Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Combination Guns and Drillings 8x57JR 170 Grain Load Recomendations

I'm getting ready to work up a new load for my J bore 8x57jr. I just got a Lee sizing die and can now envision a limitless supply of bullets, between my new toy and a .321 cast bullet mold and a number of different Lyman sizing dies. The gun is my Meffert Duraloy framed drilling. Bore is a real .318. My plan is to use resized 32 Special cup and core bullets. I have about 200 190 grain bullets on hand, but deer here in Southern Virginia are pretty small. I already have a good load for them. For cast loads, I'm mostly using TraiBoss.
I'm hoping to come up with a load that is pretty close to the 32 Special load using the resized .321 bullets. The gun is light and I want to keep wear and tear to a minimum. I hunt deer with he scope on, so it doesn't have to regulate to the soghts, but it would be handy. I dont need a powerful load, as haven't had a shot over 75 yards in years.
I know some of you have J bores with .321 bores and used 32 Special bullets before the internet and Google machines were invented. Does anybody have any experience with something like this. Would really appreciate any preferred powder.
Thanks
Bfly

I do have a J bore 8mm but it is in a 98 Mauser. Having said that I don't load it very warm and do use a cast bullet. My load is 28.5 grs. of IMR-4895 under a foam filler beneath a 196 gr., cast, gas checked bullet. No sir, it isn't the 170 gr. load you asked about but mine is a fine load in my rifle and I suspect it would be so in others. I have loaded 32 Spl. bullets but not in my 8 X 57. So far they have been relegated to my 8.15 X 46R.

Have you slugged the bore?

In maybe 65-70 "J" bore guns I have had go through my hands only one slugged as tight as .319. All the rest were .320 to .324. Most were .320-.321. 32 Spl bullets worked fine in every one of them.

B-fly, I wish I had cast bullet data for you, but I never shoot cast anything but handgun ammo, sorry.

As for the re-sized 170grain bullets I would use a 196gr starting load with R-15 and work up if all looked good. For data for the 196 "J" bores I often use starting "S" bore load data and work up to what REGULATES.

Thanks guys.
I've done a chamber cast and bore slug, it slugged .318. Guess I'll go with the usual suspects of R15, 4895 and 3031. They have all done well for me before with lighter and heavier bullets. I have some 4227 and 5744, in addition to the Trail Boss,that I'll probably try for cast loads.
I have always longed for a Kiplauf in 8.15x46. I always thought of it as the German 32/40, but probably the 32/40 is the American 8.15x46. Looks like a cartridge you could shoot at targets all afternoon. When I was on the farm, I kept all my little blocks of wood from my shop. I had a log in the hollow back of the house that I lined up those little pieces on. Then I would have good sport moving around and plinking them off the log. I think that 8.15 with cast bullets would have been the bee's knees for that.
Thanks
Bfly

All I can add is I believe you are correct regarding the 8.15. I burn wood and there is a multitude of stumps on our place.....being in the Ozarks I also have a multitude of rocks. My blocks of wood are rocks set on the stumps. They're mostly along the 1 mile trail I have cut through our place and make for a fine woods walk. The rifle is a Friedrich Jacob Bartles....or is it Jacob Freidrich(?), on an Ideal, single shot action, the one de Haas called a "Kettner" and thought it the best of the best single shot actions. Except for one pit the bore is pristine.....go figger how that one pit got in there. I figure that by shooting the rocks into dust I am helping nature expedite the process of turning rock in to soil.....I have a long way to go..

That's interesting luv. I've only checked two J bores, mine, and both of them were .318 on the money. 'Course, given all the other German rifles I've slugged from that era such variance should not come as a surprise.

I think as the "S" bore became the norm and most common the makers opened the "J" bores a bit as a safety factor. The one I had slug at .319 was an early hammer drilling and was probably made when the "J" bores were predominant.

As to Kettner guns, E.Kettner was a retailer like Franconia, and F Kettner was of the same family that built their own. At one time I had them confused and reversed.

The Eduard Kettners were made under that company's close supervision in Suhl.

http://www.germanhuntingguns.com/archives/kettner-eduard-franz/

My pimp-drilling is a fine Eduard Kettner 16 16 and 8X57JR; it was re-chambered from 8X57-360 by Lee LeBas and is a great shooter.

25 to 30 grains of 4198 or RL 7...

or If you have some or can find some discontinued SR 4759.... 20 to 25 grains.

with jacketed bullets either powders can be pushed beyond those limitation by quite a bit..

it essentially turns a 8 mm Mauser into a 32 Win Special Equivalent.

Those loads would make the drilling nice to shoot and be easy on the gun.

Thanks for the data.