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 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 ...

developed as a military service round for the German Army who never issued it. As is customary in European cartridges the 8 denotes the 8 mm bullet caliber and the 64 denotes the 64 mm (2.52 in) case length. The 8×64mm is a hunting cartridge in central Europe and can due to its maximal overall length fairly easily be chambered in standard sized military Mauser

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 Kar ...

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 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, since the M98 internal magazine boxes feature an internal magazine length of .

History

At the start of the 20th century the famous German gun and ammunition designer

Wilhelm Brenneke Wilhelm Brenneke was a German inventor of smallarms ammunition, including the Brenneke shotgun slug. He was born in 1865 in Hanover and died in 1951, from natural causes. The Brenneke company remains in his family's hands and is still successful. ...

(1865–1951) was experimenting with the engineering concept of lengthening and other dimensional changes regarding standard cartridge cases like the M/88 cartridge case, then used by the German military in their Mauser 98 rifles, to obtain extra muzzle velocity. In 1912 Brenneke designed the 8×64mm S cartridge de novo (the 8×64mm S has no other cartridge as parent case). This cartridge is an example of a de novo rifle cartridge (the 8×64mm S and 6.5×64mm have no other cartridge as parent case) intended as a ballistic upgrade option for the Mauser

rifles that were then standard issue in the German military. The external cartridge case dimensions like overall length and slightly larger case head diameter compared to the German 8×57mm IS military cartridge coupled with a moderate increase in maximum pressure were chosen with easy conversion of Gewehr 98 rifles for the 8×64mm S in mind. Brenneke hoped that he could achieve a major success with this round designed in an age when military doctrine expected rifle shots at ranges up to 800 to 1000 m (875 to 1094 yards). The German military chose however to stick to their 8×57mm IS rifle cartridge avoiding rechambering their service rifles for a larger and heavier cartridge that due to its more favourable case volume to bore area ratio made it ballistically superior to the 8x57mm. Commercially the 8×64mm S was after an initial success phase in the period between the

World Wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

rather unsuccessful. Brenneke's engineering concept to lengthen the 57 mm (2.244 in) long M/88 cartridge case to create new for those days very powerful cartridges was essentially sound and he persisted in the development of new cartridges like the commercially successful

7×64mm The 7×64mm (also unofficially known as the 7×64mm Brenneke, though its designer's name was never officially added as a part of the cartridge name) is a rimless bottlenecked centerfire cartridge developed for hunting. As is customary in Europe ...

along this line. The 8×64mm S offered compared to the 8×57mm IS about 2 to 5% extra muzzle velocity. This results in a flatter trajectory and better performance at longer range. Beside the 8×64mm S rifle cartridge Brenneke also designed a rimmed version for break action rifles of the cartridge. The rimmed 8×65mmR S variant of the cartridge was also rather commercially unsuccessful. The gun designer Otakar Galaš originally developed a sniper rifle based on a Mauser M98 action chambered in 8×64mm S around 1950. It was tested under the ZG 49 designation. The rifle was redesigned by Galaš based on a Mosin Nagant action and chambered in 7.62×54mmR. In its final form, Galaš’ rifle was adopted in 1954 by Czechoslovakia, and produced from 1956 until 1958 as the vz.54.

8×64mm

This cartridge also exists in an 8×64mm variant (without the S or any other further additions) intended for a different bullet diameter. Rifles chambered for the 8×64mm 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.''

Rimmed variants

In 1914 Brenneke introduced rimmed variants for break action rifles of the 8×64mm S and 8×64mm rimless variants. These rimmed variants are known as the 8×65mmRS and 8×65mmR.

Cartridge dimensions

The 8×64mm S has 4.51 ml (69.5

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 legumes ...

) H₂O cartridge case capacity. A sign of the era in which the 8×64mm S was developed are the gently sloped shoulders. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in bolt-action rifles, under extreme conditions. 8×64mm S maximum C.I.P. cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters (mm). Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 14 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 or large rifle magnum depending on the load. According to the official C.I.P. (Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives) rulings the 8×64mm S can handle up to P_max piezo pressure. In C.I.P. regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C.I.P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. This means that 8×64mm S chambered arms in C.I.P. regulated countries are currently (2016) proof tested at PE piezo pressure.C.I.P. TDCC datasheet 8 × 64 S
/ref> The American

8mm-06 .30-06 Springfield wildcat cartridges are cartridges developed from a 30-06 Springfield "parent cartridge" through narrowing or widening the cartridge neck to fit a smaller or larger bullet in an attempt to improve performance in specific areas. ...

wildcat cartridge A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created in order to optimize a certain performance characteristic (such as the power, s ...

