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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

7X57 Vs 8X57 Loads Educate Me.


ahoyza

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Hi. I own, shoot, and hand load for both. I have always wondered about something: Why is the 7 so much whimpier?

My lee book shows psi topping out at 51k for 7mm but 56k for 8. Is it due to the weaker 93_96 actions? But wait, what about loading low because of the .318's? Does not the 8mm go back to the 1880's? Case capacity is the same. My question is merely one of curiousity, I always load low as it does not take much muzzle energy to kill a paper target or a whitetail in NY. Please chime in. --Ahoyza ps I watched the 8mm video below, it was good.

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It is my understanding that it does relate to the small ring v. large ring actions. While the original 8mm was on a small ring, by the time the large ring came out the 8mm was revised to "bomb proof" strength and the loading was then for the large ring (98) actions. There are designations for the revised 8mm loadings. Is it JS? I forget. Part of the revised designation is for the spitzer bullet.

 

There are loading tables for 7x57 that specify "strong action" or something like that, referring to a large ring Mauser action or equivalent. I think a lot of the weaker maximum loadings are to not potentially blow up the weaker actions. The 7mm was also used in some non-Mauser rifles. Remington rolling blocks come to mine.

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A bit off subject and I'm remembering back to late 70's. Friend had a FN-49 chambered in 7X57. Spanish surplus ammo didn't seem to have enough oomph to cycle the action. Surplus ammo from where I think was Venezuela had a harder recoil punch and the action cycled properly. USA commercial ammo best I recall was somewhat iffy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the .318" bore issue. The military stopped making those prior to WW1. Though because they couldn't make rifles fast enough during WW1 many .318" bore rifles were issued with the then standard larger diameter 8mm bullet. They got around this by cutting some free bore in the barrel so that the bullet picked up speed before being swaged down, so pressures were not raised too much.

However, post war, many gunsmiths used the .318" bore as they felt it was a more accurate barrel.

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