Mannlicher 1888 brought back from the brink...
- Thread starter Claven2
- Start date
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
Relatively difficult depending on what tooling you have. You would need to make a reamer basically to cut the internals due to the small size. It needs to be a exact size and a high grade finish or it won’t work.
A neck sizing die is easy to make.
"D" style reamers were something gunsmiths made in years past. I've made a few. They cut slowly compared to a fluted reamer, but they do work. Could that be an option for a sizing die?
I think it was in the Rifle magazine compendium of projects that there was a description of how to bore rifle chambers. I can't imagine doing it, my boring skills aren't up to the challenge, but might that be a possibility?
"D" style reamers were something gunsmiths made in years past. I've made a few. They cut slowly compared to a fluted reamer, but they do work. Could that be an option for a sizing die?
I think it was in the Rifle magazine compendium of projects that there was a description of how to bore rifle chambers. I can't imagine doing it, my boring skills aren't up to the challenge, but might that be a possibility?
Pm me the link, could not find it.
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
It would be a option, you would have to have the hardening capabilities though as well as some hardenable steel.
It’s all about how much effort you want to put into it. My estimate for the project if you had the tooling set up it would be about a week of effort.
BlackPowderBurner
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- the chesterfield
h ttps://shop.rcbs.com/full-length-die-set-group-g-special-order-bottleneck-calibers/
I had no issues buying mine direct. Ordering a set of 8x58 Danish dies at the same time makes shipping so much cheaper...
I had no issues buying mine direct. Ordering a set of 8x58 Danish dies at the same time makes shipping so much cheaper...
So I ended up with the RCBS dies in the end, the CH4D ones were just backordered into oblivion. I now have ammo.
I found an old page from an old reloading manual with some loads that were safe only for the M95. Hunted a little further and found some 1888-safe loads in the 35-40gn range of IMR3031 using the PPU .330 208gn bullets.
These ones are 37gn of 3031, which should give me a bout 1950FPS - close enough to the 2000fps of the military round using a 244gn bore rider bullet. They do feed in my rifle (sometimes they don't if the necks are tight in the rifles and .330" bullets used).
Cases made from virgin 8x56R Mann PPU brass, primers are military CCI 34's.
Range report once I get out to test them.
I found an old page from an old reloading manual with some loads that were safe only for the M95. Hunted a little further and found some 1888-safe loads in the 35-40gn range of IMR3031 using the PPU .330 208gn bullets.
These ones are 37gn of 3031, which should give me a bout 1950FPS - close enough to the 2000fps of the military round using a 244gn bore rider bullet. They do feed in my rifle (sometimes they don't if the necks are tight in the rifles and .330" bullets used).
Cases made from virgin 8x56R Mann PPU brass, primers are military CCI 34's.
Range report once I get out to test them.
Got out shooting today and gave the old girl a workout. After a couple initial rounds into the berm to inspect cases, we put 20 downrange without incident.
37gn IMR3031 using the PPU .330 208gn bullets and CCI 34 primers had the gun shooting about 8" low at 75 meters, but it produced about a 2.5" group which is about as good as I can shoot with ladder sight irons these days. My son even gave it a god for a few rounds. Trigger pull on these is mega super heavy because of the trigger spring design, so not the easiest gun in the world to shoot accurately, but it does have a lot of potential.
I think I need to up the load a little to get closer to POI, the load I used is admittedly light, but I wanted to not tempt fate on the first outing. Cases shower no real deformity, rimers not backed out or flattened. Everything looks A-OK with this as a starter load (in case anyone else needs reliable 8x50R Mannlicher data - which is about nonexistent in manuals).
I wonder when was the last time someone actually fired an original M1888 in Canada before today? This one is an OG 1888, not even upgraded to 1888/90 - so not common in shootable condition at all, and the caliber has become somewhat obscure. I thought getting this one shooting was kinda cool, and so did my teenage son.
