Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Combination Guns and Drillings 8 X 57 cartridge option

I just picked up a 16x16x 8x57 J P Sauer best quality drilling.� Sleek and light with 24" barrels.� I love it except I would have liked a lighter caliber cartridge for my turkey hunting.� Maybe some of your have already done this, but after doing so e research I found a gentleman in Alaska that made me a chamber adapter for the 8 x 57 to convert it to 32 H&R magnum.� Just got the adapter and just tried it.� Works great.� At 50 yards it shot very close to point-of-aim of the 8x57.� Low recoil. And a bit cheaper to shoot that than the 8 x 57.

Congratulations on your find. Curious what a three shot group looks like at fifty yards? Also, wondering what bore size you have. While you see a lot of folks saying things about the MCA adapters, you seldom see real range results. I've never used any of their adapters, but have used a lot of others over the years, everything from old Marbles and Game Getters to Lothar Walthers. Results have varied from great to where did that bullet go.

I've had pretty good luck with 100 grain cast bullets and copper coated lead bullets designed for the Nambu then resized in reloads with mine, but I really don't like all that empty space in the case. I've considered having an adapter made for a 32 20 case with a 318 bore, but haven't gotten around to it yet. What I really need is an adapter for a rimfire for my BBF in the 8mm barrel or for the 6.3 barrel on the other one. Many areas I hunt limit you to rimfires for small game and for shooting while on the ground.
Bfly

Use the 32 H&R bullets over 14 grains of Trail Boss in the 8X57 case.

You'll be amazed at what you get as far as accuracy, and the bullet will move out at about 800 FPS muzzle.

I use .365 95gr Makarov jacketed bullets in 9,3X72R cases filled with 15.5gr of Trail Boss and get about 950-975 FPS muzzle and great accuracy. It makes shooting the 9,3X72R real cheap, and it's a great small game load.

THIS IS FOR A 40 YARD ZERO WITH MY SCOPE MOUNTED
External Ballistics for
Hornady HP-XTP
Diameter: .365
B W M V B C Z R Y I N I S H
95 975 0.127 40 10 10 1.50
Range Drop Velocity Energy Flight Time
0 -1.50 975 201 0.0000000
10 -0.57 961 195 0.0329180
20 0.04 949 190 0.0624006
30 0.19 936 185 0.0956284
40 0.00 924 180 0.1275532
50 -0.64 912 175 0.1607466
60 -1.55 901 171 0.1923462
70 -3.17 889 167 0.2281650
80 -5.07 878 163 0.2622975
90 -7.17 868 159 0.2944597
100 -10.14 857 155 0.3311466

With 14 grains of Trail Boss do you have to fill case with dacron or pufflon? Thanks.

Thanks for your reply. The bore on my drilling is .318" and I think the 32H&R bullet is .313". Bullet performed well, engaged the rifling and cut a clean hole in the target. Because of the cold weather I just shot off-hand to try the adapter and got about 2" between the 8X57 and the 32. When the weather warms, I want to go up to the range and benchrest it and really see what results I'm getting.

I really would have liked the adapter to be for the 32-20, which I reload, but was told that the 32-20 cartridge is bigger in diameter and there wouldn't be enough thickness for the wall of the adapter. I should verify this myself, mic the two cases.

No, Trail Boss is fluffy and will fill the case sufficiently for that reason. Its great for low powered loads and plinking.

What button are you using to size your 8x57 cases for 32 H&R bullets?

I'm surprised at the reports of good accuracy with a .312" bullet in a bore so much larger.

Use the 8mm Nambu bullets. They'll work perfectly, and you don't need adapters, paper patches, or re-sizing.

http://www.huntingtons.com/store/product.php?productid=16171

The Ace guy in Alaska makes a product that has too long a jump to the lands.

I would think a couple grains of pistol powder and a Lead 8mm bullet would have much the same ballistics and noise, but far more accurate and less trouble.

The adapter seems to work well for me, pleasant recoil, low noise, and decent accuracy.
When I had a 9.3 X 72 drilling, I loaded a lot of reduced powder loads, and I should play around with the 8X57 reduced loads as well, as soon as I pick up a set of dies.

Use Trail Boss for the reduced power loads. It fills the case well, unlike the conventional pistol powders.