Locating 8mm mauser?

Absolutely love to shoot my Kar98K...but getting 'affoardable' ammo was an issue from the get go. I wanted it primarily as a plinker.

I had a wack of 30-06 brass that I reformed & trimmed into 8mm Mauser brass and cast my own bullets with a simple lee melter/mold. Reforming the brass was easy to do...trimming a lot of shells is a pain. I ended up chucking a K&N case holder in a lathe...but once done it's just a touch up after some firings. Once that's done it's easy to have a hundred+ cases ready to go at any given moment. In practice I'm usually shooting other rifles at the same time so really only use 50 pieces of brass at a time.
 
m102404 said:
Absolutely love to shoot my Kar98K...but getting 'affoardable' ammo was an issue from the get go. I wanted it primarily as a plinker.

I had a wack of 30-06 brass that I reformed & trimmed into 8mm Mauser brass and cast my own bullets with a simple lee melter/mold. Reforming the brass was easy to do...trimming a lot of shells is a pain. I ended up chucking a K&N case holder in a lathe...but once done it's just a touch up after some firings. Once that's done it's easy to have a hundred+ cases ready to go at any given moment. In practice I'm usually shooting other rifles at the same time so really only use 50 pieces of brass at a time.
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I like your style...I've only started reloading to sling cast from my heavy beauties because cheap, bulk rimfire was getting tricky. I'm slinging cast from my VZ24 o'er titegroup, and loving it.
 
I have had luck in the past 6 months buying used 8mm brass at gun shows. TNT sports in Regina has S&B brass.I have also had luck depriming berdan brass as well. I have used both the hydraulic method with water and the rcbs berdan decapper. Rayner shine gunworks has berdan primers.
 
Best option mid-long term get into reloading. I've put 10's of thousands of cast reloads through my military rifles over the years. You can go with jacketed as a first option but they are getting expensive (difference in dollar??) and sometimes hard to find in calibers like 303, 8mm and 6.5 Cast loads are easy on bores, less than half the cost of jacketed reloads and make accurate fun to shoot plinkers. I'm assuming the little Lee hand loaders are still available and in 8x57. Kitchen table tool. Cast bullets shoot best in rifles with good bores. PM me if you want some additional input on my shooting of cast in 8mms.
 
I am glad I stocked up many years ago on 8mm when it was cheap and plentiful in Canada. I put 3000 rds away for future shooting and I also cast for the hard to get ammo. casting is the way to go as the cost savings are big.
 
just scored 250 once fired 8mm Boxer primed Prvi brass. :) Happy dance!

this puts me at roughly 500 rounds of Boxer brass and about 150 Berdan. Should be good for a bit.
 
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