Reloading 8mm mauser

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serbinator

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so ive decided to finally start reloading my 8mm Mauser, i have IMR 4895,4064, H4895 and varget. gun is a yugo M48 and ive only shot s&b through it. i figure i would only need neck sizing die set for it.. anyone know where i can get one? i could only find full length resize dies... :(, and anyone have any good loads for it?
 
Lee has a collet die (neck sizes only) for 8 X 57. Most gun retailers, or any of the site sponsors who stock Lee products should be able to get one for you. For reload data: Hodgdon Reloading Data Centre site is an excellent resource.
 
I'd get a FL sizing die anyway as you will most likely eventually need to, at the very least, bump the shoulders back once you fire a set of brass enough times.
 
You'll need FL dies if you ever buy new brass or use brass fired out of another rifle and necked sized needs FL resizing eventually. Plus FL dies can be set up to neck size only anyway. Takes some trial and error fiddling.
You must work up the load for your rifle. No two rifles will shoot the same ammo the same way.
S&B uses a 196 grain bullet. Hornady makes a BTHP. Start there using 200 grain data. The 4 grains won't matter. Don't think I'd bother with match grade bullets for a standard milsurp, but Sierra makes a 200 grain Match King.
Use which powder you have most of. The velocities for all those powders are very close. Less than 100 FPS.
 
I reload for the 8x57, its my main reloading cartridge. I have worked with almost all bullets and powders for it, imr 4064, and h4895 have produced one of the best velocities with excellent accuracy. Good starting point for 4064 would be 45gr- and work up to 48 gr for a 200gr bullet. H4895 with about 44-46 gr also gave great accuracy. Varget is another good powder. All of those powders will work good.
 
I personally prefer RL15 and H380 for the 8X57, Varget is a good third but almost all powders down to IMR3031 work well. It's a very easy caliber to reload.
 
What's not too love here?

IMR4064 is an abundant and prefered powder for the 30-06 Garand as well.
Similar powder capacity with a slightly larger diameter bullet.

In comparison to the 10% energy difference beween the 30-30 and 32 Special, the 30-06/8x57 'ratio' should garner somewhat similar muzzle energy results??

maybe
 
dgradinaru said:
I reload for the 8x57, its my main reloading cartridge. I have worked with almost all bullets and powders for it, imr 4064, and h4895 have produced one of the best velocities with excellent accuracy. Good starting point for 4064 would be 45gr- and work up to 48 gr for a 200gr bullet. H4895 with about 44-46 gr also gave great accuracy. Varget is another good powder. All of those powders will work good.
Click to expand...

Look up, This. /\

One other thing. If you are only loading for one rifle neck sizing only is a fine way to go. If you are going to load for more than one rifle chambered for the same cartridge, full length or partial resizing may be necessary.
 
I reload for 8x57.

With heavier bullets, I found IMR 4895 was showing clear pressure signs way earlier than 4064 for some odd reason.

I've had great results with 4064 and 170 grain Speer Hot-Cor's and 220 grain Sierra Gamekings. 1 inch or slightly smaller groups at 100 were pleasantly easy to achieve.
 
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Get a full length resize die set. Once you run out of 8 mm brass like I always do, you can make 8mm out of 30-06 brass.
 
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