In a big game hunting rifle that may not be as much of an issue as in a varmint rifle.AW The only caveat would be somewhat diminished service life of the brass and or firearm over the long term. Loading to full safe potential, actually negates the need for the next larger step up in many cartridge classes, as long as you get the results you need for the job at hand. Again, we likely have powders today that he couldn't have purchased back then.
German mauser rifle bullet comparison full#
If only he'd tried cartridges loaded to the Robert's full potential, he'd have probably been amazed as to how efficient the cartridge could have been. He was unimpressed with it's performance, yet was a huge fan of the. A co-worker mentioned he had owned one at one time, having traded for it. Even SAAMI "standard" loads are nearly 200 FPS better than the old. 30/06 was only in the 2700 FPS range with 150 grain bullets Light Magnum and High Energy loads beat those numbers by nearly 300 FPS. 30/06 is a perfect example of the powders making all the difference.
Of course most factory ammunition was incrementally improved over the decades as powders with slower burns and lower pressure curves became available. With today's powders it's fairly simple to improve on the "old" or original numbers on most if not all cartridges to some degree. The other being the economy factor for folks that really did like to shoot more than the average hunter's box and a half a year. We never got a load truly fine tuned, but it was quickly obvious that the cartridge had some real potential in his sporterized Mauser.Īs for being able to exceed factory levels safely and with accuracy that's two of the three reasons handloading got so popular over the last 30 years. I once dabbled with the 8X57 for a friend in the late 80's. Probably the supply and quality of the rifles dictated that.AW It was just anonther "surplus" cartridge, only somewhat more popular than the 7.62X54R in the old Russian rifles. It's kind of funny that it never gained the popularity as a sporting round that it's predecessor, the 7X57 did. The 8X57 is a fine cartridge design no doubt. It'd probably work even better with current powders. Reportedly the idea was ballistically an improvement as well offering a bit better case capacity.
A lot of fine 98's were thusly rechambered to make use of plentiful '06 brass without case forming after WWII. (wildcatters excepted) A once popular wildcat, the 8mm/06, was the exact inverse of your idea though. Cartridge designers simply thought in one mode or the other. 308" diameter being thought of as strictly American and the 57mm case being German. I guess it probably had as much to do with the. 30X57? You should know that metric and inch sizes are not compatible! Just joking. Whatever loadings they choose should easily meet or exceed common. Something in the 200 grain moose mashing range and something around 150-165 grains for deer size game. Actually a couple of decent loads are called for. 303 British 180 grain load trounced it by a full 100 FPS!įor deer hunting the domestic 8X57 Mauser load is entirely adequate for the job, but it certainly isn't going to cause any excitement being ballistically put out to pasture. I would suggest that Remington load a new (+P if they must) version of the 8X57 in order to compliment the new rifle. The 7X57 Mauser 175 grain load beat it by 80 FPS and obviously had to be doing so at much higher peak pressures due to the smaller bore size. 32 Winchester Special was only 110 FPS slower with the same 170 grain bullet weight! 300 Savage 180 grain load which it beat by 10 FPS with a bullet 10 grains lighter. I just did a quick comparison of Federal Ammunition's specs and found that the poor old 8X57 really is taking a beating in Federal's charts the closest comparison I could find was the. European ammo is of course loaded to achieve top performance in this cartridge.
Most folks here know that the 8X57 is a cartridge that has far more potential than current American factory ammo allows it. The 8X57 cartridge has once again become a topic of discussion with the announcement by Remington of their plans to issue a new Model 700 chambered for this cartridge.