7.92 x 57 mm

7.92 x 57 mm
general information
caliber	7.92 × 57 mm 8 × 57 IS
Sleeve shape	Bottle neck sleeve, rimless with pull-out groove
Dimensions
Sleeve neck ⌀	9.08 mm
Floor ⌀	8.22 mm
Cartridge bottom ⌀	11.95 mm
Sleeve length	57.00 mm
Cartridge length	82.00 mm
Weights
Bullet weight	8.1-14.26 g (125-220 grain )
Powder weight	3.05 g
total weight	27.00 g
Technical specifications
Speed ​​v 0	750-900 m / s
Max. Gas pressure	3900 bar
Bullet energy E 0	3600-4100 years
Lists on the subject

The 7.92 × 57 mm cartridge , also known as the 8 × 57 IS " I nfanterie S pitz", was the standard rifle cartridge used by the German military during the two world wars. It is still in use as a hunting cartridge. The 8 × 57 IS differs from the 8x57 I by a 0.1 mm larger bullet diameter, which is characterized by a black lacquered ring joint on the primer. 1904/1905 they replaced the cartridge M / 88 (8 × 57 I " I nfanterie") with full-jacket projectile round head.

history

development

Dimensions 8 × 57 I.

Dimensions 8 × 57 IS

The development of the rifle cartridge 7.92 × 57 mm was commissioned by the German Army Command from 1887. In 1886 France had declared the first low-smoke rifle ammunition with nitrocellulose ( 8 × 50 mm R Lebel ) to be an orderly . As a result, the German Army feared falling behind. Other states later followed these models. Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Portugal had black powder rifles for the 8 mm caliber ( 8 × 50 mm R Mannlicher and 8 × 60 mm R Kropatschek) as early as 1886 , so it made sense to adopt this modern caliber. Until 1888 the repeater model 1871/84 with its outdated ammunition in caliber 11 × 60 mm R was still in use in the German army . The old Mauser cartridge had a black powder - propellant while now with the invention of smokeless powder more compact and above all rasa tere rifle ammunition was available. The more than one hundred years of worldwide use of this cartridge have resulted in numerous variants for different tasks. The more precise additional designations of these almost one hundred variants were recorded by ammunition collectors using XCR codes in the range from 08-057-BBC-000 to 08-057-BBC-999.

Military operation

The German army calibers in comparison, from top to bottom:
8 × 57 mm IS
7.62 × 51 mm
5.56 × 45 mm

In 1888 as a cartridge M / 88 (8 x 57 I " I nfanterie") for the gun 88 put on the market and taken almost simultaneously as a hunting cartridge, the cartridge was originally loaded with a projectile of smaller diameter. The initial round head bullet was taken over from the Gewehr 88 for the Gewehr 98 , as Prussia prevailed with the demand to continue using the old 88 cartridges. The order for the Gewehr 98 finally went to the Mauser company to develop a modern infantry rifle and the associated ammunition. The 14.7 g full jacket round head bullet was replaced in the years 1904–1905 by the larger 10.2 g pointed bullet ("S bullet"). The running dimensions of 7.90 / 8.10 mm (from 1894/95: 7.90 / 8.20), which existed from the start, had proven to be unsuitable for the old bullet, which was guided in a combined compression-press guide. The increased bullet diameter improved accuracy and increased barrel life. The exit speed increased from 640 m / s to 878 m / s. From 1933 onwards, only the sS bullet ("heavy pointed bullet") was used in the German infantry. In order to save brass, steel-case ammunition was mainly used later in the Karabiner 98. In order to also save lead, the sS cartridge was largely replaced by the SmE cartridge (pointed bullet with iron core) from 1940 onwards. For machine guns MG34 and MG42, the projectile was in particular for aircraft combat developed (ss = s chweres S pitzgeschoss, SmK = S pitzgeschoss m it (steel) K s, SmKL = S pitzgeschoss m it (steel) K s and L euchtspur ) . One of the ammunition with explosive projectiles known from World War II is the "B-cartridge" (observer cartridge), which produced a flash of light and a cloud of white smoke when hit.

Since the smaller caliber was first introduced in 1888 and hunting rifles were developed for it very soon, from 1905 two very similar calibers existed side by side, but they could not be arbitrarily exchanged. It is true that the 8 × 57 I can be fired from the barrel for the 8 × 57 mm IS cartridges, but the larger 8 × 57 IS caliber cannot be fired from the barrel with the smaller draw, as this can cause the barrel to explode. Therefore, the 1939 Normalization Ordinance was supposed to bring order here.

