Best GC 8MM Mauser Mold

[kysunfish]

I want to buy me a mold and some Gas checks and perhaps get someone to make me about a thousand on the half's. I have a bunch of lead and solder that I could roll into the deal and really not in a big hurry. Need some good advice on the mold and lube. I'm wanting something in the 180gr. plus that I can push around 2000fps ? and hopefully hit with

[Nowherefound]

A little lighter than 180 but I have had good success with the 323470 pushed anywhere from 1.2k to 2k fps out of three different 8mms I have. Pretty hard to beat that mold in my opinion.

[kysunfish]

What do they drop at?

[Nowherefound]

My mold drops at 168 with #2 alloy. Although Lyman lists it at 165.

[NuJudge]

Tell us a little about the rifle you want to fire these in, and at what. Military Mausers are mostly made to feed all rounds from the magazine, so if that's the case you need a rather pointy bullet. Military Mausers typically have rather generous throats, and you probably will want a fatter bullet if you want to push it fast.

[LAGS]

I bought the NOE 325-365 Spire pointed Gas Check 216 grain mold, and am very happy with it.
I also have the Lee 175 gr .324 that I lapped out to .326 for some of my Larger Bore Mausers
I have Pan lubed both bullets, and am now doing them in Powdercoating.
I found useful data for the 216 in Lyman cast bullet manual third edition and I think the same data in in the 8mm Loadbooks.
It sounds like you are scrounging for the lead, and that is fine, but a Known BHN alloy mix will be better with a consistant alloy hardness and casting Fill out.
That is hard to get with Lead and Solder , unless you have know alloys to start with, and you have enough of the raw materials to Smelt One Big Batch and test the BHN.
My bullets are cast with Hardball, of 92/2/6 blend or Linotype lead.
What solder do you have ? and where did the lead come from, and how pure is it ?

[dh2]

I am just starting to try the 8mm Mauser so I got an NOE 326407 190Gr. FN 2 cavity GC looks like a good starting point to me

[runfiverun]

the BEST is the one that fit's YOUR rifle that YOU load with YOUR tools after YOU modify the alloy and load to work in YOUR rifle.
don't wanna do the work?
then you get no BEST you get whatever, if you want whatever buy it at the store.

[Larry Gibson]

I think NOE makes an excellent copy of the 323471. That is the best cast bullet to fit the OPs criteria if he is using a milsurp M98 with the longer throat. My own Lyman 323471HP has proven to be extremely accurate and hard hitting when cast of an appropriate alloy for hunting. I shortened the Lyman HP stem so it makes a lot shallower. The 1/8" Forster HP tool is also excellent for use with this bullet. Given the long throat and .005 - .006"+ groove depth along with the long bearing surface to bullets length of the 323471 make for excellent accuracy at 2000 fps or even higher if the right slower burning powders are used.

Larry Gibson

[kysunfish]

I have over a dozen K98K's that I shoot. I have a 5 gallon bucket of chilled shot, some hard ingots and several very large heavy rolls of 55/45 solder. I bought some 174 gr GCRN that I tried with 18 gr 2400 and they feed from the magazine OK on the ones that I tried them in. Though something a little pointier might be better. They measured .324+on the band. There is a couple that I want to try to fire lap and later use for informal target work.

[kungfustyle]

I have tried three different molds in my M48. It loves the Lee Mold. All others have been judged by this and haven't been able to beat it. The NOE RD mold shot great but couldn't get it to feed worth a darn. So I have to toss my hat in the Lee ring on this one. My alloy was 3 to 1 ww to Lino sized at .325. But slug your bore to find out what you need.

[Larry Gibson]

The Yugo M48s are shorter action M98s and are more sensitive to feeding problems, especially from the left side of the magazine with 3 rounds under the one feeding.

Larry Gibson

[LAGS]

The Feeding problems on a Mauser is one reason I went with the NOE 216 Spire Point, and I also like heavy bullets, and the rifles seem to also.
I am using Reloader 7 currently at 29.0 gr and have used H4895 and I think it was 33.0 gr
I am using a little harder lead like Hardball and have to size bullets to fit each perticular rifles groove diameter +.001"

[nagantguy]

I have tried three different molds in my M48. It loves the Lee Mold. All others have been judged by this and haven't been able to beat it. The NOE RD mold shot great but couldn't get it to feed worth a darn. So I have to toss my hat in the Lee ring on this one. My alloy was 3 to 1 ww to Lino sized at .325. But slug your bore to find out what you need.

Second that, bought the Lee mold as part of a package deal from a member here, shoots as good as jwords in my Mauser s fall from the mold at 183-4 one of the two has a old and generous throat so boolits for her get a little heavier pc coat and all is well!

[JRR]

I have several Mauser rifles. My most accurate is a 24/47 sporterized into a carbine with 20.5" barrel. It has an uncharacteristic short throat. The BRP sil. mould is by far the best for this rifle.




For the standard long throat chambers, the NOE spire point is great.

[kysunfish]

Well it looks like I should by a lee and the NOE spire point mold. I need to slug several of them and see where this is going size wise. Thanks to all for the advice.

[dogmower]

I have had better luck in my Yugo 98k with the heavier bullets. I shoot a 190 (Saeco) and a 230 (Lyman) over imr 4198 at around 2k fps. Both my 98ks just didn't like the lighter lee 174 bullet. I also shoot an m95 steyr with the lee 205 grain, 229 diameter in an old 1938 Turkish Ankara 98 that does ok (shoots the lights out in the steyr).
FWIW.

[cmdrted]

the 190 saeco worked across several 98k german and yugos for me. definitely the heavier bullets shot the best. with linotype hardness type slugs they did their best at 1800 to 1950 velocity. at 2k they were acceptable for plinking but packed a heckova kick at the buttplate.

[nekshot]

I was not gonna chime in but I got some copes replacement barrels last winter and the Lee Maxi (mines drops at 238 gr) fits these throats perfectly and shoot very good. I simply hate throwing that much lead down range in any thing other than a big bore.

[Moonie]

I like the Lee Karibiner, mine drops at around 230gr and over 35gr of H4895 I get 1,850fps and it is very accurate.