GEW 88 (Commission Rifle) hand loading

My recommendation is don't try to reproduce the Patrone 'S' loading your risking your rifle with that. That was a 154grn bullet at 2850ft/sec which is the exact same as that 'hot' Turkish surplus that was available for years (the Turks never switched to later 8mm loadings).

When I reload for my 88s I use .32 special bullets (i.e. .321 diameter bullets) under a loading of 40grns of 3031 powder (do your own research before loading, this is just what I use not a recommendation as to what you should do). This makes for a light recoiling round which is fairly accurate. Here is a grouping I did a couple months ago with my 88/05 rifle.

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I wholeheartedly concur with what Eaglelord has said here, the .321 bullets for the 32 Special work very well in these rifles. Don't try to hotrod them and you will get decent results in your rifle and besides they are more fun to shoot with moderate range loads anyway, this has worked well for me for around forty odd years now.
 
Also another thing I forgot to add is you likely will need a 8mm Mauser crimp die to hold the bullets in. Commission rifles have a hard feed angle, coupled with the slightly undersized bullets means you will end up squishing the bullets into the case if you don't crimp them well.
 
I have loaded for my old 1888, but it was a long time ago. I would have used the Lee .321 and very likely 3031. Good combo. Take care of the old rifle.
 
With mine I found that shooting lead sized to .325 makes tighter groups.For comparison I found .323 mold for 32 Special and it shoots nowhere near as good as good old Lee .325.

I have one of the Austro-Hungarian Gew 88s still with original bore sized barrel.
 
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