Berthier Mle 1916 carbine

[jmoore]

I measured the Prvi ammo and it should be fine in unaltered rifles. The issue only came up when I got my Remington which never made it into French service, much less had the "N" ammo conversion. Oddly, the Prvi faux "D" ammo shoots quite well out of two Post-WWI upgraded "N" carbines I've tried.

If you have a source of "D" type projectiles, I'd be interested as my brass pile is growing. Have some pulled "N" type projectiles, but that's it.

[vintage hunter]

If anyone's interested Grafs now has 8x50R Lebel ammo in stock.

[vintage hunter]

I gambled and ordered some of the PRVI ammo, it arrived late Friday evening. Pulled the bullet from one round for measurement before I shot any to see how it compared to an original lathe turned D projectile and be sure it was safe for use in unaltered rifles. It's of normal lead core gilding metal jacket construction so it's a bit shorter and doesn't seat very far into the neck. The max diameter is limited to a very narrow band on either side of the crimping groove, more of a ridge actually. The ogive and shank taper away on either side of the ridge making it kinda look like a football in profile. As it was getting late and drizzling rain I only fired 2 rounds, no pressure signs and the cases showed no abnormalities. As time permits and provided I can see the sights well enough to hit the target I'll do a range report along with pics of pulled bullet and case measurements.
And BTW, the cases have the ring around the primer so they should be safe for Lebel's too. Not sure if the early production stuff had it or not.

[jmoore]

None of my Pvri 8mm Lebel has the annular case base groove, but the last was obtained a year or more ago.

Did do a range report and/or Milurps Competition entry using the ammo.

However, the last Grafs' order I got 8mm ammo of a different sort. (Delivered just last evening, in fact.) For the Steyr rifle that's been sitting "hungry" for several years!