Question re: Powder vs bullet weight

[CanadaCollector]

I know i remember reading this somewhere but I couldnt find it again but here is my question:

Im reloading 8mm Mauser for bcd42 K98 and will be using a 198gr FMJ bullet with IMR 4895 powder. My Lee Reloading book only shows how many grains of IMR4895 to use for a 180gr FMJ and 200gr FMJ...would it be safer to go with the higher grain bullet for the amount of powder I should use?

Basically, is it safer to go with the higher or lower bullet weight when you have a bullet that is in between?

Thanks for your help

 

[Spawn-Inc]

It's safer to use heavier bullet load info and use a lighter bullet. There is less mass to push and therefor less pressure.

 

[CanadaCollector]

That made the most sense in my head...just wanted to be sure. Thanks

It's safer to use heavier bullet load info and use a lighter bullet. There is less mass to push and therefor less pressure.

 

[Steyr1]

What he said - use the heavier bullet data.
Also wouldn't hurt to check a couple other manuals.
IMR load data is on the Hodgdon site: http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/

 

[sunray]

Use the 200 grain data. Two grains won't make any difference. Neither does the bullet's construction, so if you ever take the thing hunting, the same data will do nicely for a hunting bullet. Jacketed is jacketed.

 

[bearhunter]

The 8x57 is a strange duck for most hand loaders that aren't familiar with it.

The new manuals are great. They will give you loads that are described by their generated chamber pressures. This is a good thing, you can actually get some very good velocities with all bullet weights out of those rifles when shooting ammo loaded to appx 50,000 cup. The military loads were around 47,000+cup.

Some of the older manuals followed the same practice as the commercial loaders and kept their recipes below 38,000cup. This was done to prevent issues with people loading ammo with .323 diameter bullets into .318 bored rifles.

I have a couple of rifles with the older style chambers which require a .318 bullet and a .323 diameter bullet in the 8x57 case won't even chamber. I guess, some of the chambers would accept them or would if forced.

Your rifle should be capable of handling the 47,000cup loads as a steady diet. The thing is, with those heavy bullets, recoil will be appreciably greater.