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From: JCEHC%CUNYVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: novice wants advice
Message-ID: <35952@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 24 Jun 91 22:58:14 GMT
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In article <35915@mimsy.umd.edu>, bercov@bevsun.bev.lbl.gov (John Bercovitz)
says:
#
##In article <35897@mimsy.umd.edu> MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu
##(Michael Edelman) writes:
##But be careful of the 8mm Mausers. It's a fine cartridge, but there
##are *two* different 8mm bores! Modern ammunition is generally sized
##for the smaller bore, which means if you shoot it in a gun with the
##larger bore you'll have pretty rotten accuracy.
#
#_CAUTION_
#I'm sure this is t'other way round.  The earlier guns (88s) had the
#J bore which was .318.  The later ones have the S bore which is .323.
#Modern ammo is .323.  If you fire modern ammo in one of the older rifles
#with the tighter bore, something will likely give.  Even early '98s had
#the J bore.  Later, most or all of the 98s were re-barreled to .323.
#But the J-bore 88s are still around, waiting to be blown up by modern
#ammo.  If I'm wrong, flame me.  But please check it out first.  Thanks.
#
#     JHBercovitz@lbl.gov    (John Bercovitz)
#
#PS: Also, the allowable chamber pressure in the 88s may well be lower than
#in the 98s making this doubly dangerous.


    Every 1888 German Commission Rifle I have ever seen was marked with
an  "S" stamp which indicates that that gun was rethroated.  The purpose
of rethroating the chamber on these guns was to make shooting .321
diameter "S" bullets through them safe.  After the the adoption of the
"S" cartridge ( S for spitzer) in 1904, the Imperial German army had armorers
rethroat 1888 and 1898 rifles which had the smaller (.318) bore.

   While I don't know how safe it is to shoot regular 8mm through an
'88 Commission rifle, I do know that many people do it.  These rifles
were also issued as substitute standard  in WWI by the German army.  I
have seen photos of WWI German soldiers armed with them.  Some were
also altered so that the en bloc clip (Mannlicher clip) could be dispensed
with and a Mauser stripper clip could be used instead.

BTW  Original .318 diameter 8mm Mauser ammo is very difficult to find.

 Not a flame, just additional information
-------
MICHAEL F. GORDON             JCEHC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

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