30-06 Brass

[Kirkned]

I have a question of those of you who are much more knowledgeable than I. I have an old large ring mauser in 8mm and was looking at it the other night and started playing with the bolt. I then began to wonder if I could chamber 30-06 brass in it after I trimmed it to the 8mm length. So I got out my loading books found the oal for 8mm brass(2.240") and shortened this by 0.02" did this to 10 rounds of 06 brass then cleaned them up and tryed to chamber them no problems, chamber find extracted fine. But while I was looking for the OAL for the 8mm I also noticed that the bass of the 06 case is .003" larger than that of the 8mm.

Would there be a problem loading 06 brass to fire in the old 8mm? Is this commonly done? Are there any problems with this other than possibly mixing up 06 and 8mm loaded rounds?

Thanks
Kirkned

[Ol` Joe]

I would do little more checking but I believe the 8mm has ~.10" shorter lenght from base to the shoulder then the `06. The headspace souldn`t be a problem after resizeing if that`s true. The .003" difference in head diameter shouldn`t be a problem either that I can see. Snug cases make for accurate ammo.

I`m by no means a "expert" though, keep inquiring.

[Catfish]

I`ve formed alot of brass from different cases but never gave a thought to forming 8mm from 06 cases. I guess it`s because I never played much with the old 8 x 57. I`ve got one but never shot it.
Anyway it should be a piece of cake to form them. If you have already fromed some and they will alow a .323 bullet to be seated in the case and chamber that`s all that`s needed. Your FL sizer should set your head space, you may have to adjust it, and you will have to trim cases to lenth. If you get some small dent when forming they will disapear the first time the case is fired. You should also check the case capisity of the formed cases and if it is smaller your max load will be less than book, probibly less than 1 gn. Reduce you max load by the same % that the case volume was reduced. It might also have a greater volume, but I would not recomand increasing max load.
If you don`t know how to measure case capisity you can.
Take 5 factory cases for the cal. your forming for size and trim to lenth. Weight each case empty then fill with water and weight again. Subtract empty weight from full weight and average the weight of the water. Then do the samething with 5 of your formed cases and calculate the % differance.

[Gil Martin]

I have been making 8x57mm Mauser cases from .30-06 brass for many years. Just run the .30-06 cases through a trim die, trim the cases and then through a full length 8mm Mauser die. Also use .30-06 brass to make 7.65x53mm Belgian Mauser and 7x57mm Mauser cases. All the best...
Gil

[Kirkned]

Catfish, Gil

Thanks for all the information. I knew that someone here would know the answer to this question on this great site. :D I can always get answers here.

[Jack]

Gil's right.
Forming 8x57 from 30-06 is easily done, and has been done many, many times.
You should have no problem at all with any of the methods suggested in this thread.

[Adam Helmer]

Kirkned,

I have been making 8x57MM brass from .30-06 cases for longer than I care to remember. I run the .30-06 cases through the 8X57 die backed off about half a turn, trim the new 8mm cases and then size to a slight "crunch" fit for my various 8mm rifles. Some of my 8mms are "long in the Tooth" and I size the cases perfectly for them.

Adam

[Kirkned]

Muito Obrigato!!!! :D