I've recently purchased a Steyr M95 long rifle. It's a good example with a decent bore and came with fairly complete reloading equipment, including a lot of Bertram 8X56R cases.

Could anyone recommend a good source of reloading data for the 8X56R cartridge? Have you had any particularly successful loads for use with the M95?

A number of bullets were also included with the rifle. They weigh about 207 grains and measure an average of .331". I wonder if these were pulled from original service ammo?

Thanks!

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They are milsurp pulls.

I load 205 gn soft points over 41.0 grains of IMR 3031.

Its been a while, but I think the bullets are Hornady.  They're .329.

They shoot well and I love these little carbines.  Recoil can be stout.

Safe in my gun.  Work up your own loads.  Disclaimer, disclaimer, blah blah...

PPU makes a .330 around 205-208grs as well.  As much as these kick I'd probably go with a cast bullet and work up a load with a suitable powder rather than going for something full power on an FMJ.

I don't reload these, but if you'll google it, there are plenty of discussions on other forums through the years about loads for this particular caliber.
It appears that it can be loaded so that it has a mild recoil and is still very accurate.   Have fun.

PPU makes the ammo, its not too expensive at 17.99 at Midway and other places.

Used my birthday code one time and it was down to about 13.99 a box.

You may already know this, but the M95 requires the use of clips, like the Garand.

I got the dies out today to clean them up and start sizing cases, then I noticed the expander/decapping rod is missing. It's a nuisance since the shipping on a replacement from Lee is a bit dear.

Hopefully the dealer they came from can help, but it may take a while for a replacement to arrive.

I managed to get out and chronograph some loads yesterday.

Load from my post above:
205 gn Hornady bullet over 41.0 gns of IMR 3031 = 2050 fps

New load:
250 gn Sierra bullet over 41.0 gns of IMR 3031 = 1850 fps
(started a 38 gns and worked up)

Shoulder's a little sore this morning, but the weather was nice and it was fun.

One of the diffusers went missing from my chronograph and it can be a bit temperamental without it.

Ideally, I'd load for this cartridge with Viht N140. Powder is very expensive here, so it helps to buy one type in bulk and load multiple calibres. It's quite similar to Varget and works very well in many modern and historic calibres.

There are a few interesting bullets available in Europe for 8X56R. I also saw an Australian company is now producing a bullet based off the one used with the original service cartridge.

I think it was on the Hunter's Life forum, but there was a guy on a gun forum that was really into this cartridge and put up a lot of interesting data.

One of my reasons for interest in this cartridge is the potential for use with the round-nosed heavy bullets.  One of the old reloading manuals (from the 1950s, IIRC, which called for using DuPont powders) had data for the parent 8X50R that would seem to indicate the potential to get a bullet like that to some pretty decent velocities, even in the carbines and short rifles.  Imagine a 250-grain .33-calibre softpoint or dangerous game solid at over 2,200 fps.  Could be a decent stopper, something that might even work well with bears.

Unfortunately, way too many recoil-shy people insist on recommending that people underload this cartridge, but I don't think that should be done.  And from what I understand, you can get blowby if you reduce the charges as low as some people have done.

Also, which Aussie company are you talking about?  Woodleigh?  They make bullets in the right calibre but they are meant for use on cartridges like the .33 OKH or the .318 Westley-Richards, although they are coincidentally usable in the 8X56R.  Those would include the roundnosed bullets I mentioned above.  Or are you talking about a different company?

Service bullets for the older 8X50R used a 244-grain .323 bullet with an obturating base that acted like a driving band on an artillery projectile and gripped the rifling while the rest of the bullet just rode the bore.  With the roundnose type bullets this means less wear and tear on the bore, but you can use full-bore projectiles like the Woodleighs as well.  The 8X56R switched to full-bore boat-tailed spitzer 206-grain bullets like the ones on the OP.

I'll have a look for that, thanks.

No, it's AV Ballistics. Here is their catalog of bullets. In Europe, we have Degol and H&N also producing bullets.

Those look nice, but wow are they expensive, even with the AUD falling in price.

Not sure if Graf's will ship to GB, but here's a link to some 8X56R bullets for half that price.

I shot mine for about 15 rounds, and got tired of it. Sold it to my dad. I damn near spent more on two boxes of ammo and a clip than I did on the rifle.

I made abunch for my 8x50R using those Australian Woodleigh 250gr bullets.  I got a bunch of the Privi 8x56 cases from Grafs and reformed them to the 8x50 case.  Then had to trim the shit out of them.  They are long ass bullets.  See pic. of the process.

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