The cartridge was used in the following infantry weapons of the German Army and the German Wehrmacht (to name only the most important):

• Infantry rifle / carbine Mauser model 98
• Machine gun MG 08
• Machine guns MG 34 and MG 42
• Paratrooper rifle FG 42
• G41 and G43 semi-automatic rifles

There were also various emergency constructions towards the end of the war ( Volkssturmgewehr VG1 and VG2).

The most important 7.92 × 57 mm cartridges in the German infantry
Surname	year	caliber	Bullet	Sleeve	OAL	Weight	Propellant charge	V 0	energy
M / 88	1888	8.07 mm	14.6 g	57 mm	80.6 mm			640 m / s	2983 J.
S cartridge	1903	8.2 mm	10 g	57 mm	80.6 mm	23.9 g	3.2 g	878 m / s	3816 J.
sS cartridge	1933	8.2 mm	12.8 g	57 mm	80.6 mm	26.23 g	2.85-2.75 g	755 m / s	3697 J.
SmE cartridge	1940	8.2 mm	11.55 g	57 mm	80.6 mm	25.54 g	2.8 g	765 m / s	3380 J.
The data for the M / 88 and S cartridges refer to the Gewehr 98 with a barrel length of 74 cm. The data for the sS and SmE cartridge on the 98k carbine with a barrel length of 60 cm.

After the Second World War, the newly founded Yugoslav People's Army used the cartridge, initially for replicas of Mauser rifles, and later also for the M53 machine gun and the M76 sniper rifle .

In addition, the ammunition was also used in the armies of other countries, for example in Turkey, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Iran, Romania, Poland, Israel, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and in the national Chinese armed forces under Chiang Kai- shek . It was the most common military cartridge in the world during the interwar period. The Besa machine gun of the British armored forces in World War II was originally a Czechoslovak development of the Waffenwerke Brno and was also set up for this cartridge.

Hunting use

above: 8 × 57 IS, below rim cartridge 8 × 57 IRS

The 8 × 57 IS cartridge has been produced in various variants as hunting ammunition for decades. One reason for this was the easy availability of old military weapons in this caliber, which could easily be converted into hunting weapons. The 8 × 57 IS is counted among the so-called medium calibers and is suitable for all European game. The cartridge offers sufficient power reserves even for big red deer , without, however, damaging the game too much when killing light roe deer. The caliber 8 × 57 is also available as a rim cartridge with the designation 8 × 57 I R S for drop barrel weapons . As with many other calibers, the rim version of the 8 × 57 IRS is defined with a slightly lower maximum pressure (3300 instead of 3900 bar) in order to take into account the weaker breech block designs of drop barrel weapons.

Web links

Commons : 7.92 × 57 mm  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Cartridge 8 x 57 IS. In: whq-forum.de. Retrieved May 30, 2016 . 
• Queen of the forest - 8x57is. In: 8x57is.de. Retrieved May 30, 2016 . 

literature

• Frank C. Barnes: Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges . 12th edition. Gun Digest Books, Iola WI 2009, ISBN 978-0-89689-936-0 (English). Pages 421-422.
• Karl Pawlas (Ed.): The 7.9 mm ammunition (8 X 57 JS) (=  weapon revue . No. 5 ). June 1972, ISSN  0344-9076 , p. 825-855 .
• Karl Pawlas (Ed.): Fuel-free ammunition for pistols, rifles, MPs and MGs (=  Waffenrevue . No. 47 ). 1982, ISSN  0344-9076 , p. 7493-7522 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} C.IP 8 x 57 IS (PDF, 24.4 kB) ( Memento from September 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} C.IP 8 x 57 I (PDF, 35.5 kB) ( Memento from September 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Development of the 7.92x57 cartridge. In: waffeninfo.net. Archived from the original on July 14, 2003 ; accessed on May 30, 2016 . 
4. ↑ 7.92 x 57 mm IS (8x57 IS). In: munitionssammler.com. October 27, 2009, archived from the original on March 18, 2009 ; Retrieved on May 30, 2016 (database of variants for the 7.92 × 57 mm cartridge). 
5. ↑ 7.9 mm Mauser - Polte factory drawings. In: home.scarlet.be. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016 ; Retrieved on May 30, 2016 (English, technical drawings (historical) of the variants of the manufacturer Polte for the 7.92 × 57 mm cartridge and their projectiles). 
6. ↑ RT Huntington: SMALL-CALIBER AMMUNITION IDENTIFICATION GUIDE ( Memento from September 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), US Department of Defense, June 1978, DST-1160G 514-78-VOL 1, Index No. 51, 7.92x57 , page 58