(in European nomenclature the 8mm-06 would be termed as 8×63mm S) is probably the closest ballistic twin of the 8×64mm S. This is a necked up

.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 ...

wildcat made to accept 8 mm (.323 in) bullets. This modification was performed to German Mauser 98 rifles in the US to facilitate the use of a commonly available cartridge case in the US, since the German 8×57mm IS cartridge was not readily available in the US when troops brought German Mauser service rifles home as war souvenirs after

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 ...

Contemporary use

The 8×64mm S is offered as a chambering option in some European hunting rifle manufacturer's products palette. The 8×64mm S performance lies between the commercially important 8×57mm IS standard cartridge and the

8×68mm S The 8×68mm S rebated rim bottlenecked centerfire rifle cartridge was developed in the 1930s by August Schüler of the ''August Schüler Waffenfabrik, Suhl, Germany'' as a magnum hunting cartridge that would just fit and function in standard-size ...

magnum cartridge making it suitable for hunting all kinds of European game. In the year 2001 the Brenneke Company tried to revive the 8×64mm S cartridge by offering it loaded with 12.8 gram Brenneke Torpedo Ideal Geschoß (TIG) hunting bullets. Sellier & Bellot and Brenneke are currently (2007) the only ammunition manufacturers offering 8×64mm S factory loads. 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 ...

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 ma ...

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 8×64mm 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. Secti ...

. The 8×64mm S can be used in countries which ban civil use of former or current military ammunition. In France where the possession of rifles in their original military caliber is tightly regulated cartridges like the 8×64mm S allow French licensed gun owners to possess rifles based on the Mauser

system under the less constraining "hunting rifle" category. The also rare 8×60mm S cartridge offers a comparable rechambering option for Mauser Gewehr 98 and Karabiner 98k based hunting 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. The 8×64mm S rimmed sister cartridge, the 8×65mm RS, is also not popular in central Europe for the same reasons as the 8×64mm S.

8 mm cartridges compared

Maximum muzzle velocity comparison in % of the probably most proliferated European and American 8 mm rifle cartridges out of 650 mm (25.59 in) long barrels loaded with relatively light to heavy 8 mm bullets to their C.I.P. or

SAAMI The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI, pronounced "Sammy") is an association of American manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. SAAMI is an accredited standards developer that publishes several Americ ...

(Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute) sanctioned maximum pressures. This comparison is not totally objective since the

8mm Remington Magnum The 8mm Remington Magnum belted rifle cartridge was introduced by Remington Arms Company in 1978 as a new chambering for the model 700 BDL rifle. The 8mm Remington Magnum's parent case is the .375 H&H Magnum. It is a very long and powerful ca ...

operates at 460 MPa (66717 psi), the

.325 Winchester Short Magnum The .325 Winchester Short Magnum, commonly known as the 325 WSM is an 8mm caliber rebated rim bottlenecked centerfire short magnum medium bore cartridge. The cartridge was introduced by Winchester Ammunition in 2005. Introduced at the 2005 ...

at 435 MPa (63,091 psi), the

at 440 MPa (63817 psi), the 8×64mm S at 405 MPa (58740 psi) and the 7.92×57mm Mauser at 390 MPa (56564 psi) maximum chamber piezo pressure. Higher chamber pressure results in higher muzzle velocities.

References

Die Patrone 8x64mm S Brenneke erobert sich wieder ihre Nische, DWJ (Deutsches Waffen Journal) 11/2002

Ende eines Dornröschenschlafs, Pirsch 22/2007
* 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)

External links

Homepage of the Brenneke Company

Homepage of Sellier & Bellot

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070927020427/http://www.lima-wiederladetechnik.de/Patronen/8x64S.htm Lutz Möller's webpage on the 8x64mm S and 8x65mm RS (including images)
8x64S Brenneke at www.reloadersnest.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:8b64mm S Pistol and rifle cartridges