I Have A Mauser K98 In Military Form, The Caliber Is 8mm.

I Used Factory Ammunition to test it for the first time . When I Shot It And Checked

The Primers On The Back Of The Case, The Primers Appear

To Have Backed Out A Little Bit. I Shot 5 Times

And All Of Them Have Backed Out Exactly The Same.

Question? Is This A Headspace Problem. This Is The Only

Thing That I See Wrong.

I'm going to move this to the gunsmith section jd, you'll get more answers there.

Primers backing out is not necessarily an indication of headspace problems. American factory 8mm ammunition is relatively low pressure. I won't go into all the dynamics, but there just isn't enough pressure to push the case back over the primer when the cartridge fires. The only way to know is to have it checked by a competent gunsmith with the proper gauges.

The primer backing out phenomena is common with many cartridges suitable for lever guns.

U.S. factory 8mm ammo is very lightly loaded and this does not surprise me at all. However... to be safe have the headspace checked.

I Have A Mauser K98 In Military Form, The Caliber Is 8mm.

I Used Factory Ammunition to test it for the first time . When I Shot It And Checked

The Primers On The Back Of The Case, The Primers Appear

To Have Backed Out A Little Bit. I Shot 5 Times

And All Of Them Have Backed Out Exactly The Same.

Question? Is This A Headspace Problem. This Is The Only

Thing That I See Wrong.


There are a lot of rifles that may have excessive headspace. If you reload, it is possible to back off the resizing doe and make the fired cases fit the chamber. Some years ago,major Nonte deliberately opened up a Kar98k chamber and resized cases to fit the chamber. Headspace has to be pretty bad to put a rifle out of action. Still a good idea to have it checked by a competent gunsmith. All the best...
Gil