Wasn’t sure the best category to place this in so I put it here. Please move it if it needs to be.
Saw an interesting rifle at a gun show that was priced extremely well and couldn’t pass up since I’m a lover of Mauser sporters. This is a sporterized Persia Mauser that had a German machine gun barrel turned down to a threaded straight bull barrel and was rechambered in 8mm-06AI. It also came with a set of 8mm-06 does and an 8mm-06AI neck sizing die. Is it a beautiful example of a Mauser sporter, not particularly, especially with a threaded stubby bull barrel and a decently grained but otherwise milk toast montecarlo stock. But it’s something someone like me can love.
Being essentially a double wildcat it’s difficult to find much information on loading. I understand what 8mm-06 is and I understand what Akley Improved is. I’ve worked with converting 308 to 7mm-08 (not out of necessity obviously, only so I could learn about conversions) and 30-06 to 35 whelen so I have some basic knowledge on cartridge conversion but I’m not an expert. At the moment I have two questions. Looking in the Handloaders Guide to Cartridge Conversion, it says to use a tapered expander to expand the neck up to .323 then run through an 8mm-06AI full length resizing die. My die isn’t full length so what about fire forming a normal 30-06 directly either via the cornmeal method or whatever it’s called or just firing 30-06 that I don’t have a use for? The second question is where to start for load data. I’ve got several manuals Speer, Hornady, Barnes, Lyman, and Sierra. Between those I’ve got a decent amount of data for 30-06 and 8mm-06 and the Sierra also lists 30-06AI. Where would a good starting point be and where should I consider my limits? I already know I want to go with the 170gr SST and I’m leaning towards IMR4064. Thanks for the inputs.