Range report for Gew 88 with cast boolits...

[wellfedirishman]

From a collector friend of mine I recently picked up a nice old Gewehr 88 (1894 Steyr) in 'vintage' condition. The bore and action are good, the wood has been decorated by some old chickenscratch carvings (bored soldier sometime?).

I loaded it up with some 8mm cast boolits (180 grain approx, from a member here) with 14 grains of Trailboss with a Win LP primer. I didn't have my chrony, but I would estimate velocity around 1200-1300 fps.

Rifle:


Receiver:


Markings:




Boolits (she preferred round nose, and in fact would not feed blunt nosed boolits):


Target results at 50 yards. With the fold-down battle sight the point of impact was right on point of aim.
Probably a 1.5" group approx. The group in the black at the top of the main white bullseye was three shots stacked on each other.



Overall this old girl can shoot. Recoil was light and the report was mild. Someone shooting an AR-15 next to me was commenting on the gentle report.

I think that this one has a .318 bore (as it has no 'S' mark on the receiver) and really liked cast boolits. The bore was clean with no leading.

[wellfedirishman]

I also took out a Carcano M38S 8mm. This has a very similar action to the Gew 88 above (both are variations of the Mannlicher action I believe).

The Carcano is a short little carbine with fixed sights, and it shot high and to the right. The group size was large (4" at 50 yards), all boolits shot straight with no tumbling. I used 240 grain flat nosed 8mm boolits, which fed and shot fine. I don't have any target pics unfortunately.

Carcano side view:


Receiver markings (7.92 to indicate conversion to 8mm):


Right side action:


Comparison of the Carcano (carbine) and Gew 88 (long rifle) action and barrels:



Recoil from the Carcano was noticable with the 240 grain boolits.

Both of these rifles use a kind of enbloc clips to hold multiple rounds. Not having any clips right now, I fed the rounds as single shot and had no problems. The Gewehr 88 has a much smoother and lighter trigger (almost like a target trigger) and was a pleasure to shoot. The Carcano has a rougher and heavier trigger.

[adrians]

[swheeler]

From a collector friend of mine I recently picked up a nice old Gewehr 88 (1894 Steyr) in 'vintage' condition. The bore and action are good, the wood has been decorated by some old chickenscratch carvings (bored soldier sometime?).

I loaded it up with some 8mm cast boolits (180 grain approx, from a member here) with 14 grains of Trailboss with a Win LP primer. I didn't have my chrony, but I would estimate velocity around 1200-1300 fps.

Rifle:


Receiver:


Markings:




Boolits (she preferred round nose, and in fact would not feed blunt nosed boolits):

Target results at 50 yards. With the fold-down battle sight the point of impact was right on point of aim.
Probably a 1.5" group approx. The group in the black at the top of the main white bullseye was three shots stacked on each other.



Overall this old girl can shoot. Recoil was light and the report was mild. Someone shooting an AR-15 next to me was commenting on the gentle report.

I think that this one has a .318 bore (as it has no 'S' mark on the receiver) and really liked cast boolits. The bore was clean with no leading.

In the next post you say you have no enbloc clips and loaded all rounds single, how do you know the 88 won't feed blunt nosed bullets??

[SwedeNelson]

Love those old GEW88's
Picked up 25 or 30 "parts rifles" and restored 5 or 6





Swede Nelson

[wellfedirishman]

In the next post you say you have no enbloc clips and loaded all rounds single, how do you know the 88 won't feed blunt nosed bullets??

The bolt would not close on a wide blunt nose bullet. I fed everything in as a single shot, having no clips.

Swede: Nice results (and rifle). What boolits are you using there?
Also, do you sell a multicavity 8mm Mauser mold?

[Fishman]

Swede, where the heck did you find a group of 25-30 parts rifles!? That sounds like some fun!

I have one in pretty nice shape but no clip and no 8mm mould. Shame really because I would like to use it. Anyone have a source for the clips, either original or repro?

[swheeler]

Swede, where the heck did you find a group of 25-30 parts rifles!? That sounds like some fun!

I have one in pretty nice shape but no clip and no 8mm mould. Shame really because I would like to use it. Anyone have a source for the clips, either original or repro?

http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/...ssion+88+clips

[Multigunner]

Some eastern european troops belonged to ancient warrior cults, and they marked the butt stocks of their rifles with runes and protective charms. Sometimes these markings are deep and elaborate, others mere scratches they hoped would not be noticed.

