8mm mauser light weight cast bullet

[Scooby]

So I have 2 old german byf 43 mausers one has a scope and one has iron sights. the past year or so I have tinkered with 135 gr cast bullets in a 30-30 bolt action. the cat sneeze load, mouse fart load is what I am looking for.

so does anyone make a light 324 mold I was looking at the lee but to me 175 grain for cat sneeze loads seams heavy.

also I would like to slug my barrels as some of the old Lyman manuals I have say the bore size varies on these rifles.

some guidance on slugging bore would help too.

I have a 450 and 323 324 dies.

Thanks Scooby

[Outpost75]

Bore and groove size doesn't matter. What you want to do is make a pound cast of the unrifled area ahead of the case mouth before the rifling starts, and get a bullet which fits the forcing cone taper and throat diameter. If you have several rifles do them all and have the mold cut to fit the largest one.

Military 8mms run closer to .325-.326 than .323-.324

In a rifle with tight throat the RCBS 120-grain Cadet heeled bullet or their 8mm Nambu pistol bullets work well with 5 grains of Bullseye.

[TCLouis]

Is this a place where PP boolit may suffice for Plinkin and Playin?

[UBER7MM]

The Lee C324-175-1R for the money is probably the most economical way the get a couple of Kar98s shooting lead. The Lyman 323470 is 10 grains lighter, however four times the price. Outpost's suggestion regarding a pound chamber casting is good advice. I'd be interested to hear if both chambers are similar,

[Hamish]

Scooby,

http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product...roducts_id=971

311008 turned into an 8mm, wonder where Al got the idea,,,,,,

[Ed in North Texas]

Lyman had a 323059 years ago 115 grain usable in an 8x57mm. Don't know if it is still a cataloged item.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Is this a place where PP boolit may suffice for Plinkin and Playin?

Paper patching is appropiate for any occasion.Robert

[adrians]

I have the old ideal 32362 and it weighs in at a whopping 83gns, a handgun boolit I know but I have plinked with it in a Mauser in the past .

[leadman]

You should slug the barrel. Make sure the barrel is clean down to bare steel and oil it before slugging. I drive an oiled slug in the throat area and back out, then an oiled slug in the muzzle and back out. Another oiled slug gets driven from one end to the other to check for loose or tight spots in the barrel.
Many of these old Mil-surp guns have excessive wear at the muzzle from cleaning rods and are, or should be counterbored. I have found a couple of guns that had "ringed" barrels probably from some type of bore obstruction when the gun was fired.
With barrels that have loose and tight spots the use of a poly-fil or Grex filler in the case usually makes these shoot better as it tends to seal the bore.
The Lyman 160gr Loverin GC boolit shoots very well in these old guns. Has straight sides up to the nose so helps fill the throat area. Probably about the lightest, easily obtainable boolit for an 8mm.

[hc18flyer]

I just started shooting the pb version of the Accurate 32-175B, over 10 grains of Unique in my M-48 Yugo. 10 grains gives about 1350 fps. My Yugo has a large throat and I'm not sure if a much smaller bullet would be accurate? My first try was sized at .325 and lubed, accuracy was just 'ok'. I have some tumble lubed and loaded as cast for this weekend. I will post some pics of my progress. Flyer

[JWFilips]

If you want to discuss PM me

[HangFireW8]

so does anyone make a light 324 mold I was looking at the lee but to me 175 grain for cat sneeze loads seams heavy.

also I would like to slug my barrels as some of the old Lyman manuals I have say the bore size varies on these rifles.

Unfortunately my beater 8mm Mausers have larger barrels, and yes, one has that funnel-shaped muzzle from cleaning wear. So I say, by all means do the impact slugging of the throat, but don't neglect a through slug and a muzzle slug and compare them all. If you have a funnel shaped bore, accuracy is NOT guaranteed by just matching the throat.

The Lyman 323470 does sound what you're looking for, but don't expect to get more than .3245" out of an unlapped factory mold. Mine required lapping just to get boolits to fall out of one side, which may explain why I can get .3245" and not just .324". So if possible, see if you can find your throat and bore diameters before ordering one. If you have an oversized bore like a .325" or more (common with Turks, I don't know about yours), I wouldn't bother with the Lyman. (Unless you're really into lapping or other mods).

