Favorite Recipe for 8x57 Mauser

I have a question about favorite loads for the 8mm with 125 grain J words, I have been playing with Varget and H4895 , Helga my WWII bring back sporterized beautiful rifle with top notch engraving and mother of pearl and silver inlays just may find use as a yote and woodchuck rifle; figure since she’s a shooter a few dozen full house loads a year won’t hurt the old girl! This is a amazingly accurate rifle bought for me by my even more amazing wife on our one year anniversary!!!!! I’ve worked up several cast loads and even sparingly shot surplus and some near full house loads and I think
It’s an excellent candidate for an in the works moose hunt!

I'll have to look to be sure of the particulars but I have a Lee bore rider design I think is the 329-205 1R GC that is powder coated that I was having some success with at least at modest ranges. Don't think I got past an initial ladder of .5 grain differences in sets of 5. I can let you know when I can check the load, powder and confirm the mold in a bit.

Thank you friend; I’ve had success no matter what I’ve tried, my cast of WW from the lee mold is great, some from an unknown source , all Jwords have worked especially the Sierra soft points. I’d never thought about it as a fast varmint round until I got some 125s in a swap , the initial loading looked real promising.

I have one of the many Yugo 8mm's imported years ago. The gun had a beautiful bore but a counter bored muzzle, so I lopped off about three inches of barrel, reset the front sight and shaped the stock into a fair representation of those cute Iranian carbines from back in the early sixties. A Lyman receiver sight that slips over the ejector box was the final addition. All in all a very handy little carbine in a decent caliber, but it was the shooting that put the frosting on the cake.....

I use a 214 grain Loverin style 8mm boolit, sized to .325 and 17 grains of 2400. That little gun will absolutely hit anything I can see within normal ranges. I shot at a piece of abandoned culvert and was astonished when the boolit easily passed through both thick pipe walls. It's no pipsqueak, that's for sure!

Nice discussion but what is your question regarding 125 gr jacketed bullets in the 8mm?

My old BRNO/ER Shaw sporter loved the Hornady 125 gr sp over IMR 4064 at 3000 fps. It hit varmints Hard and dropped deer like lightning. And it was that rifle's preferred bullet for accuracy, too.
Did Hornady reintroduce them?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Larry Gibson

Nice discussion but what is your question regarding 125 gr jacketed bullets in the 8mm?

---

I was just asking if any of you guys shoot 125 or at least lighter than standard bullets or boolits in your 8mm and how do they do and if you have any favorite recipes?

When I could get 125 gr Hornady 8mm bullets I loaded them over 51 gr H4895 in Winchester cases using WLR primers. Velocity was 3000+ fps, accuracy excellent at safe pressures for M98s.

I came into a stash of those old Hornady bullets, my initial loading was a little less than 51 grains of H4895, and I had cci primers on hand, velocity was close to 3000 cases extracted easily and looked good. I was stunned by the accuracy, got me thinking of using it on some coyotes north of here where in the power line breaks a long shot is a real possibility. Thank you Larry!

They are quite deadly on coyotes and rock chucks........enjoy....wish Hornady would make them again.

Re 125gr. Hornady bullets: https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog...roductId/21417

Mavens, thanks. Didn't know they were made again. Certainly spendy but not more than many other bullets. Will have to get a couple boxes.

They did great on 300 yd prairie dogs and jackrabbits back when I was young and could shoot 100 of those loads in a day!

Yes, thanks Maven. I thought these 125's were no longer available. I'm down to my last 120 and thought that would be it. Outstanding accuracy at 3000 fps for me as well, moderate pressures too.

The old ones were spire point soft point; not hollow point. The new ones should be great as well.

You guys are most welcome! Actually, I was browsing the Graf & Sons site looking for 6.5 x 55mm brass and jacketed bullets, read the above, and went back and found those Hornady 125gr. bullets.

Figures I got 2 partial boxes of these in a box lot and they shoot so good and now there are no more after these are gone ; looks like everyone has the hollow points on sale or clearance so they are probably next to be discontinued. Every single time I get a favorite J word they are discontinued. Well next project will be finding a cast substitute, maybe this can be my motivation to try my hand at swaging

I ALWAYS check Mid South Shooters Supply for price and availability.
They are "local" and usually it get my order the next day or second day depending on the time of day that I order

According to my records I developed a very nice load using Speer 125 gr. bullets. It was in Sept. of 2002 I made this load using new WW brass and Win LRP with 57.5 gr. of H-414 powder for 2925 off my Chrony. This load printed exactly 2" higher in a staight 12 O`clock spot over the dead center zero I had for the Nosler 180 gr. Bal. Tip bullet at 100 yds. That load was 51.0 gr. IMR 4350 with new WW brass and Win LRP for a vel. of 2530 fps. The light bullet load made a very tight 3 shot clover leaf group.Robert

Unlike heavier bullets, I've never seen a deer or Pig run away after being hit with the Hornady 125 soft point.
They have a low ballistic coefficient and miserable sectional density, yet the animals don't know that!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk