88 commission rifle groove/bore

[Good Cheer]

If you got one in '76 for $35 and shipped it off to Richard Hoch for a barrel and matching mold you coulda won a lot of beer money. Uh, least that's what I heard tell.

[olgandalf]

Beekeeper (or anyone)--When I reloaded five rounds this morning, the .321 boolits kept wanting to slide down into the brass. The first round, I had to fish out with the point of a pin. The expander ball on my lyman seater die must expand too much. My solution was to back out the seater rod and turn the die in a quarter turn or less past contact. That tightned up the neck onto the boolit, but then I had to turn in the seater rod bit by bit until the boolit seated equal to my dummy round by eyesight and by checking that the OAL was 3.66 like that of the dummy. And I had to do this with every round. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to polish down the expander ball?

[olgandalf]

Yesterday I shot the 20 reloads I made. With about a third of them, the neck was blackened; with one, the whole case was black. If it is relevant, occasionally the bullet is too loosely crimped and gets pushed back into the case. This is my first attempt at reloading, so anyone one this site knows way more than I do. (My second attempt, 32S&W long for my nagant pistol, worked fine.)

[JKH]

olgandalf,

When I load for my 88 sporter I just remove the expander and size the cases without it, I then de-cap using a decapping rod from a LEE .308 handloader, this provides very good neck tension and no slipping bullets (lead or jacketed).

You could also order a new expander ball for yor dies, chuck it in a drill and spin it inside crocus cloth or some 400 to 600 grit wet/dry sand paper, and final polish with crocus cloth to mirror finish (you will need a decent micrometer and keep checking your progress till the expander is 2 to 3 thousadths of an inch under bullet diameter), if you have LEE dies they will custom make one to suit your needs for very little money and save yourself some time and hassle.

Jeff

[olgandalf]

Thanks. I have Lyman dies so I'll need to polish the expander I have.

[adrians]

here's mine ,i love it .
it slugs at .318.5 , i use an old lyman /ideal reloading tool in 32.40 and it drops ahh around a 165grn pill (no gc.) .320dia.
on a side note if you look at the stock you may see 3 brass "nail heads " ,did they used to attach things to their stock like maybe an ammo pouch ? heck i don't know .
haVE A GREAT NIGHT .ADRIANS

[aubrey16753]

This looks like a good place to ask. Where can I get a clip(clips?) for a 88? I have a chopped up 1904 Steyr Irish Mannlicher and just found out it uses the same clips as the 88. It sounds likely and then I wouldn't have a single shot.

Hi
If you are still interested in orginal 88 clips I have a few that I may part with, although not in mint condition they still work perfectly.
I would be very interested to know if you still have any of the parts left over for the 1904 Steyr that you chopped up.

Best regards
Aubrey16753

[olgandalf]

I polished my expander ball with 400 wet dry down to 321. I looked on ebay for another expander for my turk mauser in .323 and was close to bidding low on a complete used die set. Then I checked the Lyman site and bought just the ball for $4.00 plus shipping. Thanks again for the info from you guys that have been down this path many times. And I enjoy news of your various commission rifles.

[Beekeeper]

olgandalf,
When I started reloading for my 88s the guys here were adament about slugging the barrel and I did.
Both of mine slug out at .3185, one is better than the other rifling wise but both good.
I had a 8MM die set that I dedicated to the 88s and the first thing I did was wet sand the expander ball down to .317.
That gives me about 1 1/2 thousands of friction on the boolits and I use the Lee factory crimp die to just kiss the brass to give another little bit of hold.
As I only shoot Paper Patch in mine I use a .308 boolit sized to .308 and P/P with computer paper, 2 wraps, to .318/9 and touch the patch with Johnsons paste wax before running through a .318 Lee style sizing die that " Buckshot " made for me.
Accuracy is good out to 100 yards and I think could be better with proper load development.
As for brass I use reformed 30/06 brass and have no problems with it.
I form it in a RCBS forming die and trim it with a Lee trimmer and then run it through the full length resizer of the dies I dedicated to the 88'.

Let me know if I can help !
So far I have not had any problem.


Jim

[Eddie1971]

My single "representative" Gewehr 1888 is from Ecuador. It has a new Czech barrel and measures .318" in the grooves. These were $100 from Southern Ohio Gun Works when they were first imported. Many were worthless junk. I bought this one from another collector so I knew was I was getting.



One of my cruffler friends, John van Texas, has a pretty good site on the Gewehr 1888:
http://www.texastradingpost.com/m88/

He also has a page mirrored from www.cruffler.com
http://www.texastradingpost.com/m88/commission88.html

I have a 2nd Gewehr 1888 on the way to me right now from Colorado. Its another Ecuador rifle that will be used as a "shop" rifle. I'm going to look into a LER scope mount for the Gewehr 1888. Depends on what I can do with the rear sight base.



Dutch

Does yours have the S stamped on receiver?

[Dutchman]

Yes but the barrel isn't original to when it was stamped.

Dutch