8x68S owner's opinions

[Gert Odendaal]

Good, members, I spend some time today to
work on the final finishing work of the magazine box..the box fits snuggle and straight..tomorrow I need to heat the box and press it over the steel bending block to ensure straight lines and sharp corners...I will now commence with he magazine box follower tomorrow..
This was the beginning:

The final form of the magazine box steel bending block:

Fitting , last fitting before I heat the box in the forge and push it over the bending block to get straight lines and sharp angles

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Members, I completed the magazine box today, will upload photos tomorrow..Now , the next step , milling a magazine follower from a piece of mild steel .....will upload photos of this process as well..when the magazine follower is completed I will commence with my rifle stock...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Update: Made some progress, the double set trigger I got from HWL in Germany is fitted and working great.

Magazine box is completed:

It takes four rounds easily, a fifth round still fits , if I want to make the fifth round work /feed I still need to do some adjustment in the action and rails..I am sure I will be able to get it to take five rounds...with four it feeds /pick up the rounds just great...there is still a millimeter or two I can remove to open up the action since the magazine box is 93 mm long...but I need to discuss this with my mentor, Johan Greyling first...good, I now need to mill out a magazine follower ..since this one currently is one borrowed from a rifle Johan opened up the action to accommodate a .500 Jeffery...

 

[HWL]

Update: Made some progress, the double set trigger I got from HWL in Germany is fitted and working great.

Magazine box is completed:

It takes four rounds easily, a fifth round still fits , if I want to make the fifth round work /feed I still need to do some adjustment in the action and rails..I am sure I will be able to get it to take five rounds...with four it feeds /pick up the rounds just great...there is still a millimeter or two I can remove to open up the action since the magazine box is 93 mm long...but I need to discuss this with my mentor, Johan Greyling first...good, I now need to mill out a magazine follower ..since this one currently is one borrowed from a rifle Johan opened up the action to accommodate a .500 Jeffery...

When you mill out a new magazine follower, think about to make it what we call a "magazinsperre".

It will prevent to close the action without loading a cartridge (from a magazin empty already).


HWL

 

[Gert Odendaal]

When you mill out a new magazine follower, think about to make it what we call a "magazinsperre".

It will prevent to close the action without loading a cartridge (from a magazin empty already).


HWL

I will do it HWL, it is just a few millimeters of angle on the magazine follower I need to change...how many 8x68S rounds do your 8x68S takes..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Something interesting members, I am sure you have noticed the magazine box I made is a sturdy type of sheet metal. it really has a great spring to it, it bend crisp and with sharp corners...even Johan Greyling was impressed with this sheet metal I used to make the magazine box..now for the interesting part..this is the material I used..and will continue to use when ever I need to build another magazine box...

This really is a great sheet metal to use for a quality type magazine box...I used strips cut from a air conditioner container ...great to work with. great bending and sanding properties..

 

[HWL]

I will do it HWL, it is just a few millimeters of angle on the magazine follower I need to change...how many 8x68S rounds do your 8x68S takes..

Mine is a Mannlicher-Schoenauer, and it takes 4 +1, like your .458 Win-Mag.

Think about, that you have to feed the M98 from the Magazine, not to overrun the extractor claw.

If you want a 4 + 1 in an M98, the fifth cartridge has to fit into the magazine completely.

HWL

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Mine is a Mannlicher-Schoenauer, and it takes 4 +1, like your .458 Win-Mag.

Think about, that you have to feed the M98 from the Magazine, not to overrun the extractor claw.

If you want a 4 + 1 in an M98, the fifth cartridge has to fit into the magazine completely.

HWL

HWL, I think it is possible to fit the fifth round, keep in mind I have not effect changes onto the feeding ramp or the rails in the action..I am sure when completing the cycling/feeding work /procedures this extra round will fit ..I still need to shorten the ejector finger as well, there is still room to improve space in the action/magazine box..

 

[bruce moulds]

gert,
will ne interesting to see what length your chamber allows rounds to be loaded to.
you might well need to get a throating reamer to fully utilize the mag length you have made.
bruce.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

gert,
will ne interesting to see what length your chamber allows rounds to be loaded to.
you might well need to get a throating reamer to fully utilize the mag length you have made.
bruce.

Yes, Bruce , I probably is going to need a throat reamer as well..this we will see if I completed the chamber ...I am focusing now on on getting the action opening work to my advantage..I really want to rel- load to a col of 91 mm..I think it will allow me the optimum usage of this great caliber designed to handle magnum loads..

 

[Gert Odendaal]

gert,
will ne interesting to see what length your chamber allows rounds to be loaded to.
you might well need to get a throating reamer to fully utilize the mag length you have made.
bruce.

