Anybody have any favorite 8x57 Mauser cast bullet loads?

[Gewehr98]

I just took receipt of a few hundred nicely-made 175gr round nose gas checked cast bullets in 8mm (.323") for my sons' Turkish Mausers. They were complaining about recoil from the 170gr and 198gr full-speed jacketed bullet loads, so I figured I'd treat them to the fun that is cast bullet shooting. I've got Alliant 2400 and Accurate XMP5744 as my first choices, but I also have some IMR3031 and Reloder 7 that could be brought into service. I'd like to make some loads that fill the case enough to not be position sensitive, yet not leave a bunch of unburned powder down the barrel and in front of the benchrest. Anybody dabble in the 8mm Mauser cast bullet world?

 

[cracked butt]

16-18 gr of 2400 shoot get you on paper. You will probably need to set your rear sight to around 600 yards to be close at 100. Its almost the perfect reduced load cast bullet powder as its seemingly not position sensitve.


Did you mic your .323 bullets? One forseeable problem is that they will be more than likely be undersized in a mauser rifle. All of my rifles slug out to .3235-.325" range, and ideally you want your bullet to be .0005" or more larger in diameter than the throat. They should bump up when you shoot them if the allow isn't too hard, but they might give you some leading problems. They might shoot well, but you just can't know until you try.