8mm Mauser and BL-C2

GunsNotPuns

GunsNotPuns

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Greets all -- looking for your experiences with loading 8mm Mauser with 195 gn bullets over BL-C(2).

At the moment I'm loading 8mm Mauser with Hornady's 195 gn bullet (#3236) with 47.3 gn of Varget, a combination I rather like. That said, finding Varget today -- at least in northern Canada -- is a challenge. BL-C(2) is still relatively easy to find but load data is nowhere to be found -- Hodgdon, Hornady, Lyman, Lee -- for that powder and 195 gn bullets.

I'm not pumping for specific load data -- though if you want to share your recipes that's fine by me -- just what kind of results you've had.

I'll be shooting mine out of a just post-war 1945 Kar98k.
 
The bullets you want to shoot are IMHO to heavy for repeatable results with BLC-2

It can be used but pressures will rise very quickly and your minimum to maximum load range will be very close.

My suggestion would be a slower powder, such as W760/H414.

Most manuals list W748 loads for the bullets you want to load.

W748 is slightly faster than BLC-2 and they are both spherical powders.

A starting load of W748, plus .5 grains of BLC-2 should be a safe starting point.

Remember, the pressure curve with such fast powders, under heavy bullets is severe. Work your load up carefully.

Another issue you're going to run into is finding good 8mm bullets in shootable quantities.

Spherical powders burn more readily/consistently with magnum or milspec primers.
 
I would take an existing, proven load and run those numbers through GRT. If the results correspond reasonably well with reality, then I would feel ok about using the BLC-2 data.
 
BL-C(2) was the first powder I ever tried in the 8X57, albeit with 180 gr bullets.

I haven't used BL-C(2) in the 8X57 with 195 gr bullets, but I have used it with 220 gr. I found it to produce almost identical MV's as the same charge of Varget. I observed the same thing in the ~20% larger 8X63 Swedish with both 200 gr and 220 gr bullets. This leaves me to conclude that the two powders have very close burn rates, as Hodgdon's Powder Burn Rate Chart suggests - certainly in the 8X57 and 8X63.

I used standard primers with BL-C(2), contrary to the usual advice that magnum primers must be used, with good results at a range of temperatures, although Magnum primers might be advisable in very cold temperatures. Most load manuals make no mention of the need to use magnum primers with spherical powders, Speer being an exception. I have not used them and had good results - I guess someone forgot to tell my spherical powders that they're difficult to ignite... Where I do use magnum primers universally is in "magnum" cartridges, i.e. where there is a large payload of powder to ignite in a small-medium bore, such as 80+ grs in 35 cal and smaller, but that's another thread.
 
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I'd expect BLC2 to work quite well with those bullets. BLC2 is faster than optimum so will not be top velocity but should be very repeatable, quite similar to varget or 4064.
 
I once loaded a box of 150 gr 8mm with BLC2 and a standard primer. Every single shot was Click- Bang. A good way to practice your follow-through.

Ball powder is harder to ignite and with a light bullet you can have issues. That is why the loading manual specifies a magnum primer.
 
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