Bruce, here is the reamer specs :

 

[Gert Odendaal]

I would appreciate your interpretation in regards to this reamer specs

 

[bruce moulds]

hi gert,
firstly your reamer is described as min spec, which is a good thing.
it means that the chamber should fit a max spec case with enough clearance to function reliably.
it is as small as you can go for that, which means that your brass will expand on firing a minimal amount - a good thing.
the manufacture describes what many of us call freebore as the leade, and the taper cut into the rifling as throat, so let's use his terminology.
the reamer cuts a non existant leade (no freebore).
the throat starts at 0.324" and cuts the taper to whatever the bore diameter is, being small enough at the thin end to do this.
o.324" gives 0.001" clearance on a 0.323" bullet.
if you require more lead, a reamer ror this might be better more than 0.323, but smaller than 0.324.
0.0004" or 0.0005" total clearance is good, but be aware that sometimes reamers cut a little bigger than actual measurement.no freebore you say.
yes, but the throat angle is a lot lower than the commonly used 1 degree 30 minutes used commonly today, a 0 degrees, 17 minutes, and 11 seconds.
probably the 11 seconds is a real world way of saying not below 17 minutes. once you get down to these manufacturing level, you have to work in tolerances rather than actual.
this low angle is probably why there is no lead.
bullet ogives contact the angle further out, allowing reasonable seating depths.
you will need to experiment with actual bullets to see how that works in relation to your mag length.
these low angles give much lower pressure than steeper modern ones.
I had this when rethroating a 9.3x64 with the steeper angle.
safe ammo in the original chamber blew primers out of cases out of the new chamber, even though the lead was longer.
converting the angle back to the original correct one,( similar to yours) and ammo became safe again.
bruce.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Bruce, I really appreciate this explanation, it is difficult for me to understand this reamer specs...now I have some guidelines to go with understanding this design...a 8x68S Mauser was the first magnum caliber designed by the RWS company..they designed a cartridge to fit in a standard Mauser action..keep in mind this design was done to accept a magnum cartridge dimension to fit in the Mauser action without any modifications..usually the max COL of the 8x68S according to our re-loading Powder company, SOMCHEM indicate the maximum COL 89mm with a Speer bullet, 200gn, at 2854 ft/s which is still excellent..The COL of my changes to the Mauser action is a COL of 91 or 92 mm..the opening up of the action will facilitate this..as well as the magnum length magazine box .....please give your opinion in this regards as well, good or not good, my set up????

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Good members, I just received the 8x68S barrel, the 8x68S reamer and the Weaver Grand Slam scope 4-12 x 50 from Dave West at the airport...I really want extend my sincere gratitude to Dave West, Tony Byrd and Butch Lambert for all their time and effort they put in to assist me in getting these great products...you are really great , good ,guys , always willing to assist fellow members of this great forum...Here are some photos:

 

[Von Dutch]

I have a original Mannlicher in 8x68S that I inherited from my old man. He shot hundreds of buffalo with this gun. I have also had good experiences with the Norma Swift A frame on both buffalo and small PG (impala) at short and long range.

Hello Thor, thought you might enjoy a pic of my 1963 Mannlicher 8x68. This rifle shoots just over 1.0" groups with RWS Kegelspitz bullets.

Regards.
Mike

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Hello Thor, thought you might enjoy a pic of my 1963 Mannlicher 8x68. This rifle shoots just over 1.0" groups with RWS Kegelspitz bullets.

Regards.
MikeView attachment 294367

Mike, it is a beautiful rifle, my .458 Mannlicher Schoenauer also have the side safety as well as the shroud safety....I have not seen many of them with two safeties..I turned the bolt safety into a ghost ring...

 

[Von Dutch]

Mike, it is a beautiful rifle, my .458 Mannlicher Schoenauer also have the side safety as well as the shroud safety....I have not seen many of them with two safeties..I turned the bolt safety into a ghost ring...

Gert, the 'two' safety Mannlichers are from memory post war models. But I may be wrong. Also my rifle is a bit unusual as it has a straight butterknife bolt handle.
My understanding is that from about the 1950s all M-S rifles had the 'swept back' bolt, but Steyr still offered many 'options.'
I think this rifle may have been destined for the UK as the brits seemed to prefer the straight bolt. My rifle has a Kahles Helia 39 S1 with a #4 reticle and AKAH Claw mounts.
Regards.
Mike

 

[Von Dutch]

Correction: PAC-NOR do make 8x68S barrels ..

Yes Pac Nor certainly do make 8mm barrels I bought one about 3 months ago, also for a custom 8x68 build.

Mike.

 

[Von Dutch]

Three groove would possibly be better if you were shooting target bullets with short shanks and the relatively thin jackets of dedicated long distance target bullets, i.e. a thinner jacket means that any deviation in jacket thickness will have less effect on concentricity of the lead core thus enhancing accuracy. Less engraving by rifling would theoretically have less chance of distorting the bullet as it goes down the barrel and might even increase velocity slightly OR improve shot to shot velocity consistency.

The foregoing possibilities could matter for 500-1,000 yard shooting BUT not for hunting, in my opinion. If you ever want to stir up a group of target shooters, though, just raise the subject and then go 100 metres upwind so you do not have to listen to their squawking!

ZG, I am a LR Fullbore shooter and would shoot 3 groove barrels everyday of the week, except nobody offers 30" 3 groove .308 barrels here in Oz!
Regards
Mike.