Thread revival. Has anyone used the MBC Mauser #1 cast bullets? I have a box of the .324 205gr FP-GL. Do these need a gas check? I've been happy with my other loads for the K98 Mauser but these tumble and pitch and fly everywhere.
I really enjoyed the last half hour reading this "revived" thread. I am wondering about Blue Dot and the 8mm.
I love the 8x57. About 20 or so years ago I bought Yugo M48's out of an outfit I found in Shotgun News for $135 each, complete with all of the "accoutrements." I modified two of them--one by having it drilled and tapped for a scope and the bolt bent, and another fitted with a Williams peep sight. I really need to buy another hand guard for the peep-sighted one, or file down the one I've got a little bit, to be able to see the front sight post better. I've killed about 10 or so deer with them over the years, but always using jacketed bullets. I won't type here what load I use for a 180g Nosler Ballistic Tip, as it's way over the max recommended load and it's probably stupid that I even load it that hot. It's just that none of the generally accepted pressure indicators ever cropped up, so I worked it up to that load. As one can imagine, it's Black Death on deer at about any distance. I've never shot anything with it past just short of 300.
Lately though, I've become a lot more interested in bigger bullets with slower speed that do less meat damage. My prior interest in cast for the 8mm was more for the low-cost/low recoil aspect of cast loads.
I did do some cast shooting a couple of years ago but then life got busy and I dropped off, mostly just reading posts here. The bullet I used is the LEE 175. With 13 and 14g of Green Dot, it was pretty decent at 100 yards. I wrote about it then on a thread somewhere here.
Lately I've become enamored of the big LEE Karabiner, and finally got to test it out yesterday. I used Green Dot (so-so results). 2400 is a lot more promising. I was only able to shoot at the 50-yard line due to time constraints. 18-19g loads of 2400 w/ an OAL of 2.815" were really promising with a lot of the rounds touching each other. I posted the accuracy results over in the general Cast Boolits forum.
The thing that I found interesting was how hard it was to size the Karabiner in the LEE .324 sizer. On bullet #19 with a copper GC on it, I finally broke the linkage on the LEE Challenger press that I've had for over 20 years! I called LEE today and they're sending me a new linkage. I've always had ridiculously good service from LEE. I was saddened to hear that Richard Lee passed in September.
Anyhow, I am wondering if any of you have ever used Blue Dot with either of these bullets, the LEE 175 and/or Karabiner. I've got some Blue Dot but no Red Dot, and I'd like to try the bullets with Blue Dot. I did find some info for the 8mm on an old post in another forum from way back. Something along the lines of 14g of Blue Dot for a 150g bullet.
Thanks for all of the great posts in this thread.
8mmFan
I found the Karabiner to be a little too large for my M48. I size to .325. I have 2 Yugo's, and they both like my Accurate 33-205t, which is similar to the 8mm Hunter being discussed on the Group Buy forum. It shoots fine with 19 grains of Alliant 2400. My hunting load is 32 grains of Hodgdon 4895, with 3/4 grain of dacron batting. About 1900 fps and adequate for the ranges I shoot deer at. I use a 2.5 power scout scope setup on my M48. I am happy you revived this thread. Tom
hc18flyer provided me with several 8mm boolit designs to try last year, and that 33-205t is my favorite with the C324175 Lee a very close second. Lifetime 8x57 fan here as well!
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I haven't shot my 88 commission rifle since last year, but found my ammo and all are loaded with the Lee 175 and 13.5gr. of Blue Dot, must have shot well, or I wouldn't have loaded all my brass!
9.5grs of Red Dot with the Lee 175 is quite accurate and so much fun in my 8x57.
For my Yugo, 13grs of Green Dot with the Lee 175 seems to be the ticket. I'm trying to work up a load with 5744 because I have a bunch of it, but no success so far.
Larry Gibson
“Deficient observation is merely a form of ignorance and responsible for the many morbid notions and foolish ideas prevailing.”
― Nikola Tesla
This post has made me want to make my m48 the next firearm to get loads for. Need to buy a couple molds and start working loads. Thanks for sharing all the info
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TCLouis the barrel on your rifle may not be counterbored.It may be cleaning rod or pull thru wear.Having it properly counterbored may or may not improve accuracy.I've done a number of counterbores.Some helped some didn't but worth trying.I use counterbores from Tools and Cutters.com with separate pilots.
My Mauser gets wonderful accuracy with the Lee boolit and just about any moderate charge. “The Load” (16 gr. 2400) will shoot 1 hole groups at fifty yards. I usually use Dacron as per Larry Gibson’s method for this and other CB rifle loads.
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Lee 175 - powder coated, gas checked and 35 grains of Winchester 748 out of my Gew 88's.
Would anyone like to trade me something for some of the lee Karbiner boolits; doing load development on a WW1 dated Mauser for a Oct Elk hunt. The lee 175 shoots well with a few diffrent powders but I’d like to try on the 210-215 range boolit.
All my 8MM mausers take .326" cast bullets! I do have a JP Sauer that needs a .332" So bullets vary by the rifle You need to do a "pound cast"!
" Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation: for it is better to be alone than in bad company. " George Washington
I shoot most of my cast out of .321 slugged Gewehr 1888's that i size to .323. Like most 8mm rifles or any milsurp there are wide ranges of bore sizes out there.
An old thread, but who is shooting CBs in commercial 8x57 rifles? I have shot lots of CBs in my military rifles, and can seat the 175 Lee out and it looks "good" near the max OAL number.
I recently got a Zastava M70 8mm Mauser action gun, and throat is very short. I loaded some up the old way, and didn't check them before heading to the range because I didn't figure out how to strip the bolt until today. So I next did the old method of measuring seating depth with a slug inserted into the throat and went back to the range. Still wouldn't chamber. Still don't understand that one, measured twice, seat once. Good grief, soon I'll only have a nub of the slug sticking out at this point.
I did load some Hensley & Gibbs slugs (mold #26, 180gr GC) and they didn't group at all. At 25 yards I got a 10 inch group....wow. Using 4198, 25 gr and seated to just touch the lands.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |