Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 8mm Mauser for hunting.. anyone ?!?!

I just received a sportorized k98 Mauser as a gift. Is the 8mmmauser round a good round for deer and black bear?

Yes, if you handload, it is practically a .338-06.

Even if you don't US ammo is loaded to about .30-30 levels and available European ammo is loader a bit hotter.

Of course. If you handload or use ammunition loaded to European specs, it is fully the equal of the 30-06.

Last season and the season before I killed all my game with my 8X57. Deer and elk both, and my wife killed antelope with it too, 2 seasons ago

I have a Remington Classic that loves the Hornady 195gr SP. It is pure poison on deer and I wouldn't hesitate to use it on anything up to moose.

I have 3 that are used for the same game as the OP. With any ammo they are great deer cartridges and the 170 gr and heavier bullets are quite effective on black bear. I handload for mine using starting loads with the 150 gr bullets for my grandkids to use on deer and top loads with 190+ gr bullets for bears. I would not hesitate to use these on anything one would use a 30/06 for.

^^^^^ this ^^^^^

My 8x57s are Husqvarna 640s, a "strengthened" small ring commercial action and a FN-built large ring commercial action, and a Remington 700 parts rifle with a 700 Classic barrel installed in a 700 LSS-MR stock. I like the 200 grain AB.

You better believe it is!
I started hunting in 1962 in PA. My father and all my uncles on my mother's side used the 8x57. Many deer were shot by them. My father bought me an "artic" M98 in 1964 from Cook's in Denver, CO if I remember correctly. My father bought and installed a scope safety and installed it on the gun. I even used a clothesline rope for a sling. My friends at school always told me it wasn't any better than a 30-30. I used Winchester 170 gr Power Points.
In 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1967 I shot a buck each year on the 1st day of gun season. ( My friends at school didn't.) As a bonus in 1967, I shot a 225 lb. black bear on the Saturday before deer gun season.
When I graduated high school in 1968 I had that gun modernized. ( New stock, scope etc. ) Boy, could that gun shoot. I lost it 40 years ago when my house caught fire and burned to the ground on St. Patricks Day. We, wife and kid,s made it out ok.
The only problem with the 8x57 is trying to find factory ammo. It helps to handload. That gives you more options.
After the house fire I bought a 30-30. Now that's a good deer cartridge too!

DrDeath,

IF you hand-load & want a powerhouse using that rifle, have the chamber reamed out to accept the cheap to acquire (and often free for the taking) .30-06 case.

The 8mm-06 (especially in the "Improved" format) can be easily loaded to equal the well-regarded in Africa .318 Westley-Richards with the 230-250 grain bullet & is nearly as powerful, in some safe hand-loads, as the .338WIN MAG.
(Some semi-custom loaders OCONUS call the 8mm-06 the 8x63mm, btw.)

Given how difficult it is now to find 8x57 Mauser in most LGS, I regard the 8mm Mauser as a "hand-loading caliber".

yours, tex

I shot quite a few whitetails with mine using the relatively anemic Remington ammo years ago. I've recently brought it out from the back of the safe and hope to use it on a moose or caribou this year. I found a couple of boxes of the Hornady 195gr SP Interlocks here locally that should be a hammer on either one. They're definitely loaded hotter than most of the other ammo available.

I've got a couple of Military versions... Made in Turkey or Czechslovakia...

I tend to load them to standards that are close to the 32 Win Special... my favorite bullet being the 170 grain SMP Speer.

Doesn't matter if you hot rod them with that bullet or make them pretty anemic, that bullet will really open up well and
put the hurt on something...

For most of my use, the two powders I use are SR 4759 or IMR 4198.. with the later, you can really pump up the MV
of that 170 grain Speer.... I'm sure I am probably over Euro Factory specs....but the brass never seemed to care too much.

I love the 30/30 case, and the 8 mm seems to allow me to come close to a bolt action 30/30 or 32 Special. easily a
250 yd venison getter.

It’s a great round and doesn’t get a lot of attention here in the US - ‘cause we have the .30-06......but as others have pointed out it is pretty much the ‘06 equivalent when handloaded. I’ve shot a few deer with one and worked as one would expect. Did pick up an early Steyr that needed some stock work and found out it is chambered in 8X57J (.318” bore instead of the more common .323” bore) hopefully I will get to try it out this fall if I can finish the stock work in time (have a few other projects ahead of this one).

PennDog

I recommend trying this ammo from S&B. A 196 gr bullet with a MV of 2592 is moving along. I shoot it in my Persian Mauser and it is very accurate:

https://www.sportsmansguide.com/pro...57-js-196-grain-spce-20-rounds?a=1583557

I saw commercial Ammo from federal, Winchester and Privi

+1 on the 8X57 for deer.

I have not been hunting with it for long, but my impressions on the K98 and the 8X57 are that they do a great job as a venison converter.

If you've been following this sub-forum for a while, you'll have seen threads about my fights with the Mauser From Hell. Yes, I ended up with a very problematic K98. Yes, it's been a money pit. However, all my problems have stemmed from a previous owner of the rifle mis-handling it and then using sub-standard gunsmiths to fix his problems.

BTW: I have an update on the Mauser From Hell. I talked to the previous owner (-1), and got the skinny on what happened to this sad rifle. He said that about 30 years ago, he was shagging the widow of the previous owner (-2). -2 had died of alcohol-related chronic health problems, and had a rather extensive gun collection that was all munged up from mis-handling. Rifles were missing bolts. One shotgun, a brilliant little SXS .410 had been wrapped around a tree. -2 had done all this in fits of drunken madness. -1 helped the widow dispose of the collection as best as he could and recieved the Mauser from Hell as payment.

Ptarmigan,

Fwiw, the main reason that most US 8mm Mauser is loaded to such a low power level is the large number of Model 88 "Commission Rifles" & other similarly weak rifles that are out there, just as most .45-70 is "loaded down" to be safe in Springfield Trapdoors..

yours, tex

Here you go:
http://www.chuckhawks.com/forgotten_8x57.htm
You might look in RIFLES MAGAZINE, No. 243, March 2009. There is a very good and interesting article by Al Miller. In it, he said something to the effect that anyone who doubts the power of the 8x57 has never been on deck in the Mediterranean as those rounds are pouring down at him (1944).

That's pretty much how I treat my minty-bored 8mm Mauser, a dot43 (BRNO 1943) that an uncle shipped home as a war trophy. It wears a schnable-tipped freischutz stock and receiver sight, and serves mainly as my foul weather gun (when I actually go hunting in foul weather, which ain't too often anymore). What's the point of all the sturm und drang every time you pull the trigger just to punch holes in paper or to kill a measly whitetail? My "full power" handloads approximate American factory loads and that's fine by me. Anybody who has poopooed that philosophy to me I kindly invited to go stand at 200 yards and let me poke a magazine full at them. So far, no takers. For that matter, that's how I treat my '06's too, when not shooting cast bullet loads that is. (And cast bullets work a treat in the 8x57 too, in case you're wondering.)

It's a great round for deer and elk, IMO, and I've liked the Hornady 195gr for years. My 325 WSM Kimber also likes it, as do my two 8X57 FN 98 Husqvarnas.

IMR 4064 is your friend if loading the 8X57. R-15 has been highly accurate with the smaller 150 and 170gr bullets. I use both in my "J" bore 8X57s, also.

If not for the great 30-06 the 8X57 might have been a standard round here, as well as in Europe.

It’s a great cartridge, more 8mm rounds have probably been fired than any other cartridge. Probably?