Latest acquisition. 8x57JS

Eagleye

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So I purchased a rifle from a fellow gunnut on here recently. It is a 700 BDL Remington, rebarrelled to 8x57JS [McGowen, 24"]
It has been bedded properly, and a good Limbsaver recoil pad added. Work looks well done.

It appears to have been not fired since the build [No evidence of Copper in the bore, borescope verifies]
The chamber is minimum spec. I had to size new PPU brass so I could close the bolt on it. New Nosler brass is ok, but snug.

I installed a better trigger in it once I got it here.

Hoping to get out with it soon to see how it shoots. I have 196 Oryx, 196 Dual Cores, 196 Alaskas, 200 Partitions, 200 Accubonds,
200 A-Frames, 180 Ballistic Tips and 200 Speer HCs.

Will be trying H100V and Reloder 17, as well as Norma 203B and Reloder 15 to see what works best. Dave.
 
I’m only shooting 170s but cfe-223 has been working well for me. But might be to fast for throwing 200+grain paper punches.
 
I just inherited an older moser 98 small ring from my dad, I sent it to Gary Flach to get a double set trigger installed (use to have one but only one trigger was left) and modified the bolt handle to a butter knife style handle!! It should be back soon!!
I loaded a few test rounds with 200gn nosler accubond over some H 4350….
Maybe I should try and see if our local shop have some Re17 in stock….
 
I have a load that delivers a sub moa group out of a cut back 98 barrel, fitted to a Czech Mauser that I put together last fall.

I also fitted it with a set of Brno 21H double set triggers and an after market commercial bolt shroud.

It all sits in an old Bishop, walnut stock, carved in the mid sixties, which seems to be extremely stable.

Of course, to the younger set on this board, that rifle wouldn't have a lot of appeal. It's heavy.

The powder for load I developed for that rifle would likely be close to W760 as anything else.

I used H414sl10, which I know you're familiar with.

56 grns of H414sl10 over CCI 250 magnum primers, under 196grn Oryx bullets, in Winchester cases.

The Winchester cases have thinner side walls than your Privi cases.

This load give me 2600+fps, with excellent and consistent accuracy from a 22.5 inch milsurp barrel.

I tried different powders, such as RL17, RL19, W760 and H380.

My load is well beyond anything you will find in the manuals, but safe in my rifle and definitely would be safe in your REM 700.

The most consistent loads in my rifle are with the H414sl10, the next best powder was W760, followed by H380

RL17 and RL19 were acceptable but not as consistent as the ball powders, with my rifle/components.

The RL offerings are IMHO, just a bit slow for the bore diameter/bullets, but the results are not to be considered negative by any means.
 
BH, I have some of that H414 SL10 here, and will try it in my 8x57. Also have some WC755, which is just a tad
faster than W760, so it may also work well. I have 50 Winchester unfired cases here as well.
So many choices, so little time, lol. Dave.
 
Anybody played with Vihtavuori powders for those euro calibers? Like N540, N160, N150 etc?
 
BH, I have some of that H414 SL10 here, and will try it in my 8x57. Also have some WC755, which is just a tad
faster than W760, so it may also work well. I have 50 Winchester unfired cases here as well.
So many choices, so little time, lol. Dave.

Everyone should be as far sighted as we were, when we accumulated this stuff.
 
Anybody played with Vihtavuori powders for those euro calibers? Like N540, N160, N150 etc?

I've used N160 in the 8x57, with the rifle of a friend. He insisted on butchering a lovely K98, all matching 44 BYF, in a laminated stock, because his grandfather gave it to him for free. I tried to trade him out of it before he had it D&T and the stock cut back.

Anyway, I developed a load for that rifle with VVN160.

47,000psi (NOT CUP)

53.0 grains of VVN160 over CCI 200 primers, under 200 grain Nosler partions.

Velocity - 2400+fps

Very good/consistent accuracy.

Shoots appx 2 inches higher than Remington factory loads with 170 Kore Lokt RNSP
 
I'm having a terrible time finding a good working load for my 8x57. It's a sportized K98. Factory Hornady 195g interlocks shoot 1" groups so I tried to load that bullet. Tried 3 different powders, no bueno. Was going to try the Barnes 200g TSX but I don't have a Barnes book, used load data from Nosler including C.O.L. Would have blown myself up had the little voice in the back of my head not screamed very loudly that something was very wrong with those shells (a little too much compression in a compressed load). Tried 200g Nosler accubonds, 2 different powders, no bueno. Found an older box of 200g Nosler partitions, first powder, no bueno. Tried again with Win748, got a winner, tried to confirm it by loading more rounds with a newer box of Partitions, no bueno. Back to the drawing board again Trying a smaller bullet, Speer Hot Core 150g. Attempt number 1 is in the box ready for the range. Wanted to try either the Speer HC 170g or the Sierra Prohunter 175g but their doesn't seem to be any of those in Canada right now.
 
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Off topic, but I have a Marlin .30-30 that wouldn't hold 12" groups with reloads. Turns out I had a bad set of dies. Shoots better than 2 MOA all day now.

I'm having a terrible time finding a good working load for my 8x57. It's a sportized K98. Factory Hornady 195g interlocks shoot 1" groups so I tried to load that bullet. Tried 3 different powders, no bueno. Was going to try the Barnes 200g TSX but I don't have a Barnes book, used load data from Nosler including C.O.L. Would have blown myself up had the little voice in the back of my head not screamed very loudly that something was very wrong with those shells (a little too much compression in a compressed load). Tried 200g Nosler accubonds, 2 different powders, no bueno. Found an older box of 200g Nosler partitions, first powder, no bueno. Tried again with Win748, got a winner, tried to confirm it by loading more rounds with a newer box of Partitions, no bueno. Back to the drawing board again Trying a smaller bullet, Speer Hot Core 150g. Attempt number 1 is in the box ready for the range. Wanted to try either the Speer HC 170g or the Sierra Prohunter 175g but their doesn't seem to be any of those in Canada right now.
 
The Army 8x57JS rifles were designed to be a minute of a Frenchman or a Russian.

NOT TRUE.

European militaries took a lot of pride in how well their rifles shot and fully understood the positive results of repeatable accuracy, within certain parameters.

Their tolerances were much tighter than North American tolerances in general.
 
IMR4064 and Nosler 200 Grain Partition have worked well for me.

CFE223 and Barnes 160gr TTSX are very accurate but nowhere close to the claimed velocities.
 
Top performance is not possible with PPU brass, nor with Prvi either. Work up but stay about 2 to 3 grains below book max. Not as much of an issue as loading in 7.62 Nato brass for the 308, but similar.

It is a bit soft or internal volume issue, not entirely sure but R-P works with modern loading data.

I used 150 gr bullets, and powders in the Varget, CFE 223 burn rate arena.

Nitro
 
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