Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 8x57 wildcats

Has the 8mm Mauser case been used in wildcatting, e.g., 35 or 375 caliber?

Both up and down.

9.3x57 looks interesting.

They look like this when loaded with a 285gr bullet

Interesting! Looks like a lever action round.

Mike

Not entirely sure what the OP's looking for, so I'll lead with a question to clarify:

Were all the variations of the 8x57 truly "wild-cats"? The 6mm (6x57 and 6mm Rem), 257 Roberts, 6.5x57, 7mmx57, 9.3x57, 9.5x57, and 10.75x57 were all standardized by CIP/SAAMI. To my mind, those don't qualify as wild-cats, as they were accepted by the governing entities who oversee cartridges that are made available to the general public.

Now, if someone necked the 8x57 down to .277 or up to .338, that would constitute a "wild-cat" cartridge.

I just finished an 8.5x57 (.338"x57) wildcat. Very impressive. I like it so much, I sold my .338-06.

I have rifles in each of the cartridges Pintoguy mentioned, including my 8.5x57 and 9x57. Of the cartridges bigger than the 8mm, the 8.5 and 9,3 are my favorites.

Somebody needs to point out that the old 9x57 Mauser IS a .35/8x57, and the 9.5x57 Mannlicher-Schoenauer is so close to the .375/8x57 that very few people could tell them apart.

Lapua? Woodleigh?

Anyone ever load 9.3's with cast bullets? Seems like most commercial casters don't offer .366"

You can always make any of them into AIs.

I always liked the idea of the 9x57, but using .358 barrel and bullets instead of .355 or .356.......just because of the better bullet options with modern ammo.
either way, the round falls between 358 Winchester and the Colonel's 35.

I can't imagine what a .338x57 could possible do that an 8x57 couldn't, but that's just me...



I'm on my 2nd 9x57 at the moment, and am building a 3rd. The 1st one was a rebored 8x57. It had a .355 groove dia. But .357 bullets worked fine with no indication of excessive pressure. But since I have a quantity of factory 9x57 Kynoch ammo, (More than I'll ever use in my lifetime...) I'm not much inclined to worry about handloading. My current 9x57 is a M-78 Remington. (M-700) It has a tight chamber, but will take the factory rounds just fine. It is an american barrel, so I assume it is a .357-.358, but it shoots the factory ammo as fine as I can with a recv'r sight. And I can personally attest that it puts down deer with aplomb...

GH

Well, for starters, it will launch heavier bullets faster while burning less powder.

I have 8mm's in a variety of flavors, 8x51, 8x54KJ, 8x57, 8x60, 8x64, 8mm-06, 8x68, so I am quite fond of them. But, there are both heavier and more varied weights in .338".

What heavier bullets?

I'm sure it's slinging 225's about 400fps faster whilst burning 10 grains less powder.

That'll teach me to post past my bedtime.

I was sorta answering two different questions but ran them together.

The 8.5x57 will sling heavier bullets faster than the 8x57, period. It will nearly launch them as fast as the .338-06 but with less powder.

No one said you had to build one. I like mine. I also like being able to shoot 250's. Yes, you can do the same in the 8x57 but are limited to one choice only.

Do you know if the 8mm can be rebored to .338? I wasn't sure if there was a minimum up-bore dimension. Got a 8x57 guild rifle on an Erfurt small ring action, that fouls badly and hasn't shot inside 4" at 100yds yet and while I still have some other things to chase down (scope, bedding, etc), a rebore has crossed my mind. I already have a good 9.3x57 so I was thinking the .338 might be nice. The 9mm/358x57 has potential too, but for some reason I'm leaning towards the smaller bore size. If I were to rebarrel, I'd leave it as a 8mm, but I'm not likely to put that effort into it.

Unfortunately, I have not found anyone who will rebore form 8mm to .338". The 9mm/.358" is doable though.

That's probably one of those magic case shape things.