PP mold for an 8mm Mauser

[offshore44]

Hello all! Back to pester the experts (again).

I'm having such a good time, and achieving such good results, with the 458, that I thought I would try my hand at the 8mm Mauser.

I have a very early M24-47 (all matching, three digit serial number) with a pristine bore that shoots great with gas checked cast. But what the heck, why not try paper patched, right?

I went out looking for molds, thinking that something that cast for .303 or 7.62 Russians would be just the ticket to start out with. I am not finding anything that appeals to me. Maybe something in the range of 170 to 210 or so grains.

Any suggestions on a mold? I can't buy it right now, so don't start waving your hands and yelling "Pick me!" "Pick me!" "I have one for sale!". I gotta scrounge up some more brass and turn it in for mold money.

Oh, bore is about 0.312" and the grooves are right on 0.323"

Thanks, one and all, for your valuable advice...again.

(Feeling my oats today, can you tell?)

[kampfkubel]

No expert, I......but I will simply tell you what I do for my 8 x 57 (an old Yugo M48, re-built and rebarreled by me into a sporter.....and which I shoot ONLY with cast PP).

I cannot comment on moulds, because I buy my boolits. However, the boolit I use is a 170 - 175 grain, flat-nose one, designed for the 32/40 Win. or the 32 Win. Special lever-action rifles. This is a plain-base boolit, no gas-check or gas-check base. It works very well for this purpose. First, I size the boolits to 0.314", using a standard Lee push-through sizer die. Then, I wrap (two wraps) with ordinary lined notebook paper, which gives a wrapped diameter of about 0.3235 - 0.324. I twist tails, as evenly as possible, then trim the tails within about 1/8" of the bullet bases. I then lube with Lee Liquid Alox.....and run the package through a Lee 0.323" push-through sizer. This compacts and smooths the patch, flattens the base (tail) and evenly spreads the lube.

I load this bullet over 32.5 grains of Hodgdon Benchmark, with cotton wool filler added to the case. I get 1.5" or smaller groups at 100 yds, with complete consistency....and the load works very well on whitetail deer (I keep my shots on game to 150 yards or less). It produces about 2150 fps from the 17.5" barrel on my M48. Basically, in terms of ballistics, it is a 30/30 load....or 32 Win. Special, which is very similar. It works well for me - and it's all I need. Also, this load costs me roughly $6.00 per twenty to load. I've been shooting this load exclusively for around 5 - 6 years.

[303Guy]

Nice to read of your successful paper patch rifle and load, kampfkubel. Just one point I'd like to mension. I did a bit of experimenting with cotton wool filler and I found it is possible to ignight it and set the countryside on fire. Mostly it doesn't even scourch but sometimes it does smolder if the conditions are right. I think I only had a smolder with one particular load combination but I stopped using it anyway. It would be worth checking for peace of mind. (I've switched to wheat bran which works for me).