Back in the day we all had at least one 8x57, and usually many more. There's nothing the round doesn't do well. Back then we used them for everything and 400 yds was a long shot with irons. There was not a lot of factory ammo available, and what there was was hard to find at first, but recoil with the pristine German surplus ammo was less than 30-06 or 308, it seemed.
The major importer was down the road, and we could buy excellent and better condition German mausers for $20... I should have bought as many of the Carbines, and as many of the scoped sniper versions the delivery truck would hold. Just mail order your guns back then, but the paper route didn't pay much, and how many Mausers did one actually need?
I could retire now if I could bring myself to sell one of them.
