Austrian M95 cast boolits?

[DonMountain]

I have a couple of M95 Austrian Steyr made rifles that I bought many years ago and have never fired. Although I have some 1938 boxes of ammunition with stripper clips that I was afraid to shoot. The cartridges are an odd size 8x56R with .329 bullets. So the only way to shoot it is to cast something to size rather than use a standard 8mm bullet of .323. Is anybody casting and reloading and shooting one of these that can offer me some help? It appears the rims of 7.62 x 54 Russian cartridges can be converted to this caliber. But I would have to buy dies and a mold to shoot it. Any help would be appreciated.

[Bret4207]

Lee has dies, Grafs has proper boxer primed brass and if you get the Lee 338 boolit it can be sized to fit your gun. DON'T get the 329 boolit Lee advertises for the 8x56R, .329 is way too small for these guns. You can open a .329 Lee push through sizer with abrasive paper to .332 or more if needed and the 338 boolit will size down nicely. Finding 338 GC's can be a trial though.

Quite a bit of info in the "Military Rifles" and "CB Loads/Military Rifles" sections.

[runfiverun]

the guy [gator checks] d.j [blammer] orders gas checks from makes 338 and 348 also.
i'd bet you could get blammer to order some but you ,might have to wait a bit to get them

[jonk]

While I generally do cast my own using the Lee .329" mold beagled (that is, opened up a little) to get .333", I have on occasion paper patched normal .323" bullets. Figuring a standard .002" paper double wrapped, that gets you to .331". If that's not fat enough, start with a .325" mold.

I did have to modify my dies to get them to take this diameter bullet, by opening up the neck in the seating stem with emery paper inserted in a slotted dowel, and by ordering a .338" decapper rod and spinning it down to size the neck to .331", but that takes about 10-20 minutes and is well worth the effort.

You can use 7.62X54R brass fireformed, but it is a little short in the neck; since Grafs has the proper stuff, not worth the bother.

[Wayne Smith]

Grafs has the brass and also has condom bullets for it. They go about 205gr, if memory serves. The ideal cast boolit for it is the Oldfeller Frankenstein. as anyone convinced Bruce to give up the specs so it can be made again? I thought I saw a group buy interest at one time not long ago? If that mold can be put back into production it would be a blessing for those who have the rifles and don't have the mold.

[kyswede]

My carbine slugged at .334 groove dia. so I buy/cast .338 boolits. I opened up a Lee sizing die to .3355 and have been loading 205 gr. boolits with 13 grains of Red Dot powder. Makes a nice plinking load.

[DonMountain]

Thanks very much for the info on getting started on these rifles. I have two of these straight pull rifles both marked with the S for the 8x56R cartridge. And I did a search of this site and found a bunch of discussion on the cartridges. And if I get some cash from my mother for my birthday toward the end of this month I am going to pursue reloading the cartridges. Including the Grafs' brass and the Lee dies. How are the Lee dies? I had bought some of the Lee reloading equipment 15 or 20 years ago and wasn't very happy with it.

[Dschuttig]

Grafs has the brass and also has condom bullets for it. They go about 205gr, if memory serves. The ideal cast boolit for it is the Oldfeller Frankenstein. as anyone convinced Bruce to give up the specs so it can be made again? I thought I saw a group buy interest at one time not long ago? If that mold can be put back into production it would be a blessing for those who have the rifles and don't have the mold.

I started a thread to see if there is enough interest to get the frankenstien mold going again, we need 15 so far we are at 13 so almost there.


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=137196

[polishmauser]

just for your info. the RCBS .330 sizer they custom make for Buffalo Arms sizes the boolits down to .328.