Norwegian .30-'06 K98 ammo specs

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albertacowboy

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I have found some comments on another forum saying that the Norwegians removed significant metal from the K98 action when doing .30-'06 conversion after WWII, and that the receiver is significantly weakened re support of the locking lugs. The same writer advised that only WWII .30-'06 ammo should be fired in these rifles, and not modern >30-'06 loads running at higher velocities.

My plan was to shoot modern 150-grain .30-'06 ammo in this rifle, such as current American Eagle or Remington UMC. These loads run about 200 fps faster that the WWII ball. Does anyone have any experience with these rifles, especially Badger who posted an article on them on the www.milsurps.com forum? What do you owners of these rifles shoot?

Many thanks!
 
My shooting buddy has been playing with one of these for about 10 years now. It is the most accurate military rifle he has ever owned and actually shoots better than several of his custom-built sporters. Actually, third-of-a-minute isn't bad.... and that's at any range you want to shoot the thing at.

He handloads, of course, but his loads for this rifle are not wimpy. He uses Sierra 168BTHP in most of them because that is what the rifle likes and they are coming out at close to 2600.

WW2 MV with the M2 Ball round was 2800 ft/sec. Bullet was 152 grains and the thing was loaded with 4895.

My friend loads with 4350 for this rifle and has had no problems at all.

Actually, commercial ammo generally is loaded for speed and power and accuracy-be-damned. They don't advertise the stuff for its accuracy, but for its speed and power. So you download to WW2 specs and you have a more accurate rifle, anyway. AFAIK, the rifle has never been built that shoots its best at absolute-max loads.

Have fun!
 
In my Nowegian Kar98k I shoot handloads to WW2 levels. It loves IMR 4064 and 155gr Chinchaga HPBT Palmas. I have tried the Winchester Super-x 150gr PP and it groups ok, but not even close to how she shoots with handloads.
 
Thanks for the info. Do you think that the modern ammo, like the 150-grain Winchester PP or Remington UMC or Core-lokt, would be pushing the receiver too much? Maybe I'll have to handload for this rifle.
 
albertacowboy said:
Thanks for the info. Do you think that the modern ammo, like the 150-grain Winchester PP or Remington UMC or Core-lokt, would be pushing the receiver too much? Maybe I'll have to handload for this rifle.
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I would not hesitate to use commercial ammo. Mine was abused with shooting about 200 rounds of IVI 7.62x51 (yes - it was a 30/06 rifle - i figured it said 7.62 on the receiver, so that must have meant x51, correct?). Cases came out straight-walled. I was a very stupid 13-year-old :redface: No ill effects that I can detect. Did I say I was a stupid kid at the time :confused:
 
M98 is one hell of a strong action. If anything ever did blow its designed to vent off down through the magazine. I love all of mine, they are truly great rifles.
 
Hatcher did some experimenting along these lines with a 1903 Springfield, which is just a Mauser clone anyway. He machined the locking-lugs down to 1/4 of their regular thickness, then ran it on straight Proof rounds (78,000 psi) and it held together.

He figured that the action actually was about 4 times as heavy as it NEEDED to be for Service ammo.

I think with this kind of safety margin, I would risk a box of commercial. Gotta get brass somehow! You actually will get the rifle to shoot to its (more than somewhat) awesome best only with handloads.

BTW, 1905 Ross has 40% MORE locking area and the actual lugs are 80% heavier than '98 lugs. 1910 was even better. Just thought I might mention that, ya know...... (see my sig line!) ;-)

Have fun! That's what it's all about.
 
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