first 2 lines in your post is one of the most factual statements I've ever read in my life. If you guys want, I own both a Turkish 8x57 and a M70 '06. I'd be happy to check tomorrow and see how hard it is to feed and get the bolt closed. But I'm not pulling the trigger. Sorry.

In the same vein, there was a long time moderator on TFL who was adamant in his position that the Type 99 (1939) Arisaka was designed intentionally so a desperate Jap out of ammo could cram captured .30-06 ammunition into the 7.7x58 chamber.

You have to be careful what you see on the internet.

The shoulder diameter of the 7.92X57 cartridge is 0.434". The shoulder diameter of the .30-06 is 0.441". This means a 7.92X57, aside from being a quarter inch shorter than a .30-06, should easily chamber in a .30-06.

Why would anyone want to approach STUPIDITY with such a gesture?

But Vern, the case neck diameter of 8x57 is .3493" mouth, .3507" at shoulder.
The chamber neck diameter of .30-06 is .3404/.3425".

Going to take some grunt on the bolt handle to size down that neck and bullet.

Not necessarily. That extra quarter inch of chamber length will allow the nose of the 8mm bullet some space before it rams into the lede.

No, the 8mm bullet will strike the lands of the 30-06 chamber about .060" before the cartridge is fully chambered. The neck of the 8mm cartridge, which is about .009" bigger in diameter, will contact the neck area of the 30-06 chamber about .100" before the cartridge is fully chambered. And because the shoulder angle of the 8mm is 20 degrees instead of the 17 degree 30-06 chamber the cartridge would have to be pounded pretty hard to fit.

I stand corrected in regards to the shoulder, the shoulder wont even touch because of the length difference but the neck will have to be compressed to fit inside the neck area of the 30-06 and the bullet will have to be pushed further in to the case since it's diameter is .015" larger than the grove diameter of the 30-06 bore.

It's not perfect but this is a fairly accurate rendering of how the cartridge (black lines) and the chamber (red lines) would fit.


The two circles indicate where there would be contact. Notice the major diameter differences between the bullet and the bore.

I think successfully chambering an 7.92 Mauser ("8x57") cartridge in a .30-06 chamber would really crimp the case neck into the bullet, creating serious bullet pull.
7.92x57 neck diameter: 0.357 inch (9.08 mm)
.30-06 neck diameter: 0.340 inch (8.6 mm)
Then there's swaging a 0.324 inch jacketed bullet down to 0.308 inch groove diameter barrel.

The current Wikipedia article shows a photo of the 7.92x57 flanked by 4 common rifle rounds including a .30-06.

9.3x62mm; .30-06 Springfield; 7.92x57 IS; 6.5x55; .308 Winchester.
photo created by user Kalashnikov at en.wikipedia; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

What happens if a 7.92mm Mauser is fired in a 30-06? You get a fire formed 30-06 case with a short neck.

One of my uncles had bought a 30-06 built on a military Mauser 98 action from my father. I don't recall which one, but it was a beautiful rifle with deep bluing and a nice walnut Monte Carlo stock. One afternoon, as we all sat in our camp at the foot of the Tehachipi Mountains, my uncle, who had imbibed more than a few too many beers, decided to shoot his new '06. He grabbed a few rounds of ammo, loaded his rifle, staggered a few steps away from the camp and cut loose. The recoil shoved him staggering back into the camp spinning him halfway round. Somehow, he stayed on his feet.

"Boy", he said to my father. "I don't know what you put in those reloads, but they kick hard!" He went to work the bolt so he could fire another shot but it was quite stiff. Us kids watched with amusement as my father, with the "help" of my drunken uncle, prized open the stuck bolt. Dad took the extracted case and studied it. It looked like an '06 case but the neck was too short. Dad unloaded the ammo from the mag and squinted at it. My uncle had loaded his '06 with my cousin's 8mm ammo and had managed to chamber and fire one through it.

My uncle had struggled a bit to chamber the round, but I thought it was because he was inebriated and none of us ever tried it for ourselves

This means a 7.92X57, aside from being a quarter inch shorter than a .30-06, should easily chamber in a .30-06.

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I just tried to load both a Winchester Super-X 170pp (8x57) and a Sellier and Bellot 196 grn SPCE 8x57js cartridge into one of my Colombian Model 98 Mausers chambered in 30.06 Springfield. NEITHER round would allow the bolt to close. Oh, and I DID remove the firing pin before trying this....just so you know.