Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 8X57 Auto

Did anyone ever make an auto rifle in the 8MM Mauser cartridge? -- no

Couldn't find any mention of one in my books, maybe someone else has info.

The only one I'm aware of was made by Germany in WWII. It was designated the Gewehr 43. Czechoslovakia used it for a time after the war. You can still find them, but they cost a pretty penny. Plus, they bang the heck out of the brass!

Sure did Sonnie. Germany made two during WWII, The G41 and the G43 which wasn't a bad rifle. FN made one SAFN. M49 or ABL and Egypt used it under the name Hakim by license. All of these where chambered for 7.92X57.
<br>BCR

Wow. How much do those Gewehr 43's go for? That would be a fun rifle to shoot up a bunch of the cheap Turk 8mm ammo out there. Look out, jackrabbits. I don't think I've ever seen one for sale. Must be fairly pricey, though. JustinH

Here I sit with a case of Turk 8MM ammo and this little Mauser I have hates it. Guess it has too much salt in it:-). Any way I want to chop the barrel on the Whelen or rebarrel the Mauser,(got the urge), most of you know what I mean. Best to wait a spell till I cool down. Picked up a Ruger Mark II, SSS, 22-250, new model at the show Saturday, put a TASCO 3X12 on it last night, will give it a run down when the wind slows down to twenty or so:-). March seems to be coming in a little early this year, here in East Texas. Hope the fish turn on soon, the boat is ready to go. -- no

It seems FN also manufactured their version of the BAR...the Browning Automatic Rifle in 8mm. It's not something you could use for deer, obviously. But FN made a lot of BARs for the world market and 8mm opened the door to a lot of customers. The Czechs also made an automatic rifle in 8mm but I can't remember it's designation. The Brits licensed it and produced their own version as the BREN gun in .303. But for semi-auto infantry rifles, the German rifles mentioned above are the only ones I know of unless there was an 8mm version of the FAL somewhere.
<br>Talker

Hey Talker, welcome in! With all this cheap corrosive primer stuff, wish I could find one of these little break down single shots for a truck play gun. Bet ole Boggy could learn to love that one. Always wanted a jig to put a military round in and file,(grind), the point off and lined up under a drill on the drill press, make some hollow points.:-) for close in stuff. I know we have all shot prairie dogs over in the next county but the solid stuff is too dangerous except to bang at the range. -- no

Come to think of it, didn't Egypt also use a model of the Ljungman 42 in 8mm? I believe that it too was under Hakim.

Ok let's see if we can straighten out this 7.92X57 simi auto military rifle deal.
<br>FN introduced the SAFN in 1940 chambered for 7.92 and other cartridges to order such as 30-06 7m/m 7.65 m/m the war interupted development and afterward it was sold mainly to Egypt chambered in 7.92 and built there under license as the Hakim. Some FN made were sold to south america (Coloumbia I think) in 7m/m
<br>During the war the Germans had the G41 and G43 not masses of them but a significant number. Work stopped in favor of the MP44.
<br>As soon as possible after WWII the Swedes developed (from pre war work) the AG42 this was a Ljungman design by Madsen in Denmark and Sweden it was chambered for the 6.5 Swede.
<br>Denmark with view to doing the same thing FN was doing developed an inproved version some chambered for 7.92 X 57 It was made in very small quantities almost prototype.
<br>The Czechs also made a prototype rifle the ZK420S in 7.92 after the war. I have never seen one
<br>That is all the military 8m/m autos I know any thing about.
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<br>Justin I saw a very good G43 change hands two years ago in a private sale for $1200.
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<br>Sonnie nothing really likes the Turk ammo. Too hot and to heavy. What ever you do don't try to make SP or HP ammo out of FMJ military ammo. What is quite likely to happen is that you will shoot out the core of the bullet leaving the jacket stuck some where in the barrel. Not really good for either the rifle or you on the next shot.
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<br>BCR

Wow, Boggy thanks for the info on the part about snipping off the tip of the FMJ. I didn't know that. My little brother snipped the tips off of some of the Turk rounds we had and shot them. I'm glad he's still got all of his face. I'll have to tell him about that, though.
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<br>Another thing I've worried about with the Turk ammo that's out there is that it's in pretty bad shape. It wasn't uncommon for us to pull a round out of the bandoleer and see that the bullet had fallen back into the case. We just shook the bullet up into the top of the case, pulled it out a little so it stuck, and loaded it and shot it. I wondered about potential pressure problems, though.
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<br>The powder in that Turk ammo is funny looking: it's made of thin little square grains of gunpowder. It looks like it must burn pretty fast. JustinH

Justin you, me or any body else knows the conditions that old Turk ammo has been stored in during the last fifty years or so. I am not saying it is bad ammo just that it is old and has been stored in unknown conditions. The lot you got was/is bad. The way you describe the powder sounds like German balistite. That would be consistent with where I think this ammo came from.
<br>Was I you I would deep six any round that had lost its integrity. That is with a loose bullet or showing leakage around the primer. Balistite, if that is what it is, had a fairly high nitro content and powder coating technology was in its infancy. Under certain conditions high nitro powder can actually strengthen before it goes completely bad.
<br>On the FMJ deal it is this way. On a hunting round the bullet jacket is drawn from the base up leaving the nose thin and the base thick. Older FMJ especially military were drawn the other way leaving the nose thick and the base thin or even open. If you snip too much off the nose to expose the lead core the powder gas can blow through that thin or non-existent base and strip the core out leaving the jacket behind. There was no such technology to hold a core inplace as there is now and no need for any as the core could not go through the nose of the bullet if the nose is intact.
<br>It is a dangerous practice to attempt to make expanding bullets out of FMJ. You may get away with it from now on and then the next one you fire may at the minimum give you a bulged barrel.
<br>BCR

Boggy, let me really amaze you with my "good" judgement: a lot of those Turk rounds had necks split right down to the bottom of the case neck. We just loaded 'em up and fired away. Once, right after the shot, smoke drifted out my Mauser action before I pulled back the bolt. I'm talking about a lot of smoke, as if someone had exhaled a puff of cigarette out of the action. I didn't/don't know if that was significant, but it made me vaguely uneasy. After that, if I noticed a case with a split neck, I put it in my pocket and didn't fire it. Both I and my brothers are probably fortunate to have all of our eyes intact.
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<br>Still, it's fun as heck to shoot up that ammo, knowing you're only spending 4 cents a shot! It's a sad moment when you look in the box and all 1400 rounds of your cheap ammo are gone. Kinda like seeing that the bottle is suddenly empty.
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<br>Thanks very much for the info. on the bullet separation. We won't be snipping FMJ's any more, for sure.

Hey wait a minute, all that Turk ammo is not like that! The stuff I have is like new. Have a sealed can 1400 rounds and a couple of bandolers that I bought just to try out. Saw them open a couple of cans and the shells were bright and shiney. Good looking hard shooting and less than $100. -- no

Justin just be thankfull that the 98 action handles gas very well. What I think you had was a deterioated round and poor burn thus the smoke.
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<br>Sonnie you are right not all the Turk is bad. If you can inspect it before you buy it that is good. If not it is a crap shoot. It has been around a long time and God alone knows how it was stored all those years.
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<br>BCR