reloading 7.92x57 mauser bullet

[antony35]

helo ,
i have a spanish mauser in 7.92 cal 8 mm mauser . i need help in reloading this perticular bullet . please advice me
antony

[rossman40]

Bullet selection for reloading is better nowadays. Sierra is finally selling the 200gr Matchking here in the states. You can even get brass from Winchester and Remington. Dies are no problem.

I have Mausers and if you have a pristine barrel you can do OK. A quality aftermarket properly installed and you can do anything a high quality 30-06 can. A "rack grade" barrel and you have a plinker but ammo is so cheap..

[antony35]

sir what do you mean by pristine barrel . it is the same old barrel i am having . it is punched as 7.92cal .

[rossman40]

With government surplus military rifles you have no way of knowing the life it has been thru. What they call serviceable can leave a lot to be desired in accuracy. You can use a throat gauge or even a a Hornady/Stoney Point overall length gauge to help look at the throat erosion but even some new Mauser barrels have very deep throats which is not the best for accuracy. Then again you could get lucky and get one fresh from depot maintenance that just had a new barrel installed. 8mm ammo is so cheap for general plinking purposes I wouldn't even bother reloading. Last time I was offered some it was like $280 for 1400 rounds and then newer stuff (non-corrosive) is like $100 for a 380 round "spam can".

Your rifle appears to be still in the military stock that has been chopped. It looks like a 98 and a lot of the Spanish guns were 93s or a M1916 which were 7mm and a lot were changed over to 7.62 (.308) in the 50s. Spain did get some 98s (M43s) in 8mm after the Spanish civil war (1938) and a lot of those were also switched to 7.62. If it is a Spanish mauser look for the crest on the front receiver ring. There were a couple of different crest and I can't remember which is which. I have seen South American mausers trying to be sold as Spanish just because there was spanish in the crest.

[smokepole50]

Did the spanish mausers have a stock disc?

What does the receiver crest look like and what does the side rail marking say?

If it is a Spanish rifle I would recomend you only load it to moderate velocities. Some of the Spanish receivers, even the 98's are suspected of being a bit soft and you could get bolt lug set back if you shot a lot of full house loads like the Turkish ammo is. I have a bunch of 8mm rifle's but most are cheap Turks.

Smokepole

[rossman40]

You got some of those $49.95 turks also? Great plinkers with the cheap ammo.

I think the problem guns were the 93s that were actually made in Spain. I have not seen a picture of a blowed up Spanish 98 but plenty of 93s (a couple in person) but then why take chances. I was told the early Spanish 98s were made in Belgium and then after WWII were made in Coruna. Spain was pretty screwed up after the civil war which ran from 1936 till early 1939. General Franco was backed by Hitler and Mussolini with as many as 12,000 German troops.

The later made in Spain 98s didn't have a stock disc. Here is a made in Coruna 1953 mauser which is probly the last year they were made. Spain started switching over to the semi auto about that time.



The Spaniards were bad about consistently marking their mausers, the crest change quite a bit but it should say "Fabrica de Armas, La Caruna" and the date if made in Spain. The side rail markings Smokepole mentioned will tell you where it was actually made regardless of the crest. Some countries would get mausers made in different countries but still have there crest on the reciever ring, one of those collector things. If by chance you had a Spanish mauser, made in Belgium in 1939, still in 8mm with pristine markings and matching numbers. You would have a rare one.

Now whoever imported the rifle (if somewhat recent) will have their name on the rifle also. There was one company that was importing them and putting a eagle crest over the original crest.

I remember seeing a film during a briefing and they had their national guard in full dress uniform marching down the road with 93s on some holiday and that was in the late 80s.

[antony35]

sorry for the late reply , here is the picture it states as 1946

[8milimeter]

8x57 pet load.
Sierra 175 pro hunter
48.0g IMR4064 OAL 3.100