help me choose a rebarrel caliber

[nastynatesfish]

Ok I'm picking up my k98 today. Its a 8mm. I want to chamber it for something that is fun to shoot, not horribally expensive to load for and good for mule deer sized game and under. I have a youth 243 and was thinking about doing that with it,but 105 gr is the max bullet weight and this rifle is going to see range time. I have a single shot 308 and was thinking about that too. I'm starting to think about going back to 8mm and load full power rounds for it but it and the 308 are pretty close balistically. So what the hell to do with it??

 

[jimmyraythomason]

You can go with 30.06,.270 or .280 or any number of calibers without having to modify the action in any way. They would all be good muley medicine. Any of the .308 family would work as well. Handloading the 8x57 would make it very competitive with those listed.

 

[highorder]

Leave it in 8mm!

Surplus ammo is cheap, and European factory (or handloaded) ammo will knock your socks off.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Have it checked for excessive headspace if you leave it 8x57. If it checks good,get some Sellier and Bellot 196 grain SPCE ammo. It's pretty hot stuff compared to American made 8mm ammo.

 

[doc2rn]

I would leave it an 8mm but I always wanted a 257 Roberts too, gotta love choices.

 

[USSR]

6.5x55 would work quite well for you.

Don

 

[nastynatesfish]

I've got to clean all the cosmoline out of it tonite. I picked up 3 boxes of 15 rounds each 196gr yugo ammo for 6bucks a piece! Ill post pics tommorow and shoot is some. Its a yugo arsenal(preduzece 44). Mod 98. Its had the front handguard cut off but it looks to be in good shape. I'm thinking 8mm06? But brass is pricey. Probally go 308 since I have dies already. I just wanna shoot it lol
Its my first mauser I love it already. Either way I'm gonn shoot the piss out of it till I get the new barrel into it.

 

[RonE]

I bought a 30-06 barrel here in the classified section a year ago and had the local gunsmith fit and headspace the barrel and reblue the barrel and receiver. I sold the 8mm barrel for more than I paid for the '06 barrel. The '06 barrel was stepped like the original and it made the rifle into a great deer rifle.

 

[nastynatesfish]

I'm starting to lean towards the 6.5-06. Due to the balistics with 100-140 gr pills. My 7mm shoots the 140-168 great and the 243 from 55-95 so it seems like it fills the void perfectly. Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[jimmyraythomason]

No experience with the 6.5mm-06. I think a .257 Roberts .270 or a .25-06 would also be good choices. You can get a new short chambered barrel in 25.06 from Brownell's for less than $90.

 

[blackops]

260 remington if you want to hunt, have substancial range time, and not break the bank.

 

[nelsonal]

What about .284 Win? Brass is easier to find now than ever with all the F-class folks buying 6.5-284, 7mm bullets are exceedingly popular, and with a short action you'd have the flexibility to load any bullet length. If not that, a 7mm rem mag would require a bolt face change, but would be excellent for any distance shooting.

I like less popular calibers, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Tirod]

It's not all about the barrel, it's the bolt face diameter, too. That's where it has to pick up the round and contain the case head.

 

[nastynatesfish]

k98 mauser

i have a 7mm mag already that i actually just got done rebarreling yesterday. ill post all the pics of progress after this. here is a couple picks of the 98 and it has the .473 bolt face too.

 

[dirtyjim]

if your going to rebarrel it don't shoot it beforehand. just wack it in the head and gut it out. if you know its a good shooter you might not want to go through with the rebarrel.
to me the 8mm-06 isn't worth it, if you want to hot rod an 8mm go with the 8x68S.

its not a rare piece of history either, the yugo's wiped all that out when they stamped the left side of the receiver ring.

 

[nastynatesfish]

Any idea what crest would have been on the top of the receiver. I was gonna try some acid on it to bring it back out. But figured I'd ask if anyone would know what it was and maybe have a picture of one.

 

[bpl]

I'd leave it as an 8mm mauser.

 

[dirtyjim]

i wouldn't of actually had a crest it would have had the code for the factory that made it, contract mausers & most foreign mausers have crests. some people would consider the makers code to be a crest but i don't.
mod98's make good scoped rifle builds simply because your not covering up a nice crest.

 

[shootr]

Well, you have a nice project ahead of you for sure!

I had a similar one and after bedding the action / floating the barrel, found it shot very well in 8 X 57. So that's where I left it.

Worked up a good hunting load and it shoots even better. Just yesterday I sighted in at 100. Fired it 6 times and put three in the bull.

A combo of RL 19and NBT 180. Used it to good effect during deer season year before last.

 

[Robert]

I have a VZ24 slated for a 35 Whelen build. But there is nothing wrong with 8mm. Load it right and it 'll everything 30-06 will do.

 

[Captcurt]

Personally I would have to do a 260 Rem. I had a compact Ruger in that caliber and was very impressed. Now Nosler has a 100gr partition that will sizzel out of a 22 inch barrel. We're talking 240 weatherby velocities. And I can attest to the effectiveness of the 120gr on whitetails.