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M95 bore (land dia.) is .315 and groove .329 so this seems to be a normal 8x50R barrel. 8x56R used the same barrel (rechambered) but all vintage M95 sporters I have seen here on the former Austro-Hungarian territory were chambered for the original 8x50R (a few were rebarreled to 7x57R in Ferlach). So I am rather confident that a chamber cast will confirm the 8x50R.

Cheers,
Jani

HalfaDouble,
It is possible, I guess, that the Germans went back to their WW1 process of making the chamber neck large enough to release the larger bullet. Mauser Oberndorf rifles made between the wars were often chambered this way, which allowed use of 8x60 and 8x60S ammo ( .005" oversize).Oversize bullets entering a barrel become groove diameter by the time they have traveled their own length in the barrel, What drives the pressure up is the case neck jamming into the chamber and not releasing the bullet until the pressure builds up. This can be caused by an oversize bullet in a tight chamber, or by an overlength neck jamming into the leade. I would be interested also if you could slug an original 8x50R barrel, it is possible they were .329" groove.
Mike
See Jani's comment above, I guess that answers the diameter question.
Mike

Thanks for the info Jani. I plan to slug the bore 1 or 2 more times and cast the chamber once the supplies get here next week.

Thanks for all the replies
Robert

Maybe the Brits didn't make their 8mm barrels to that spec but whatever it was my Lee was very happy back then with the heaviest .323 bullets I could find which were good old Herters.

This is my first time casting a chamber so I hope it is close. here is a picture of my measurments. overall case length is hard to measure but it is around 1.96-1.97

R. Marshall,
The sketch doesn't include lengths, but I will make some more or less educated guesses, nevertheless. The head diameter( .5000"), right away, eliminates .308, 8x60, and 8x60R Mauser from consideration. Your statement that the caselength is around 1.96-1.97" eliminates 8x56R Hun. and 8x60R Krop. from consideration. This leaves only the 8x50R Austrian, which was the original caliber for the M95. This brings to mind the old saying," when you hear hoofbeats, think horses before zebras". The dimensions, shown, don't exactly match, but they hardly ever do. As a general rule, however, chamber cast dimensions are usually larger than cartridge dimensions. A chamber must be larger than the cartridge, for the cartridge to enter. A couple of the dimensions shown are smaller than the cartridge dimensions given in COTW, but not by much. There are often small differences with COTW dimensions, it is difficult to measure a chamber cast precisely to a tenth of a thousandth of an inch and timing of "cure time" for the cast may not be exact. With all this taken into account, I'm confident that my guess of 8x50R is accurate, and it matches Jani's. One minor point for future consideration: the "lands" and "grooves" on the chamber cast are reversed from the barrel, so sometimes description of dimensions are confusing. I was surprised to see actual barrel groove dimension is .329", but .329" bullets are available from PRVI( see Graf's).
Mike

Thanks Mike for your help.

Robert,
Unsurprisingly, your sketch confirms the standard 8x50R Mannlicher chambering.
Despite the .329" groove diamater Austrians used .323 bullets. Today handloaders are using long heavy flat-base bullets of this common diameter with good results. Some use .329" bullets as mentioned by Mike and some even go to the trouble to squize .338 bullets down to about .330".
A couple of additional notes. A friend noted from the photographs that your rifle uses the M90 carbine receiver, not the standard M95. The M90 carbine receiver has a higher rear bridge, similar in shape to the receiver ring, while the M95 has a lower and flatter rear bridge. Another observation is that your hunting rifle seemingly uses a longer barrel than the usual 20" carbine tube. Could you measure it?
Cheers,
Jani

Jani,
The barrel measures 19 7/8� to the front of the receiver. The stock makes the barrel look longer in the picture. A long heavy .323 bullet sounds like the ticket. Thanks so much for your help.


Robert

This rifle will be used for close range deer. So it will not be shot a whole lot. I have started searching for components and I ran across a 210gr .324 gas check hard cast bullet. I would like to keep it close to the original ammo and not try to modernize the round. Any suggestion would helpful and appreciated.