8mm-06?

[richhodg66]

I have one on the way.

I've always been interested in giving one a try. The rifle is coming with dies, but I had a small lot of GI .30-06 brass yesterday I full length resized then ran them over an 8mm neck expander ball. Guess I'm a little impatient to try this one out when it gets here.

I have a few 8mm molds, and likely the hunting cast bullets I've used in my .32 Winchester Special would work fine, but does anyone have suggestions? Looking at this Lee Karabiner and a friend is sending me some to try, any others out there I should consider? I want this to be a cast bullet deer rifle, so looking for heavy with a flat nose.

 

[Ben]

The " heavy with a flat nose " is obviously the bullet for hunting.
It has been my experience however, that few , if any, 98 Mausers ( I assume your rifle is a 98' ) will feed that bullet reliably from the magazine.

Good luck.

Ben

 

[richhodg66]

Yes, it is a '98, seems to be the classic WWII bring back that someone sporterized and did the chamber reaming to use common brass. It's one of few wild cats that has interested me quite a bit.

I like the looks of that bullet and also the 8mm Max which seems similar. Hopefully one of them will feed and shoot OK in this rifle.

 

[Charles Graff]

I don't know about the current Lee Karabiner bullet, but the original was one of our first custom orders from Lee on the old Board. This was designed for the Yugo 98 that were flooding into the American market in those days. These rifles all had pretty worn throats, so the Karabiner had a larger nose for help fill the worn throat. When seated in a unworn throat, the bullet had to be seated pretty deep to chamber. I have one of those original
molds and it proved to be very accurate even if deep seated.

 

[fiver]

definitely check the throat.
I use the same 170gr bullet that I use in my 32 special in my 8 mauser.
it's one of the model 700 classics and has a pretty tight throat compared to the older milsurp rifles so their molds are basically a no go for me.
the old ideal mold does work pretty well and I am able to shoot groups that duplicate jacketed bullets, kind of lucky there I guess otherwise I'd be ordering something from Tom.

I wouldn't get all worked up if all I had was a 150-170gr mold.
a deer at 100yds. ain't gonna know the difference, and you can use any loads you'd use in your 30-06 safely.

 

[richhodg66]

You're right, of course. I've been deer hunting with cast the past ten years now, lightest I have used is the Ranchdog .30-30 bullet at 165 grains ,but it went all the way through a quartering away shot on a decent sized buck, so weight probably isn't all it's craked up to be. I just like the idea of a heavy bullet for cast.

Somewhere around here, I have a mold I used in my .32 Special, seems like it's a NOE, was a WFN, similar to a ranchdog design, but it worked very well on the one deer I used it on. Might just see if that one does it in the 8mm-06.

 

[CZ93X62]

Casting your bullets as Bruce B Soft Points makes the need for large meplats less critical.

The 8mm-06 has always struck me as a really good game caliber.

 

[fiver]

most definitely a good idea.
the larger bore drops the pressure, the weights are real close so you get to use up more of the case capacity.
it's really kind of a win-win and since the 325 WSM come out J-bullet selection has kicked up a notch.

 

[Ian]

Cool. I've never owned one but it was definitely a good solution to an old problem and wouldn't be a bad choice for a brand-new barrel either. Accurate Molds can make anything you could want to fit your rifle except a spire point or round nose once you find out what kind of throat it has.

 

[richhodg66]

I have two older Speer manuals here which both have data for the 8mm-06. The older one, from the 70s, has data for a 225 grain jacketed bullet. The other one, from the mid 90s, does not. That data for the heavier bullet may provide a good starting point.

 

[fiver]

I'd just use 0-6 cast bullet data.
you can't go wrong.
the pressures are low and would be even lower with the larger bore.
you got 15 thousandths difference there.
it doesn't seem like much until you work the percentages and apply Boyle's law then it's like oh.

 

[Tomme boy]

Hopefully the throat is not a military style throat. If it is it will be long and large. The American made 8x57 throating reamers have a commercial style of throat. It is in between a 3006 and a 308w that is scaled up. The 8x57 was my favorite cartridge for a long time. I had a custom gun built that had a barrel contour that went from 1 1/8'' at the breech to a 1" muzzle. It was very heavy and would shoot into the 0.2" when you had a good day but was always under 1/2" with everything else. The throat in that thing was extremely short. After about 1.5K rounds it was almost ready to seat the bullet to what the Sierra book called for. Those 200gr HPBT match bullets really carried out there.

 

[Missionary]

For me.. Any caliber based on the 06 case comes out a winner !
But I do need to look into a 40-06 while my body an handle getting thumped

 

[richhodg66]

Hopefully I'll know more real soon. The seller did have more information than usual, apparently his dad reloaded for this one and he's even throwing in the dies and a few jacketed bullets (which I may use a few of to fireform cases and get a base line of what the rifle will do, though I almost never shoot jacketed anymore). I might just do a cerrosafe casting before I shoot it, normally I just do trial and error, I really should be more systematic about such things.

 

[richhodg66]

Seems like a .40-06 would almost be a straight walled case. Interesting.

 

[RBHarter]

See 400 Whelen . It's .470 shoulder down to like a .430 neck OD . Sort of a double case mouth headspace stop .

I was negotiating for a .408 barrel blank once , not a lot of 40 rifles ever and even fewer in smokless . A 284 Win based was as easy and conventional as it got .

 

[John]

Decades ago when CB was a part of the shooters board, Oldfeller or someone made the argument that a 240 gr 8x57 was both more powerful and more efficient than a 280 gr 35 Whelen. More than a few people cracked stocks trying to prove their points. I think Buckshot had some data on Castpics which is now owned by NOE. If I wanted to hunt with an 8mm 06 I would look long and hard at an Accurate design around 210 gr for elk, 180 for deer.
Is this scoped and sporterised?

 

[Bruce Drake]

I use both Lyman's 323470 (190gr Spitzer) and Lee's 185 gr 8mm Round nose in my 8mm-06 rechambered Mauser 98. I also use the Karabiner Mould but mine drops at 220gr and I do have to seat it deep to feed. My next purchase for this caliber might be Accurate Molds 215gr or 240gr molds that they have identified for 8mm-06 rifles.

 

[richhodg66]

Got the rifle today. The bore isn't as nice as I'd hoped, but I think it'll be OK, I have it soaking with some solvent now. Looking forward to trying it out in the next few days.

 

[richhodg66]

Shot ten rounds through it this evening, some of the Sierra 175 grain spitzers that came with it and 49 grains of IMR4320. Not a max load by any means, but recoil was significant, I really don't shoot anything that kics much anymore.

Anyway, considering the only scope I had that was gonna clear the military rear sight with the current mounts was an old 3x Weaver with fine cross hairs and the fact that the original military trigger pull is about 9,000lbs, it shot two groups at 100 that were a little under 2", not bad for a first try out. I'm gonna shoot some more jacketed to get the brass fireformed, then start working with cast. The first few inches of barrel forward of the chamber fouls rather badly and I can't help but think this one could benefit from some gentle fire lapping.

I'm eager to try some of those heavy Lees, either the Karabiner or the Max. If it shoots one of those well, this could cool that itch I've had for a .35 Whelen off and on.