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Old 01-09-2015, 10:30 AM
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$P-Ritch$ $P-Ritch$ is offline
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Originally Posted by GOEX FFF View Post
Sorry for the late reply, $P-Ritch$. Between work and taking care of my 7 month old son, things have been....busy, lol.

Yeah, I thought that band was odd. The good thing though, is a correct stacking rod / lugged band isn't too hard to find and any will do.
You might try EbaY of course. I've seen them pop up there from time to time. Just try to seek one out that has no numbers on the band.
Like we've previously mentioned in this thread, the only locations the original serial numbers should be for a correctly matching piece is the left side of the receiver and bbl, Left side of the stock and commonly, the last two digits of the serial on the left side of the top guard, right under or under near the rear leaf sight. M.95 bolts and bands were never originally serialized.

As far as shooting it...absolutely, shoot that ole' gal! I shoot my 8x50's and I see no way that that would lower the value. They're made to be shot right? Have a blast.
The Long Rifle is a joy to shoot, even in 8X56 and especially in the 8x50. I've described it as before, the Long Rifle shoots like how a luxury liner sails, hard yet elegant. Especially if you hand load and can play with your loads a bit. Mil-Surp 8x50mmR however has of course gotten scarce and can be time consuming to find but not impossible. The majority of the surplus that randomly comes to surface these days at gun shows, Gunbroker, AuctionArms...etc is mostly 1930's cupra-nickel RN Bulgarian. Expect to pay about $2+ a round.
But rolling your own definitely is the way to go if you want to have some good range time.

As for cases, I've never went the 45-70 route. I bought a bunch of 8X56mmR brass from Grafs many years ago when it was cheap.
That's why I use for 8X50 Cases. 7.62X54mmR cases of course are cheap and work great too for the 8x50R. Generally, you can just fire-form, trim and load.

In fact, the two cartridges are so close, believe it or not you can actually fire a 7.62x54mmR out of an 8x50mmR M.95, even using the same en-block clips. It's a little known fact that the Austro-Hungarians used the 54R in emergency ammunition situations for the M.95.

Would I personally do it? Eh probably not...but here's proof it can be done with no ill effects aside from lousy accuracy and the occasional sticky bolt.



One thing to note, the typical bore size of the M.95 is .329-330". During the conversion to the 8x56mmR, only the chamber was lengthened for the new cartridge, the bore diameter of .329" remained the same. The original 8x50mmR projectile was a 244 grn .323" flat base, where upon firing, the base/skirt would greatly expand and swage into the over-sized rifling.
This is why in the video, accuracy is so bad using the 54R. You're sending a .312" boat-tail bullet down a .329" diameter bore. lol But it works no less.
Goex, no worries on the reply time. Babies take priority over gun talk, despite what others here on calguns may say....

Thanks a bunch for the info. I will look around for the stacking rod/band. I'll try to drag my out to shoot it next time I'm home, I know he'll enjoy it. He has about 60 rounds of the 45-70 conversion which should be more than enough brass if I ever get around to reloading it. I don't expect it to be a high volume shooter.

That is awesome that they can technically feed and shoot 7.62x54R, even if it isn't that efficient. It kind of reminds me of the Japanese rifles from WWII. How they were designed with just slightly larger bores so they could shoot enemy (American) ammo in pinch, but our boys couldn't do the same.
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