1888 commision rifle

[thors hammer]

does any one here own one of these? my question is can you still find any ammo to safely shoot out of this rifle or is it one of those blackpowder cartriges . any info from personal expieriance would be great.

[zouavexx]

I don't have one, but I don't think the obsolete ammo for the commission rifle is available.

[Schuetzenman]

I'm of the opinion also that there really isn't any safe ammo to shoot in them. You are talking about the 8 mm commission 1888 rifles right? Some are around in 7.65 X 53 Belgium also called 7.65 X 54 Argentine.

[thors hammer]

its hard to find info on this rifle because its not really a mauser.
but if it uses 762x54 agrie isnt that ammo around.
i read some where that 8mm mauser round started with this rifle so why is it called obsolite, we need an expert.
also these rifles one source says that thousands were imported to the us and rechambered.

[Schuetzenman]

Well for one the first version of the 8 mm round was based on a .319 diameter bullet modern 8 mm is .323 so this ammo will create some bad-assed pressure. :eek: Nuts it's a quarter to midnight and I got to go to work. I have Olson's book on Mausers and they have a chapter or two on these. I'll try and dig out the book and read up on it and report back.

[zouavexx]

Everytime I have read something about these rifles it always says that the gun is not safe to shoot. Personally I have no experience with the rifle, but I wouldn't take the chance if I was you.

[Schuetzenman]

Here's the skinny on commission Modle 88 rifles and cartridges. After reading through the chapter on them in Olson's book, third addtion called Mauser Bolt Rifles this is what's not safe about them.

They are of a "Small Ring" size on the receiver. They do have front locking lugs as do all Masuer designs foreward to present, but they are not all that big.

The 88 ammo was .318 so I was close but off by .001". The bullet was a 227 gr. round nose copper plated steel jacketed lead core projectile. The powder was a nitro cellulose cut in a flake pattern. Bullet speed was 2034 fps.

Groove diameter was .003 bigger than the rounds so they were a .321" nominal.

Now modern 8 mm Mauser ammo is based around a .323" diameter bullet as I said in the last post. It is 198 grs and the nominal speed of this round is 2,575 fps.

Conclusion, the reason why people are cautioned not to shoot modern 8 mm ammo in the Commission 88's is due to the bigger bullet in modern ammo that will give excessive high pressure spiking when it tries to shove it's way down a .321" bore. The higher speed due to more powder also contributes to the pressure problems, like 25% more initial bullet speed over the old 8 mm round for the 88 rifles. So one is likely to damage the rifle and ones self if they shoot new style 8 mm ammo in them.

I imagine that hand loads of lower pressure and the use of hard cast gas checked bullets would allow easy and safe operation of a 88 Mauser. Possibly .321" diameter bullets as used in .32-40 rifle rounds could also be used if you wanted a jacketed round or one could get a swagging die made up and run .323 bullets through them to reduce them to the old .318 diameter or at the least to a .321" nominal groove diameter.

So there it is the whole story! ;)

[Schuetzenman]

Bump! :)