I have had my German '42 Mauser since around 1981. Bought it when I was stationed at Ft. Hood.
Loved shooting the cheap surplus ammo at steel targets on the range there. Even 300M with the iron sights was not a problem.
Honestly, it kicks a heck of a lot less than my '37 Mosin Nagant.
Unfortunately, as mentioned, the cheap surplus is gone and I'm down to my last spam can of 8mm (Romanian 151gr light Ball),
so I started reloading for it in 2020.
A lot of the surplus I used over the years was steel cased, but 8x57 brass is available.
The M1903 is a copy of a German Mauser and 30.06 cases can be reformed to create 8mm Mauser and I successfully did that when I could not find brass cases or brass cased ammo.
My Kar98k especially likes the heavier bullets. My best results so far have been with PPU 196gr SP bullets.
Like you, I like to have more than just a range toy.
I'm old now and my eyes are not what they used to be, so I added a scope.
I did not want to tap/drill my rifle so I bought a mount from BadAce Tactical that replaces the leaf sight and mounted a Vortex 2x7x32 Scout Scope (long eye relief) for hunting.
No permanent modifications to the rifle and I can put it back to original if I want.
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