Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Who shoots 8mm-06?

I was just gifted an older Mauser M98 in 8mm-06. Does anyone shoot that caliber here? I’d love to speak with someone who loads/shoots/hunts with one.

No, I prefer the 277/06

Just kidding. Whatever floats your boat.
Good Luck


Jerry

John Barsness did an article on the 8mm-06 several years ago. I can’t recall if it was in Rifle or Handloader. A google search might turn up the article.

All my 8mm experience is by with the 8x57 and the .325 WSM.

Good luck on your search for information, congrats on the “new” rifle.

I have a friend in Reno who owns one but he is not an avid hunter. To the best of my knowledge he's only killed 3 animals with it and all with ammo I loaded. He killed 1 deer in Nevada, one deer and Oregon and one cow elk in Oregon. The load is reformed military brass, WW primer, 58 grains of H4831 and a 200 grain Nosler Partition bullet.

Like so many people who are not avid hunters, he didn't pay much attention to the details and when I asked him about them he said he didn't know. He shot, the game died and that was it. In the case of the elk, his son in law even did the gutting and packing, so he didn't do anything himself after his shot, so asking about bullet performance on the game was a waist of time.

The rifle was one he bought at a farm auction and it is one of those WW2 trophy's we saw commonly "sporterized" in the 50 and 60s. Bolt handle modified and a scope-safety added, with weaver mounts and rings and an old Weaver K4 placed on top. GI stock cut down in front and the handguards thrown out. The bore looked dark and someone ran an 8mm-06 reamer into the gun a bit too deep. His son in law brought the gun to me and I set the barrel back a turn and re-headspaced it to +.002". He got a set of dies from RCBS and had them shipped to me. I loaded the ammo for him and zeroed the rifle at 200. Not superb, but accurate enough for hunting, the gun shot just barely under 4" at 200 yards with that ammo, and he didn't want to spend more money on more bullets to do load work-ups, so he told me to load him up 150 rounds (3 boxes) of the Nosler Partitions and call it good.

But for 3 shots so far it seems to be working. He's up in years now, and I would not be surprised if he never goes hunting again, so it's likely his son in law is going to get that gun some time soon.

I have used the same bullet in 2 of my own rifles, both standard 8X57s. So I believe I can say with confidence the bullet is good for about any north american game you'd want to try it on because the 8-06 is going to do all the 8X57 will do and do it at a bit greater distance. In my current 8X57 the 200 grain Partition and the 200 grain Speer both shoot 5/8" groups at 100 yards so they are quite accurate but somewhat slow compared to other rifles because my rifle has only a 19" barrel and my load chronographs at 2305. About "30-30 speed".

Yet it's been exceptionally effective on deer and elk both, so adding extra velocity to it from a longer barrel and the larger shell will be even better I am betting. Nosler also make an AccuBond in 200 grain, which I bet is going to be every bit as good, but I have never bought any myself (yet).

I do wish Nosler would make a 170 grain Bonded or Partition in 8MM, ...........................but if I wish in one hand..............................

Been at the 8mm-06 since the 1960's. My experience is way out of "best by" date. They are not finicky as to diet, especially since really good bullets became common in the last 25 years. Both of the models I owned were '98 Mauser sporters, pure rugged hunting rifles, never intended to take them to Camp Perry. Because of that, I never did much load development, never fooled with high velocity 150 grainers, pretty much stayed with 185 gr Rem Core Lokt's (the very definition of reliable) and later, 175 grain Sierra's(do it all and the accuracy winner)...in medium weight bullets. 4895 burning rate powders did very well in those weights. Eight years in Alaska, meat hunting, I mostly used heavy partitions and some 220 Hornady's with a case chock full to the base of the bullet of 4831. By the way, the 200 gr partitions were very accurate. Anyway, just one man's experience, the 8mm-06 is no miracle cartridge, but it's accurate, very reliable...kind of like that old pair of Channelocks in your toolbox...it may not be the best tool in the box for a given job...but it works for almost every job.

After JB did the article on that rifle, I recognized it for sale on the used rack at the LGS. It came home with me and I had fun with it for a couple of years. It was a sporterized VS24 with the original military stepped barrel rechambered and turned down to a lighter contour. It shot for me just as JB reported, which is to say, pretty good!

One afterthought, about the time the 8mm Rem Mag came out, and later the .325 Shorty, they started making bullets that were pretty stoutly constructed. I don't know how well they would work at the lower velocities of the 8mm-06.

The 180gn Nosler Ballistic Tip would be my first and last choice for a hunting bullet.

I believe one of the guys here has a Ruger M77 that was rebarreled to 8MM-06

That deceased old flamboyant shooter, gun writer and proud man killer Col. Charles Askins used one and i remember reading about a rifle he claimed to have made up for the cartridge. I am sure there is plenty of load info out there on the internet. A stout bullet of 180 to 220 grains between a .30 and .338 diameter at 30-06 velocities has to work. Just has to!

A few comments:

I did indeed do an article on the 8mm-06 years ago for HANDLOADER, using the VZ24 rechambered/restocked JGray later bought. What I discovered (not surprisingly) is that it's ballistics are very much like the .30-06. Due to the slightly larger bore, same-weight bullets can be (at least theoretically) be given a little more zip--but that's counteracted by lower ballistic coefficients, in the same brand/type of bullet. (Not so oddly, the high-BC, long-range trend has bypassed 8mm.)

The 180 Ballistic Tip is one of the "heavy jacket" models that acts more like a Partition, so would also be a prime choice for hunting. It didn't exist when I wrote the article, but is one of the most accurate bullets in my century-old custom German 8x57.

I shoot the 180 Ball. Tip in my Sako 8x57 (21 1/2 inch barrel at 2670 fps) and have not stopped one yet even with some pig pigs around 90kg. It will shoot three shot groups well under an inch straight out of the box.

I have hunted a lot with the almost identical 8x64S so let me know if I can be of any help.

Alvaro

I`ve the AI version. I-4064 is the powder my rifle likes best. Have shot/used bullets from 150grn to 200. I tend to stick with 170 SST`s, 175 Sierras` and 180 Nos BT., 180 TSX. Killed mostly deer, and one Elk with it. I`ve had mine for 40 years, built on a 09 98, Douglas 24 inch, 10 twist barrel.
Cases are very easy to make from 06 brass. You can also utilize 06 load info to begin load development, tho some manuals have 8x06 info in them.
Good luck