37gn IMR3031 using the PPU .330 208gn bullets and CCI 34 primers had the gun shooting about 8" low at 75 meters, but it produced about a 2.5" group which is about as good as I can shoot with ladder sight irons these days. My son even gave it a god for a few rounds. Trigger pull on these is mega super heavy because of the trigger spring design, so not the easiest gun in the world to shoot accurately, but it does have a lot of potential.
I think I need to up the load a little to get closer to POI, the load I used is admittedly light, but I wanted to not tempt fate on the first outing. Cases shower no real deformity, rimers not backed out or flattened. Everything looks A-OK with this as a starter load (in case anyone else needs reliable 8x50R Mannlicher data - which is about nonexistent in manuals).
I wonder when was the last time someone actually fired an original M1888 in Canada before today? This one is an OG 1888, not even upgraded to 1888/90 - so not common in shootable condition at all, and the caliber has become somewhat obscure. I thought getting this one shooting was kinda cool, and so did my teenage son.
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
I would use a little caution with a .330 bullet in these rifles. The original load used a .323 bullet and these aren’t as strong as the later M95 action.
Otherwise looks good! I shot my M90 (M88 action built with the 88/90 upgrades) a couple years ago. I am sure there is a few odd folks shooting these rifles from time to time, but like you said not common in the least.
Otherwise looks good! I shot my M90 (M88 action built with the 88/90 upgrades) a couple years ago. I am sure there is a few odd folks shooting these rifles from time to time, but like you said not common in the least.
The original bullet was an open flat base .323 bullet designed to obturate to .330. I’m using an FMJBT, and the length of bullet that bears in the rifling is comparable to the obturated base of the original bullet.
If I could get a 244gn flat open base jacketed round nose bullet, I would try it instead.
The Austrians did shoot these in ww2 with a .330 FMJ spire point bullet, comparable to what I’m shooting now.
If I could get a 244gn flat open base jacketed round nose bullet, I would try it instead.
The Austrians did shoot these in ww2 with a .330 FMJ spire point bullet, comparable to what I’m shooting now.
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- Location
- Leduc County, Alberta
Excellent post! I’ve been following it for a while.
I had my own project m/1888 that I’ve brought back from the dead as well.
This Chilean contract m/1888 was rusted up solid and covered in grime. Missing the bolt, missing safety and broken safety screw.
Got everything freed up with my kids help via Kroil, brass brushes, JB bore paste etc.. etc.. was quite the labor of love.
Found an 88/34? Bolt on the EE, and then a safety and correct 88 bolt head on the EE as well, found the correct safety screws on Amazon.
Used my CH4D die set to convert virgin PPU 8x56R and used the .330 FMJ projectiles and 37.5gr of IMR3031 to get this rifle shooting point of aim at the lowest setting at a 100 yard zero. Ended up smacking the gong with a whole enbloc of 8x50R after zeroing in the windage on paper.
Fun to bring a rifle like this back from the dead! Though I still need to repair the cracks in the stock.
*My daughter is the one giggling at the end*
I had my own project m/1888 that I’ve brought back from the dead as well.
This Chilean contract m/1888 was rusted up solid and covered in grime. Missing the bolt, missing safety and broken safety screw.
Got everything freed up with my kids help via Kroil, brass brushes, JB bore paste etc.. etc.. was quite the labor of love.
Found an 88/34? Bolt on the EE, and then a safety and correct 88 bolt head on the EE as well, found the correct safety screws on Amazon.
Used my CH4D die set to convert virgin PPU 8x56R and used the .330 FMJ projectiles and 37.5gr of IMR3031 to get this rifle shooting point of aim at the lowest setting at a 100 yard zero. Ended up smacking the gong with a whole enbloc of 8x50R after zeroing in the windage on paper.
Fun to bring a rifle like this back from the dead! Though I still need to repair the cracks in the stock.
*My daughter is the one giggling at the end*
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