After the recent range session with the ANVB (Ain't No Varmint Bullet), I have been looking at bullet choices for the 8mm-08 (.323x.308 Win), the 7.92x33 Kurz, and the 8x39 (.323/7.62x39). As I was perusing potential projectiles (I have an affinity for alliteration - ), I recalled that I had at one point considered using factory bullets, and just swaging them "up" (or down as the case might be), to 8mm. I figured this was as good a time as any to 'give that a go'. Here are pictures of the outcome of that initial effort:





On the left is a Sierra 125-grain ".30-30" (.308) bullet, (Sierra #2020), and the result of it being swaged to 8mm/.323.

In the center is the Speer .308 caliber 130-grain "Varmint" Hollow Point, (#2005), the one I think so much of, and its swaged 8mm version.

On the right is a Hornady ".303 British" (.313"), 174-grain Round Nose and its 8mm version.

All of them of course end up with shorter bearing surfaces than their .30 caliber progenitors, but they all finish greater than 0.216", (2/3rds of a caliber, 0.67 x 0.323 = 0.216), my personal minimum for seating depth in a hunting cartridge.

The 125 and 130 are strong candidates for the Kurz, the 8x39 and the 8mm-08. (Which in metric designation are: 8x33, 8x39, 8x51.) I don't really know what I might do with the 174 since there is a fairly good selection of factory 8mm bullets in the 180 to 220 grain range, some of which shoot very well from my rifles. Of note are the 180 Nosler Ballistic Tip from the Model 700 8x57 and the 220 Sierra BTSP from the 8mm SLT. At the moment, I don't see a reason for making/using the 174.

That said, using a factory bullet of diameter relatively close to 8mm, ensures a precise finished weight. "Precise finished weight" is non-tirivally achieved with the jackets that Hawk sold me. Given the difficulty in finding jackets suitable for making 8mm bullets, and the rapidly-increasing cost of lead, (and the weight inconsistency of the Hawk jackets), using factory bullets as a 'starting point' might actually prove to be less expensive in the final cost per bullet.

These bullets are less "mine" than ones that for which I cut the core, swage the core, seat the core, and form the points. To that end, finding a way to EASILY facilitate installing the "printed tip" of the ANVB would go a long way to making the .30 cal-to-8mm bullets "mine". As of yet, I haven't come up with anything.

Paul

I love that Sierra #2020 in my '06, mustard on deer!

Just looking at them, the 125 and 174 would seem to have improved the B.C., think so?The one in the middle appears to be a good hunting bullet, in either size.

Don - Yup and yup...

Paul