The 8×60mm S is a

rimless A rim is an external flange that is machined, cast, molded, stamped, or pressed around the bottom of a firearms cartridge. Thus, rimmed cartridges are sometimes called "flanged" cartridges. Almost all cartridges feature an extractor or headspacing ...

bottlenecked

centerfire Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center A centerfire cartridge is a firearm metallic cartridge whose primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i.e. "case head"). Unlike rim ...

cartridge Cartridge may refer to: Objects * Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition * ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device * Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators Other uses * Cartridge (surname), a ...

of German origin, dating back to the

interbellum In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...

period between

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The bore has the same dimensions as the German 7.92×57mm Mauser service cartridge (designated as "S-bore"). The 8×60mm S can, due to its overall length, easily be chambered in standard sized

Mauser 98 The Gewehr 98 (abbreviated G98, Gew 98, or M98) is a German bolt-action rifle made by Mauser, firing cartridges from a five-round internal Clip (ammunition), clip-loaded magazine. It was the German service rifle from 1898 to 1935, when it was r ...

bolt-action Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed). Most bolt-action ...

rifles. In such military M98 bolt actions internal magazine boxes feature a magazine length of .

History

After

, the Allied forces signed the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

. This Treaty prohibited the use of standard military weapons and ammunition by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. However, civilian hunters didn't want to give up on this round, so a new cartridge was designed by the German arms manufacturer

Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken ''Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken Aktiengesellschaft'' (German Weapons and Munitions public limited company), known as DWM, was an arms company in Imperial Germany created in 1896 when ''Ludwig Loewe & Company'' united its weapons and amm ...

(DWM). Extending the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge case by 3 mm (2 mm of lengthened body plus 1 mm of lengthened neck) created the 8×60mm S. The 8×60mm S bullet diameter is 8.22 mm (.323 in) as found in the 8×57mm IS. The new cartridge used the same bullet and therefore only the chamber of the rifle had to be modified (reamed out by 2 mm plus 1 mm of neck extension) to accommodate the slightly longer case. This operation was easily performed on

Gewehr 98 The Gewehr 98 (abbreviated G98, Gew 98, or M98) is a German bolt-action rifle made by Mauser, firing cartridges from a five-round internal clip-loaded magazine. It was the German service rifle from 1898 to 1935, when it was replaced by the Ka ...

and

Karabiner 98k The Karabiner 98 kurz (; "carbine 98 short"), often abbreviated Karabiner 98k, Kar98k or K98k and also sometimes incorrectly referred to as a K98 (a K98 is a Polish carbine and copy of the Kar98a), is a bolt-action rifle chambered for the 7.92×5 ...

rifles. It also meant that owners of rifles so re-chambered could not then be used as an "ad hoc" reserve to the German Army (that was one of the issues of concern at Versailles of reserves of male civilians disguised as rifle club members with their own privately owned rifles - being trained as reinforcements in time of war as the German Army was by that Treaty limited not only to 100,000 men but also to the number of rifles it could possess) as standard military ammunition could not now be safely fired in rifles so converted.

8×60mm

Since this chamber reaming operation is also possible for earlier I-bore rifles, 8×60mm chambered rifles (without the S or any other further additions) also exist. 8×60mm rifles sport the earlier tighter 8.07 mm (.318 in) I-bore as found in the 8×57mm I. ''To avoid potentially serious accidents, it is important to distinguish clearly between cartridges loaded for these two different bullet diameters, and only fire them in appropriately chambered/barrelled rifles.''

Cartridge dimensions

The 8×60mm S has 4.16 ml (64

grains A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legume ...

