Question regarding .318 vs .323 bore diameter

J

Jos

Member
I have read that some early 98 Mausers had a .318 bore. If that is true short of measuring with caliper will serial number tell me anything?
 
You can be sure it is not .318 . It will be between .310 - .311 land and .323 - 325 groove .
 
Until a couple of weeks ago I also thought that all were .323 grooved. Then I read an article by Allan Jones of Shooting Times where he mentioned that early 8MM rifles were manufactured with a smaller 'J' bore using .318 projectiles. So my confusion was sufficient to resort to this forum to educate me. I appreciate the responses. Five one thousandth of an inch doesn't seem like much until one attempts to push it down a barrel not meant for it at 43,000 PSI.
 
The German military started with a .314 - .3208 barrel . 1890 1/2 went to .311 - .3208 , 1896 1/2 went to .311 - .323 . The original P-88 ammo had a .3188 bullet , it was used in all bore sizes . Then they went with the .321 bullet S ammo . Both were used side by side for a while until the S ammo became the standard . The German military never used J nor S as a bore size . The .323 WAS called the Z bore . So it looks like another article by someone who does not know what he is talking about , and there are many . I will look for his article to see just exactly he wrote before more comments .
 
If the article is the one from March of 2022 , it is pure trash . About everything he writes is wrong , and I mean everything . I will have to show it to a friend who is also very into early German military for a laugh .
 
Jos said:
Until a couple of weeks ago I also thought that all were .323 grooved. Then I read an article by Allan Jones of Shooting Times where he mentioned that early 8MM rifles were manufactured with a smaller 'J' bore using .318 projectiles. So my confusion was sufficient to resort to this forum to educate me. I appreciate the responses. Five one thousandth of an inch doesn't seem like much until one attempts to push it down a barrel not meant for it at 43,000 PSI.
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It really depends on the rifle. The Germans are notorious for shooting "tight bore" and even over sized bullets. Bore/Groove diameters can vary immensely depending on a myriad of factors. If you have a particular rifle in mind, let us know, and we can provide more info.
 
If he has a German Military model 98 like he says , it will not be .318 . Of the about 200 German 8mm rifles in my collection and about 300 in two other friends collections , none are " tight bores " for the ammo they were meant to shoot . None have bores [ lands ] that vary immensely , the pre mid 90's are right at .314 , all the rest are .3108 to .3118 . The grooves are a bit more from .320 to .321 on the pre1896 1/2 barrels meant to fire the .3188 P-88 bullet or the .3208 S bullet . The post 1896 1/2 Z bores run .323 to .325 and are meant to fire the .3208 S bullet or the .323 sS bullet . I feel my 500 real rifle sample is enough for a good base line . What amount of rifles do you get your data from ? I would guess andy's amount is close to zero real rifles . The Allen Jones article just repeated old bad info plus a little it seems like he just made up .
 
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