8mm Mauser - Steel?

M

Metallisch

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Hi folks, new to the sport here and looking to get my hands on some WW2 rifles.

I nearly bought a 91/30 Sniper a couple days ago, before I got into a conversation with someone at the shop and I found some obstacles I'm going to have to overcome

-I live in Edmonton and I have no memberships to outdoor shooting clubs
-The only indoor range (better than nothing, I guess) doesn't accept any ammunition that will stick to a magnet, so anything with steel.
-All of the 7.62x54R ammunition they had at the shop contained steel.

It's not so bad because I'd really rather get something chambered in 8mm Mauser instead. So, my question: Is there any 8mm mauser ammunition that would be "legal" to use at my indoor range, e.g. steel-free?

Trade-ex carries "Prvi Partizan 8mm Mauser Ammunition, 198gr FMJ BT" and I am having trouble finding whether or not that contains any steel,
and "Sellier & Bellot 8x57 JS Ammunition" and I'm kind of guessing that JS stands for "Jacketed steel"

Anything you could teach me about this topic would be well appreciated!

Cheers
Darryl
 
According to Wikipedia (which is well sourced in the article in question) the JS was originally IS where the I stood for infantry (in German though) but because of the weird font they used most English countries misread it as JS. It is in fact the classification of the cartridge as a whole and has nothing to do with the bullet used. The Hornady reloading dies I have for 8x57mm says "8x57 JS". As far as I know JS refers to the regular straight wall case where as the rimmed version is IRS.

Both the Prvi and S&B ammo shouldn't contain any steel as they are modern copper jacketed lead core bullets. If in doubt you can also find 8x57 hunting ammo which is a jacketed soft point and will not contain any steel.

I do know that the S&B soft point hunting rounds in 7.62x54R do not contain any steel. They cost ~$25/20rnds though.

Both 8x57 and 7.62x54R are good candidates for reloading since surplus will dry up eventually, is usually corrosive, and civilian manufactured ammo isn't as readily available in Canada as a lot of other cartridges.
 
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There are two different 8x57 loads as you mention JS and IS one is .323 dia. The other is .318 dia. It would be a bad thing to shoot a .323 dia. bullet put of an old gun meant for .318 dia. bullets, that's why North American manufacturers load the 8mm soo weak! Just in case.

Look around and you can find newly manufactured 8mm brass cased non magnetic loads that can be shot at your range. I have not checked the Prvi load you mentioned but I have a Prvi 139gr. SP that is not magnetic so I would think the 198 load would be the same.
 
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