Marstar Swedish 8mm surplus ammo

sledge said:
I have tweaked the "Andy" method of stripping the bullets and it took me 2 hours to strip an entire belt of 250 rounds. Under the supervision of Andy the first time we found out that the brass is brittle around the neck. So with strong hands you can "crack" the brass and easily remove the bullet without spilling a grain of powder. I tried out the powder and bullets in 8x57 Mauser and got excellent results. 45gr will get you 2250 fps in a K98. The projectiles are long giving lots of good contact with the rifling. I am looking forward to trying more recipes at longer ranges.

At the price of the returned belt, 30 cents a projectile, and 25$ a lb of this surplus powder I calculated each belt nets $134.50 in components. I am giving away the brass to a friend who will deprime it himself and sell it for the metal.
For $40 a belt that's a great bargain. However once you add in shipping it brings the "profitability" factor down quite a bit.

Unless you A) buy a massive order with friends and split the crazy shipping prices, or B) are lucky enough like me and live driving distance to Marstar, it's likely not a worthwhile venture. However with A or B it's a no brainer. The values I put on the belt, projectile, powder are on the low side as well - to factor in the labour time. IMR 4064 is $33.75 a pound at Higginson's if you buy 8lbs of it. Hornady 323 jacketed bullets start at 43 cents.

I am pretty happy with this stuff but it's too bad all those cheap 8x63 MG barrels at Sarco can't be brought up here. Until that happens this is really component use only.

Cheers,
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I loaded some up with 44 grains and it cycled my mg34 no problems and gave acceptable results on the target
Might try a few at 45 and see
 
I looked at converting a garand to 8X63....got as far as the rounds being to big in diameter to fit the enbloc. That's as far as I went.
 
Craig0ry said:
IRG just listed 8x63 barrel blanks, if this an I was closer I would order some and a barrel and make something
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really jumping the gun marstar told me on the phone they had about 50 crates of the stuff 1750x 50 = 87500 rnds not much and from what I gathered no more to be had anywhere its all gone I bought 3 crates 1st week so now 47......
 
with the barrels available from IRUNGUNZ, anyone know enough about barrel dimensions to know if it's possible to get this lathed down and threaded to fit a savage action?
 
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Andy said:
8X63 bullets

Open-base FMJ-BT
218 gr
OAL - 1.475"
Cannelure - 0.885" from tip
Length of flat (0.323") - 0.475", from start of Boat Tail to about 0.075" past the cannelure
Boat Tail - length - 0.190", diameters - 0.275" to 0.323"
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I played with the calculator found here: http://www.geoffrey-kolbe.com/drag.htm for some estimates of Ballistic Coefficient and 1000 Yard Trajectory.

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Andy, my math from that table, with 2500 ft/sec giving a G1 BC between 0.62(mach 2=2232 ft/sec) and 0.66(mach 2.5=2788 ft/sec), puts this almost right in the middle, which would mean a G1 BC of 0.64. Just my rough math of your table, but yeah, nothing to scoff at indeed.

The projectiles are actually around 211gr? That's quite the discrepancy from 'advertised':)

Edit: oh, that's the calculated weight from the dimensions given. I get it:)
 
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They weigh 218 grs quite consistently. It's my rough measurements and the resulting calculations that suggested 211 grs.
 
Doing a little tweaking using your numbers to get the 218gr bullet weight by adjusting the density. I'm excited, that seems like a decent bullet. I'm tempted to delete this and buy, buy, buy:)

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Although I'm curious now what the drag coefficient CDO part of your graph means?
thanks for the info, I'm just getting on the boat with these, you old buggers have been enjoying these for 10 years already.
 
bigplinker said:
Although I'm curious now what the drag coefficient CDO part of your graph means?
thanks for the info, I'm just getting on the boat with these, you old buggers have been enjoying these for 10 years already.
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My understanding of these things is rudimentary, but I do know that there are:

- estimates taken from bullet shape;
- there is actual, taken by bullet velocity and drop measurements at a variety of distances; and
- there's what happens on a given day.

All said, these are fairly heavy and "slippery" bullets, and since 8mm Target Bullets are practically non-existent, that makes them more special. The price is right too.

http://www.appliedballisticsllc.com/Articles/ABDOC130_CDM.pdf

Once you have figured it out, please let the rest of us know! ;)
 
Andy said:
All said, these are fairly heavy and "slippery" bullets, and since 8mm Target Bullets are practically non-existent, that makes them more special. The price is right too.

http://www.appliedballisticsllc.com/Articles/ABDOC130_CDM.pdf

Once you have figured it out, please let the rest of us know! ;)
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My sentiments exactly; anything target in 8mm is hard/impossible to get over here, and anything in 8mm is approaching $0.60+/projectile, and never in an ideal weight for this caliber(think 200gr+).
It'll be the New year before I can even look at these (and I still have to build the rifle I'm wanting to use them in) but as soon as I have some fields results I'll post them on here.
Again, thanks for all the information. Food for thought before the project begins:)
 
I tumbled some brass with Stainless Steel Pins today and tossed in 10 of the 8X63 218 gr bullets. Took 90 minutes.

I'm quite happy with the result and can't detect any change in weight or dimensions.

3IMWkVs.jpg
 
Those are beautiful bullets. I'm trying to justify(read: find the cash, right before Christmas and a possible pipeline layoff) another couple of crates. Andy, you'll sell me one of yours if I miss the boat next year, right?:)
 
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