Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 8x57 vs .308

So,what does the .308 Winchester that a 8x57 Mauser won't do?
Let's throw in all the aspects of shooting..
hunting.. target...self-defense...sniping?

IIRC there was a bit of sniping done with the 8x57 Mauser during WWII.

Slightly off topic but I was reading about 308's in a mauser magazine and it got me to thinking, Has there ever been an 8x57 simply necked to 308 dia. so there would be no feeding issues?-Muddy

I have a Mauser K98k that the Israelis converted to 7.62 Nato. They put a spacer in the magazine box to accomodate the shorter cartridge. Although it does function reliably, the feeding is not as smooth as with the original cartridge.

The things that a .308 will do that an 8x57 will not pretty much boil down to the use of .308 diameter bullets. Other than that, they are functionally equal, with the 8x57 having an edge in power if loaded to its potential.

There are far more bullets in .30 caliber, especially target-grade bullet, and even in hunting bullets the 8mm selection is a little thin. Barnes, for instance, only makes the Tipped TSX in a 160-grain, though they also have a 200-grain hollow-point TSX. But the 8mm selection is adequate for just about any kind of big game hunting, whether local whitetails or big stuff. There's probably an edge to the 8x57 on larger game due to several premium bullets in the 200-grain class, including the TSX, Nosler Partition and Norma Oryx.

There a lot of relatively low-cost .308 brass available, including military. 8x57 brass is relatively scarce, but rarely unobtainable.

The .308 may be more inherently accurate (if such a thing exists), but the 8x57 is certainly very accurate.

.308 rifles are generally built to tighter tollerances, hence are more accurate, you have a better choice of bullets including some exceptionally accurate high bc bullets, and ammo is more available.

I can't think of a role one round could be used in that the other wouldn't work in, but I'd venture to say for practical reasons the .308 will do it better than the 8X57.

Pretty much any kind of reloading die applicable to bottleneck cartridges is going to come out for the 308 right away. Also, for any given type of die, the 308 is likely to be on the lowest cost tier.

A friend of mine and I are still kicking ourselves for not getting in on the action when a distributor was clearing out 8x57 700 Classics at a very low price.

We could have put together a couple of nice deer/pig rigs for guests to use at our deer camp.

Better bu8llets and manufacturing tolerances make the .308 a better choice today. But if they were of equal quality, there would be virtually no difference.

I've killed a few deer with mine over the years and won't knock either as both are more than adequate within their own envelope of performance but the 8X57 IMO is more in the '06 class with heavier bullets than the 308 any day.

good points all... in regards to target,yes the .308 has an edge in selection of bullets,however this thought always occurs to me,once I found the "holy grail" load of accuracy for the rifle..what do you do next? just shoot it or sell it ? I always end up with a bunch of bullets that didn't work out.

I thinking of building a heavy barrel "euro-tech" 8x57mm
with the 800+ 154grain BT-FMJ from the MG42 for 300+ yard steel plate shooting.
Hornady now make a slim line 195 plastic tips. what am I missing

A lot of those get sold in the classified section.

That's a choice among rifles not between cartridges.

The 8mm doesn't fit in a light little Kimber 84m or Remington 600, but you'll never find the .308 in a classic beauty like this:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth.../1/Commercial_Mauser_Info_Wanted_#UNREAD

The rounds are too close to quibble about.

Honestly in the .308 I haven't found bullets that don't work in it. Yes the 110 gr varmint bullets can be a bit finicky, but 125 on up, it's harder to find bullets that won't shoot than bullets that do shoot, so long as you use a good powder.

Could you build a "tactical" 8X57? Sure, but you're not going to find true match grade 8mm barrels, target grade seating die and I doubt those 154 gr bt-fmj's will shoot anywhere near as well as a good 150-165 gr .308 bullet. And no need to build a special .308 as there are several off the rack variants that will give guilt edged accuracy.

FlyboyFlem,

Yep. The 8x57 has slightly less powder room than the .30-06, but that's partially offset by the larger bore size. The .30-06 can get slightly more velocity out of the same bullet weights, but not much.

Here is a tang Ruger 77 in 8x57. I keep threatening to build a lighter weight one on a 700 with an Edge stock. Not much I'd not hunt with one. Of course the same goes with the 308.

I have one of each and quite frankly I consider them as equivalents just as the 7x57 vs 7mm08 are virtually the same. I think its a shame the 8x57 has never really caught on better than it has, but to be practical there are obviously plenty of good alternatives. I certainly can't think of a instance where I would use one on game and not the other.

The 8x57 is quite popular as a hunting cartridge in European countries and there are a wide selection of factory rifles available.

In the USA one would be very hard pressed to locate a factory made rifle in 8x57 and i do not believe there is a factory rifle that is mass produced. There would be very few custom or semi custom rifle makers that even have a chambering reamer.

For any USA Factory made Rifle model to be popular is must be offered in 30 Cal.

The various 8X57s get the job done. I use them often in 8X57JR, 8X57 JRS, and 8X57S...in the order below. Even the relatively lower power 8X57 JR kills well.

I do believe a 308 is more versatile with a better bullet selection and nice light short-action rifles.

Great Photo!