8mm Mauser

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Commander Guineapig

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some dealer at todays gun show saw me looking at his mausers.
We proceeded to chat...and he mentioned that 8mm Mauser ammo
is cheap and plentiful with ballistics not dissimilar to a 30-06.
Is he full of it, or is that about right?
On another note, this show is FULL of Milsurp Bolt actions, so I've gotten
to handle a ton of stuff today. (*boggled*)
I have to admit...the Mausers are pretty awesome...and well...so
are the Enfields...and well..Mosins are pretty sweet too...and...and..
kinda the answer to my "what's the draw to Milsurps?" poll.
I get it now. I can't explain it, but I get it.
gP
 
A good 8mm Mauser with the proper load will compare well with a .30-06 allot of the factory 8mm Mauser ammunition is downloaded in power, it is IIRC a 3.23 caliber.

The Mauser was designed to and did work in the harshest of environments under conditions many could not imagine today to include all out trench warfare in dirt sand snow ice and mud.

It action has been used and copied since 1898 and for many it is the preferred action for dangerous game being a control feed action.

A good Mauser belongs in any collection as does an SMLE & Enfield MK IV and a 91/30 and 1891 Mosin Nagant and later on when funds allow it an M1 Garand and M1 Carbine.

Its like potato chips you can't stop with only one.:neener:
 
Some of the military surplus, Turkish comes to mind, is quite hot! I would say ever bit as potent as a .30-06 or more possibly.

Most surplus is corrosive too. Got to clean.

Remington soft points are pretty mild, and work well for hunting deer. Shoots good in my K98k.
 
8mm Mauser ammo is cheap and plentiful

WAS cheap and plentiful. WAS, past tense. Only place the cheap 8mm is plentiful now is in the closets and safes of the people who had the wisdom to buy it cheap and stack it deep.

The stuff he said about ballistics was about right, though.

jm
 
Check gunbroker and auctionarms, 8mm surplus still shows up occasionally for good prices...

For new brass reloadable ammo the S&B ammo is my favorite, it's not loaded real weak like most American ammo is in this caliber. Usually seems to cost somewhere around 15-17 dollars a box of 20...
 
Comparing GI ammo, the 8mm (7.9) is probably better than the .30-'06. Guaranteed, no one on the receiving end would know the difference.

Jim
 
Just to plug for military-surplus rifles and calibers, remember- these were military issue. Rugged as possible, built right, and no expense was spared arming the soldiers. You can buy guns with more than a thousand dollars worth of workmanship quality for a hundred bucks simply because they're obsolete for military service and they'd rather sell 'em for pennies than scrap them.

As for 8mm, in the USA (Remington and Winchester) they load the cartridge with a light powder charge and with an undersized (.319-.320) bullet for liability reasons.

There are German Commission of 1888 rifles (and various European turn-of-the-century sporting rifles) floating around which were chambered for the early version of the 8mm cartridge, which had a slightly smaller barrel diameter than all rifles made after 1905. Germany made it illegal in 1905 to make new firearms chambered for the old cartridge dimensions because of this safety risk, but lots of GIs brought home guns built before the cutoff as souvenirs from WW2.

Just about anything military you find at a gunshow, other than the GEW 88, will be just fine to shoot with any ammo you find.

Also, for "real" loadings of 8mm, S&B, Privi Partisan, Lapua, Norma, and Wolf Gold all make 8mm at full power with a proper size bullet. It's big enough and hot enough for moose.
 
8mm isn't quite as plentiful as it was even just a couple years ago... I am sure there are millions of rounds sitting in a warehouse somewhere that will get shipped here soon enough (as long as hillary doesn't get elected and ban importation of ammo).

Everything else you heard is quite accurate.
 
Everyone has got ya covered just wanted to add to what Rocky, mentioned, there is still ALOT of 8 mm surplus sitting in Bosnia, right now as well as a few other European countries, the BATF however is kinda dragging its feet on approving form 6s to allow import of any surplus arms/ammo, new commercial stuff is no problem, everyone in the government is waiting to see what happens with the 08 elections if we get a non-gun friendly pres such as Hillary or Obama then ya can forget any future surplus ammo imports, if we get a pres like Ron Paul or Huckubee then the BATF will jump right back into approving the form 6s without issue and we will once again have shipping containers arriving full of ammo as long as its not comming from a country thats signed a pact with the UN forbidding them from exporting any military arms or ammo etc.. (pretty much any country in Europe as the UN has already infected those countries as well as Africa) if not for the UN getting Africa to pass laws forbidding the export of military ammo we'd be flooded in 7.62x51 NATO and .303 British as well as 7.62x39 but alas ........ that source is dead forever all that ammo is being destroyed now rather than sold :(
 
