Safe ammo for a Gewehr 88

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>>34235503
"S" stamped on reciever does not necessarily mean that the bore is .323 It means that chamber was upgraded to accept new spitzer bullet. Slug your bore. Back then when I was trying to find out things about my Gew 88 I read so much about this rifle and at the end, it's always "Slug the bore."
Btw my rifle has "S" and bore is .318
and I fired four .323 bullets before I found out.

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>>34235503
>I have read that the original spitzer ammo was only 158 grains or so and that 198 grain K98 and M48 type ammo can over pressure commission rifle even though it was "upgraded" to accept the modern 8mm.
The original ammunition Patronen-88 fired a 227gr round-nose .318" projectile. This is 8x57mmI (I = Infanterie). Later the Germans adopted the 154gr spitzer .323" diameter S-Patronen.

>>34235734
The bore is .323, i'm just worried about pressure loads.

>>34235854
Just use ammo with reduced powder load.

>>34235989
Isn't basically all commercial ammo reduced load, only milsurp would have full power loads.

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>>34236086
All ammo sold in the USA marked "8mm Mauser" are SAAMI-spec loads. They are very underpowered compared to European CIP-spec "8x57IS". They'll be fine in your Gew.88/05, even if the bore is .318" (.321" if made after 1895) groove diameter.

>>34235734
They NEVER changed the bore diameter. The only thing they did was open up the chamber to allow the thicker bullet to swage down.

>>34236396
They changed the depth of the rifling in 1895. From 8.1mm groove diameter to 8.2mm. The long 227gr projectile was felt to be causing excessive wear on the rifling.

Your best option is to handload ammo for it. Either cast bullets for it or use bullets intended for .32 Winchester Special (they are .321 diameter).

>>34235503
Romanian 8mm is trash, it's out of spec. Just get some Prvi 8mm.

>>34236784
Noted, I read reviews citing plenty of duds and manufacturing errors.

>>34235503
I use PPU in my .323 diameter bore one.
However you absolutely MUST. SLUG. THE FUCKING. BORE.

It's an amazingly fun fun to shoot if you have ammo for it that's safe.
BUT ABSOLUTELY MAKE FUCKING SURE IT'S SAFE.
And I wouldn't shoot 170 Romanian. It just seems hotter than most other 8mm Mauser I've shot (Yugoslavian, Iranian, PPU)
>>34236784
Only modern made stuff (green lacquer)
The surplus (red lacquer) is my favorite ammo when not using a Gew 88.