Kettner stalking rifle at the range

[David Lapell]

I took my Kettner stalking rifle out to the range the other day. It's in 8mm Mauser with .318" barrel so I had to find some correct bullets, these being 196 grains. The loads are very light, the velocity somewhere around 2,000 fps, no more. I found the best way to resize the brass for the .318" bullets was to get an expander / decapping rod for a .32-40 Winchester which puts the brass closer to .318" than .323". The range to the target was 30 yards. When I load up some more rounds, I will test it out to 100 yards, which is far here since we have a lot of forest and brush, most of my shots on deer have been under 50 yards, a few over and my longest was maybe 150 yards plus. I didn't have to touch the sights at all. The gun is pleasant to shoot, especially since it's so light, it weighs no more than 6 pounds, 7 at the most. I do plan on hunting with this rifle come the fall for whitetail, but only on nice, sunny days.

[mike ford]

Dave,
That is great, I hope you get a deer, next Fall. Just a suggestion for your hand loading. I have been able to load all my different 8mm cartridges( 8x57IRS, IR, I, 8x57R/360, and 8x72R) with one die set. I just deprime by hand for the ones taking .318" -.321" bullets and size them w/o any depriming/sizing stem at all. With a good inside chamfer, jacketed bullets seat with no problem, but for cast bullets, I do bell the cases ( by eye) with a 32 S&W expander. From the photos, there is no doubt the 32-40 works for you, this is only a suggestion if it doesn't work for your next rifle.
Mike

[yamoon]

David
I like the rifle. I also load a .318 8x57. It is a 98 Mauser sporter. I have been using 175 gr .318 spire point bullets from Buffalo Arms. I decap by hand use a standard set of 8x57 dies without the expander. I will probably try some Hawk .318 bullets this summer. Continued good luck.
Mike

[sharps4590]

I have seen that target before....and well done again!! I do the same as Mike regarding loading dies.