8mm marked "j" only is for older rifles, Sellior & Belliot makes some. It will shoot in your later rifle, it just won't be as acurate. And no, it's not gone, it is just hard to find. I have been buying the Turkish surplus and the Yugo surplus at two different gun stores. One of the gun stores also has cases of the Romanian steel cases stuff. There is also an effort to bring in the match grade 8mm for the M-76 Yugoslavian sniper rifle. Besides the Mausers, the other semiautomatics are thew Hakin and the Egyptian FN-49. Hakims are still pretty reasonable, but the FN-49s have become quite expensive. Bear in mind, the majority of the 8mm surplus is corrosive, just clean well after shooting. Don't confuse the 8 x 56 ammunition for the regular 8mm. The 8 x 56 was made for the Steyr M-95 carbine.
 
8mm mauser (7.92mm X 57mm) was a lot more fun when Turk rifles were $29 each, brand new Yugos were $89, and ammo was <$.06 a round.;) The Russian capture Mausers are the cheapest real German rifles available now.

Enfields are actually still a pretty good deal, and ammo is still available.

Today the Mosin-Nagant is the best deal, but ammo for that is starting to drying up.

And every body needs a Garand, and ammo surplus is right now a great deal.

The list goes on and on, it was great to win the Cold War:D
 
Ah. . . my beloved byf 43, my first K98k:

byf43Mauser.jpg


Ammo is nowhere near as plentiful as it used to be.
Fortunately, I have several cases sitting in the corner of my loading room.

A good friend had the forethought to buy it while it was cheap, and stacked it deep.
He bought two PALLETS of the stuff!!!!


While this could constitute 'bubba-ism', I got my hands on a NEW '06 chambered barrel in the Mauser K98k contour and had a rear sight mount put on it.
I have another K98k that I am thinking about putting that '06 barrel, on.

I have another friend that re-barreled a K98k to .308, and the barrel contour is the same as the K98k.
 
I'm getting 8mm surplus right now for 11.00 for 70 rounds on strippers in the bandoleer. Its corrosive and feels a little hot compared to some of the factory stuff I have shot. A hardware store locally has a few cases of it and I have buying and shooting quite a bit of it lately. Pretty good stuff.
 
I was at a gun show in september, romanian 8mm was going for $100/380 round sardine tin!!! I'm glad that I picked up 2 full cases last year before the huge price increase. As far as commercial ammo goes, I only use wolf gold. It is excellent quality and ~$15/20 rounds
 
hey guys. I got in late on the Mauser bug... years, decades, who knows!

where is the best place to get stripper clips for my Turk (38) and my Yugo 24/47? they look like they use the same clip, no?

also, I would like to find a new or near new barrel for the Turk. I cant seem to find a small ring barrel in 8MM...

sorry for the near hijack; I just need some help from you fine folks.
 
I'm not sure if it's a special or not, but I just picked up 100 rounds of wolf gold from ammoman.com for $75 (no shipping/handling charges). For my use if I have 120-160 rounds of ammo for a boltie I'm in pretty good shape as I reload when I get 100 empties and for me a pretty heavy session is 30-40 rounds. FWIW (I picked up a russian capture k98 with a really nice bore last week. :) )

Have a good one,
Dave
 
one more thing on the 8mm...it does great on hogs and deer.my k98k so far has taken 1 hog and 2 deer.I used the 196 gr norma sp and bang flop:).doesn't get any better than that.
pete
 
believe it or not the 154grn 7.92x57 load used by the Germans in WWII was a good deal MORE powerfull than either the 150 or 174grn 30-06 load used by the US army


154g 7.92x57 velocity 2880 fps, energy 2835ft lbs

150g M2 ball velocity 2740 fps, energy 2500ft lbs

172g M1 ball velocity 2640fps, energy 2660ft lbs
 
This year is my first year whitetail hunting and I'm going to be doing it with my 1938 K98.

I normally use some surplus FMJ rounds for shooting, so I picked up some Winchester SuperX 170-Grain Power Point rounds yesterday for like $24.
It hurts the wallet, but I need them.

I love reading historical accounts of WWII and firing, holding and seeing how the weapons actually feel just amazes me.
I don't think I could have dragged this thing all over Europe, if I was in the war.
 
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