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thankxlot for all the help...
do you know what the standard 8mm round weight was for war production??? 160 or 164 comes to mind.
i'll never reload anything again cause i shoot up in minutes what takes hours to reload.
i'm going to stay as close to standard ball as i can find unless i find some "Match" stuff if they even made/make it.

the ground is completely covered now and the trees too... bout an inch. if it freezes tonight i might get a chance to shoot tomorrow but i won't hold my breath.

I'm looking at an older Speer No. 10 reloading manual and it says that the 8x57 Mauser cartridge was originally loaded with a 227gr round nosed bullet prior to 1905.

In 1905, they standard load used a 150gr bullet.

I know that some good deals can be found on MIL surplus 8mm ammo, but it's often loaded with corrosive primers. We've shot a LOT of corrosive ammo, but you have to clean your guns with soapy water to get the corrosive salts off of gun metal.

I understand what you're saying about shooting up ammo too fast that you reload, and I used to feel the SAME way until a buddy of mine went in halfsies with me and we bought a Dillon RL-550B progressive reloader. We had a pool of $500.00 and were able to get the reloader, tool sets for .308/.30-06, and .45 ACP, electronic low powder sensor, the "howto video", strong mounts, and a bullet tray.

Bear in mind that we had a LOT of single stage reloading equipment prior to this, otherwise it could have been more for case prepping equipment such as primer pocket swagers, tumblers, trimmers, etc...

But me and the kids usually reload. In fact, my 12 yr old daughter and I usually do all the reloading. We can load 500 rds of any straight walled pistol cartridge in about 45 minutes, and 500 rds of .308 Win in a little over an hour.

The time I've saved alone was worth it, PLUS it gave me and the kids something to do together!

My daughter has actually reloaded by herself under my supervision. It's funny to see the looks on the guys faces when she pipes up, "Are those MY reloads?" It takes a couple of minutes to convince them that she actually loaded them. But when she explains that SHE prepped and inspected the brass, and sized, trimmed and "miked" it....loaded 5gr of WST behind 185gr SWC bullets and then ran them all through a go/nogo case gauge, they feel a little better. :-)