[Fishman]

http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/...ssion+88+clips

Thanks swheeler!

[ajjohns]

Man that thing shoots nice! I've always had the thought of finding one of those. Seeing targets like that make it hard not to.

[swheeler]

The bolt would not close on a wide blunt nose bullet. I fed everything in as a single shot, having no clips.

Swede: Nice results (and rifle). What boolits are you using there?
Also, do you sell a multicavity 8mm Mauser mold?

WF Irish; To me that would be a chambering problem and not a feeding problem, feeding is out of the magazine and into the chamber without jambing. Your chambering problem could be several things, but most likely a too large nose diameter on the bullet(nose too large dia for the bore) or front driving band contacting in throat, guess if sizing diameter was different between the two cast bullets(FN sized larger) could be OD of neck too large for the chamber. Hope this helps

[Old Iron Sights]

Wellfedirishman, what bore do you have in that one?

Been activating mine and shot it for the first time this past weekend. I shot a 175 gr 324 sized down to 320 over 13 grains trail boss (.3165 mint bore) Got a 2" group at 100 yards. A real joy to shoot. Tried higher velocity with H4895 and shot all over the place. May have to back off the powder and try lighter loads with the 4895.

These are great rifles. I may have to keep my eyes open for a nicer example.

I got one of the Numrich clips but couldn't get rounds to feed from it. Way too tight. Had to single feed them. I wondered about taking a dremel to the edges and polishing it some.

[Old Iron Sights]

SwedeNelson, you cast some beautiful lead. I'd be ashamed to show mine now.

[wellfedirishman]

Old Iron Sights: I don't know the bore size as haven't slugged it. Since .323s shoot so well in it, I dont' see any need to do so I am very pleased with this old warhorse. It can certainly shoot, and is more pleasant than a WWII mauser with full-power loads. I ordered a couple of those Numrich enbloc clips, I hope that mine work out.

Swheeler: You are correct Sir. The problem is chambering. The tight chamber of this gun doesn't like wide blunt-nosed bullets. Pointy or round ones chambered fine and shot great.

Wellfedirishman, what bore do you have in that one?

Been activating mine and shot it for the first time this past weekend. I shot a 175 gr 324 sized down to 320 over 13 grains trail boss (.3165 mint bore) Got a 2" group at 100 yards. A real joy to shoot. Tried higher velocity with H4895 and shot all over the place. May have to back off the powder and try lighter loads with the 4895.

These are great rifles. I may have to keep my eyes open for a nicer example.

I got one of the Numrich clips but couldn't get rounds to feed from it. Way too tight. Had to single feed them. I wondered about taking a dremel to the edges and polishing it some.

[swheeler]

WFI: I would like to add that is some fine shooting!

[adrians]

you'll probably find that the new production "EN-BLOCS" will have difficulty feeding as mentioned (too tight) , i just opened the tops and each side of the clip by putting a piece of metal between the clip and tapped them so the top doesn,t grip the brass so tight and then filled the rough edges off to smooth it a tad so it won,t scratch the case.
the clips feed fine now but you may find they won,t drop through the magazine as designed too but a push with your thumb will make them drop out the bottom.
ofcourse there is no need to do this if you have an 88/05 ect as the mag is fully encased with no slot in the bottom anymore.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

What boolet is that?

Rich

[adrians]

Rich,,,
it's the ideal/lyman 319247 plain base.
These measured .322" and weighed in at 167grns , i used WW's and let air cool.

[Josh Smith]

Hi Guys...

You folks without the 88/05 conversion -- the 0.323 chambering -- you ARE sizing your boolits down to 0.318", right?

The only place that the 88/05 conversion relieved was the chamber throat. It acted as a squeeze bore from then on out.

The tighter, 0.318" chamber is dangerous to use with anything greater than 0.318" bullets even if they do chamber and even with the lower pressures you're using.

Just ain't safe if you don't size it special. The Turks had these rifles blowing up on them all the time using newer military rounds as not all the Gew88s they were given were properly converted, or even converted at all. They just figured it was cheaper to replace soldiers than rifles!

Regards,

Josh