Hey guys, I got a bunch of surplus Turk Mauser ammo recently. Some of it was in pretty bad shape and was not salvageable, some was okay and I was actually able to shoot it with no issues whatsoever. The rest (and the majority) I saved to pull the bullets for reloading. A few spot checks revealed that these are 154 grain cupro-nickel fmj bullets (153.8 to 154.5 grains from what I've seen) with about 49.3 grains of powder (48.8 - 49.4 or so - quite a variance really, but most were around the 49.3 weight). Looking at Hodgdon's website for reloading data for 8mm Mauser, it looks like this is close to the data for Varget.
Here is their data for a 150 grain bullet:
Hodgdon Varget
.323"
2.950"
45.5 <== Min. Charge
2,561
37,500 CUP
52.4C <== Max Charge
2,896
49,000 CUP
Here is their data for a 160 grain bullet:
Hodgdon Varget
.323"
3.010"
45.0 <== Min. charge
2,503
36,100 CUP
49.0C <== Max charge
43,600 CUP
Now, knowing that Turk ammo is typically considered "hot" as far as Mauser ammo goes, does it seem like the Varget data would be reasonable (and safe) to use for this powder? I think I would want to keep it to the lower end of the ranges they give. It is a flake powder and it just looks too good to throw away, at least until I've tested it. I'm going to end up with about 2 quarts of powder it looks like - probably between 3 and 4 lbs..
Here is their data for a 150 grain bullet:
Hodgdon Varget
.323"
2.950"
45.5 <== Min. Charge
2,561
37,500 CUP
52.4C <== Max Charge
2,896
49,000 CUP
Here is their data for a 160 grain bullet:
Hodgdon Varget
.323"
3.010"
45.0 <== Min. charge
2,503
36,100 CUP
49.0C <== Max charge
43,600 CUP
Now, knowing that Turk ammo is typically considered "hot" as far as Mauser ammo goes, does it seem like the Varget data would be reasonable (and safe) to use for this powder? I think I would want to keep it to the lower end of the ranges they give. It is a flake powder and it just looks too good to throw away, at least until I've tested it. I'm going to end up with about 2 quarts of powder it looks like - probably between 3 and 4 lbs..