) H₂O cartridge case capacity. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in bolt-action rifles, under extreme conditions. 8×60mm S maximum C.I.P. cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters (mm). Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 19.1 degrees. The common

rifling In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the pro ...

twist rate In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the pro ...

for this cartridge is 240 mm (1 in 9.45 in), 4 grooves, Ø lands = 7.89 mm, Ø grooves = 8.20 mm, land width = 4.40 mm and the primer type is large rifle. According to the official C.I.P. rulings, the 8×60mm S can handle up to P_max piezo pressure. In C.I.P. regulated countries every rifle has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum pressure to certify for sale to consumers. This means that 8×60mm S chambered firearms in C.I.P. regulated countries are currently (2016) proof tested at PE piezo pressure.C.I.P. TDCC datasheet 8 × 60 S
/ref>

Contemporary use

Mostly

Mauser Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German arme ...

and

rifles were rechambered for this caliber. Other rifles, not rarely based on the Mauser action, were chambered for this cartridge too. The 8×60mm S offers compared to its parent cartridge, the 8×57mm IS, about 1 to 2% extra muzzle velocity due to its slightly larger case capacity and higher maximum operating pressure. This results in a flatter trajectory and better performance at longer range. The popularity of the 8×60mm S peaked just after World War I and continued throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Today the cartridge is almost obsolete. No or very few rifles are produced for this round. Only two mainstream manufacturers (RWS and Prvi Partizan), along with some other smaller companies like Nolasco and Sologne, continue to produce the cartridge for hunting. Loaded with short light bullets it can be used on small European game like

roe deer The roe deer (''Capreolus capreolus''), also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapt ...

and

chamois The chamois (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe, from west to east, including the Alps, the Dinarides, the Tatra and the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the Ril ...

. Loaded with long heavy bullets it can be used on big European game like

boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is no ...

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

and

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

. The 8×60mm S offers very good penetrating ability due to a fast

that enables it to fire long, heavy bullets with a high

sectional density Sectional density (often abbreviated SD) is the ratio of an object's mass to its cross sectional area with respect to a given axis. It conveys how well an object's mass is distributed (by its shape) to overcome resistance along that axis. Sectio ...

. The 8×60mm S can be used in countries which ban civil use of former or current military ammunition. The 8×60mm S's rimmed sister cartridge, the 8×60mm RS, is also not popular in central Europe for the same reasons as the 8×60mm S. After World War II, while German hunters couldn't use centerfire magazine rifles altogether until the 1950s, the 8×60mm S was very popular in European countries like France and Belgium where until recently the possession of rifles in their original military caliber was tightly regulated. It allowed French licensed gun owners to possess rifles based on the

system under the less constraining "hunting rifle" category. This restriction was abolished in France in the mid 2010s and in Belgium a few years earlier. The also-rare

8×64mm S The 8×64mm S (also unofficially known as the 8×64mm S Brenneke) (the S means it is intended for 8.2 mm (.323 in) groove diameter bullets) is a rimless bottlenecked centerfire cartridge developed as a military service round for the German Ar ...

cartridge offers a comparable rechambering option for Mauser Gewehr 98 and Karabiner 98k rifles sporting 8 mm S-bores. Due to its larger case capacity the 8×64mm S chambering offers better ballistic performance than the 8×60mm S. In such military M98 bolt actions the magazine boxes, however, have to be adapted by a competent

gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds guns. The occupation differs from an armorer, who usually replaces only worn parts in standard firearms. Gunsmiths do modifications and changes to a firearm that may require a very h ...

to function properly with the 8×64mm S cartridge. Handloaders can also produce this round, by altering a

.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...

case and using a standard 8 mm bullet.

Prvi Partizan Prvi partizan ( sr, Први партизан, Prvi partizan; abbr. PPU) is a Serbian manufacturer of ammunition and handloading components, based in Užice, Serbia. The company produces ammunition for civilian and military consumers in a vari ...

is a major supplier of brass components for European 8×60mm S Handloaders.

References

* C.I.P. CD-ROM edition 2003 * C.I.P. decisions, texts and tables
free current C.I.P. CD-ROM version download (ZIP and RAR format)

C.I.P. TDCC datasheet 8 × 60 S

External links

* ttp://www.reloadersnest.com/frontpage.asp?CaliberID=138 8x60 S at www.reloadersnestbr>Jagen Weltweit, 8x60 S by Norbert Klups
{{DEFAULTSORT:8by60mm S Pistol and rifle cartridges