[Buckshot]

................Before you can even consider a mould you HAVE to slug your barrel to see what you have to work with, or simply buying moulds will lead to aggravation. I have a very nice VZ24 (yes I know it's not a K98) and it has a whopping .327" groove! The barrel is very nice, but it's just LARGE in the grooves. Yes paper patching IS an alternative, and I do not mind ginning them up for a few rifles, but for a rifle to simply take to the range and bang around with or to pot at long distant targets of opportunity it simply doesn't work for me for the extra work, and for what i'm doing.

Lee offers a 220gr .329" mould intended for the 8x56R Steyr straight pull rifle, yet this is an outstanding boolit for fat grooved 8mm's. Lube size'm to .329" and then run them up through a custom Lee type push through die a thou over your groove and you're ready to go.

..............Buckshot

[Scooby]

Ok, so I have done a few searches on slugging barrel and chamber. From what I have come up with it sounds like I need to drill several holes just larger than bore size in a piece of wood and pour soft lead into and use them for slugging the barrel 3 ways. I also read about drilling a hole a little bigger than the bore as long as a completed round then drill it out close to diameter of a case and pour soft lead in it to slug chamber/ throat area. When I got both of my Mauser's I scrubbed them with clp powder blast, us gi bore cleaner, hoppies, and then again with clp. I know they had been bring backs and not long term cosmoline stored guns but I wanted to clean the bores as best as I could before shooting and in my mind baking the cosmoline into the barrels. I have several hundred rounds of old surplus ammo for them but I am really liking the mouse fart shooting with the bolt action 3030 so I would like to get these two geared up for that too.
I will wait for further advise before I move forward on these plans.

Thanks for all the advise so far, Scooby

[Wolfer]

When I slug a bore. If I can't find a egg sinker of an appropriate size I cast a boolit of pure lead. Cut that boolit off to about 2 calibers long. Drill a small hole thru the center lengthways. This gives some relief and let's it go thru a lot easier. If it's too small I squeeze it in a vice to bump it up a little. Clean and lightly oil the bore and drive it through.

Egg sinkers come in lots of different sizes and are quick and easy.

[leadman]

For old Mil-Surp guns I clean similar to what you do then use a rubber stopper in the chamber end and fill the bore with #9 and let it set overnight. You may have to do this a couple of times but it is worth it. Rubber plugs can be bought at Ace Hardware or Home Depot.
Make sure you oil the barrel and oil the slug. Use a metal rod, brass preferred, wrap tape just up from the bottom and several places along the rod to keep it off the bore. Follow Wolfer's advise on the slug. You should be able to use a pure lead boolit from your 30-30 mold by squeezing it or light hammering for a slug.

[wadcutter]

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but wouldn't those shorter bullets feed lousy? I find even the 323470 requires a bit of an assist to feed reliably in some Mausers. I do have a an old pistol mold that might work, but I've never felt the need to try it as the 323470 and 10 grains of unique is already such a gentle load.

[james23]

I use an old Winchester mold meant for a .32 rifle that works great with the 8 x57. Its a plain base bullet 164 grain 323 mold.
10 grains of Unique will drive it at 1220 fps, while 9 grains of SR 7625 will go 1140 fps

[hc18flyer]

I just started shooting the pb version of the Accurate 32-175B, over 10 grains of Unique in my M-48 Yugo. 10 grains gives about 1350 fps. My Yugo has a large throat and I'm not sure if a much smaller bullet would be accurate? My first try was sized at .325 and lubed, accuracy was just 'ok'. I have some tumble lubed and loaded as cast for this weekend. I will post some pics of my progress. Flyer

Last Sunday I shot the tumble lubed 32-175 pb, over 10 grains of Unique. They shot a 2" group at 50 yards. Next time I will Chrono them. Flyer

[TCLouis]

Apparently we had a 150 gr. PB RNFP boolit GB in the past because I have several hundred of them sized and lubed.

Wil be testing them this spring