Advice? I want to know if the 8MM shooting 1953 ammo and shooting at 400 yards ,I think its a 189 grain slug NATO round full copper jacket,shooting of a adj.Bipod at 400 yards.shot 6 targets and the best was the #3 and I got a 2 shot group2 1/2 " high 1/2" apart and one about 1 3/4 " low but in the center ring.All the other 5 targets were with in a 5" grouping some more to the right than on center,this all took place after a 1&3/4 hours of shooting.I wanted to shoot at 5to600 yards but ran out of room where I was shooting from .My question is is the NATO rounds the best round to shoot for distance, with out doing my own reloading?I think if I try to reload Nato ruonds I have to drill the primer cap out to relplace with new primer,right?I like to shoot a lot so I buy surplus ammo,but back in the 80s I had a lot of reloads done for me in Billings Mt.,and he would load some really hot loads for me which I could reach out close to 3/4 mile and touch a white 5gal paint bucket ,but it also would some times make it hard to eject the spent round.Young and dumb back then.So now if any one can lead me down a good road to a good long distance round let me know. Thanks,I am new to this site and would really like to hook up with some long distance shooters.
There are a couple things that don't ring true here. I'm not the most knowledgeable on site, but I do not think NATO ever standardized on 8mm, it was always some flavor of 7.62 until 5.56 was adopted. If you were shooting those handloads in the Mauser, you were probably asking for trouble, the usual first sign of overpressure is a sticky bolt. Don't go there, your face means more to you than a speedy bullet. The 1953 8mm "NATO" you mention is probably Berdan primed milsurp, and yes they can be reloaded at great effort, not quite as simple as drilling out the spent primer and the anvil. Go to the Handloader's Bench (there's a link on the main page of the forum) those guys have a wealth of info experience and are willing to work with you. Frankly, I seriously doubt that you were hitting a 5 gal bucket at 3/4 of a mile (1300 yards!!) with an old Mauser, handloaded hot or otherwise. Not credible. You indicate that you had this built for you in your chatbox post. Customized in some fashion? Would love to see pix of it sometime.
Sounds like the ol' Yugo 1953-dated 196 grain ammo - shoots okay, IF it goes bang! Much of it was not stored well, and has dead primers. 7.92X57 ('8mm Mauser') was NEVER NATO spec. How well the rifle shoots depends upon the origin of the ammo too. Most European Mauser rifles were regulated for the 196 grain load - pretty much the standard. The Turkish Mauser rifles shoot best with their 154 grain loads. The Turk ammo is too light for the European Mausers and will generally shoot very high. This holds true with my various Mausers and the surplus ammo I have used. Surplus 8mm Mauser is nearly always Berdan primed - you CAN gear up to reload it, but it's a real hassle and expense, and the primers can be difficult to come by. Berdans come in a variety of diameters, so you have to make sure you have the right type for your brass! Much easier to just order good commercial Boxer brass, or even convert .30-06 to 8mm Mauser - I have done so with a couple hundred 'ought-sixes' that I had no other use for. From what I have read, the long distance shooters often use a heavier bullet than standard issue type as it bucks wind better. I have had good performance shooting a 220 grain Spitzer bullet in 8mm Mauser, but I don't have the distance to really wring it out here at our local range.
