The 8x57 can certainly make a good plains game gun with a variety of bullets available now. The 195 gr. Hornady is a good start. The TSX you mentioned, Noslers etc. I killed my first ( and still my best) Kudu withy an open sighted 8x57 shooting bullets that were old school compared to what's out there now.
The 195 gr Hornady loaded to about 2,500 fps is a capable round with 2,700+ foot-pounds of energy at muzzle, and it approximates the traditional European 196 gr loads.
I looked for that a year ago and it was discontinued. I had bought 2 boxes 3 or 4 years ago and wanted a couple more.
ETA it's export-only. Not available here in the USA. https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/8x57-js-195-gr-sp-custom-international#!/
This thread has me excited about shooting an 8X57 if I get drawn this season. Meantime I'll drag all three out and test loads. I found I have two boxes of Combined Technology 180gr Ballistic Silvertips in the back of my cabinet and an older bulk box of Hornadys from Midway. I'll start with some 195 Hornadys and see which gun shoots best then try the 180s in it. I like both bullets in general. 47gr of H4895 under the 180s and 50gr of Ram Big game under the 195s...
Last edited by luv2safari; 04/26/22.
Hunt with Class and Classics
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Yeah, like everybody else making stuff for the shooting world these days, demand is too high to keep up. Am hoping to have John put one of those sights on one of my rifles sometime, but it probably won't happen before this fall....
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Shooing a 200 grain Nosler partition, there is no animal on earth of 1500 pound or less I would not hunt with a 8X57. It may not be my #1 choice for some game, but it's 100% adequate for every game of that weight or less.
Lucky enough to have three of this caliber... all Military Mausers... a Cz 24, a German built Mauser and a Turkish one... two with 29 inch barrels and one with the 24 inch barrel ( the CZ)..
I've tried a couple of different bullets with them... but the bullet that turned out to be the sleeper, and is the ONE bullet I buy regularly is the good ol Speer 170 grain SMP...it opens up at low velocity.. and hangs tough at higher velocity....
I have no desire to go to Africa... in fact for the same reasons I have no real desires to even go to Oakland....but for anything I've taken the 8 x 57 o the hunt.. it just plain works.... especially with that Speer Bullet.... I've used their 200 grain bullet also... and it does a good job.. but I just really like that 170 SMP....
Last deer that one of mine, I had taken out one of my Senior Boy Scouts who had just earned his Eagle Scout rank. He is like 6 ft 4 at 17 y/o..
We were hunting at woods ranges.. what I call 30/30 range.... load used for him was just 30 grains of 4198....he took a large blacktail, at about 75 yds... when hit in the vitals, the deer did a button hook run or many 20 yrds and was down for the count....about 160 lbs on the hoof IIRC...
it was his first deer... he wanted me to let him buy the Mauser.... I wasn't wanting to let it go.... but did look and find him one that I got for a couple of hundred bills in very nice shape... complete with Bayonet on it...a 17 yr old boy just loved that...He doesn't take the bayonet out hunting... but he sure loves to show his friends or take a picture with the rifle and that Bayonet on it...This one was a Turkish made Mauser also...
I just love these old Mauser action rifles.....
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The Boers in OFS and Transvaal etc. proved the Mauser fit for anything they ran across, albeit the 7 x 57. Anything you hunt in RSA short of cape buffalo will succumb to the 8 x 57.
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Some few years back, member BFaucett took an 8x57 chambered 700 Classic to Africa and bumped off an impressive string of trophies with it. I do not recall what bullet he used, but I enjoyed the thread thoroughly because I was having a spell for one of those Classics. Never did get around to one, but maybe one day.
Dang, I didn't expect this to be mentioned after all these years.
It was in South Africa way back in 2005. I took a CZ 550 American in 9.x62 as my primary rifle and a Rem 700 Classic in 8x57JS as a backup. I mainly used the 9.3x62 but I did take a couple of Impala and two Warthog culls (for the land owner) with the 8x57.
I'm an old fashioned kind of guy so just for fun, and a sense of nostalgia, I used a Woodleigh 220 gr Round Nose at approx 2400 fps muzzle velocity (rounded off, chronographed average - 10 shots). The rifle and load performed well but that's really no big surprise. (On my previous trip in 2002, I used a Ruger M77 Mk II in .30-06 with a Woodleigh 220 gr Round Nose at 2460 fps. I only took the .30-06 on that trip.)
A few pics with the Rem 700 Classic 8x57:
The handloads I used on the trip:
IMHO, a high sectional density, round nose bullet at around 2300 - 2400 fps muzzle velocity works well in the bushveld. Just like the same recipe has for the last 100 years or so. Some examples: 7x57 175 gr, .30-06 220 gr, .318 Westley Richards 250 gr, 9.3x62 286 gr, .416 Rigby 410 gr, etc. The only change I made from "doing it old school style" was in using a bonded core bullet.
As most sources state that the 8x57JS and the 9.3x62 were both introduced in 1905 and my trip was in 2005, I like to think of that trip as my Sentimental Centennial Safari.
Cheers! Bob F.
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