Author Topic: Questions Re: the FR-8 (Read 2553 times)

grendel · « **on:** February 18, 2003, 08:44:36 AM »

Who has any experience with these rifles? The best site I have found for them is http://www.storm.ca/~debin666/html/the_fr-8_page.html . I bought one about a year ago and for a variety of reasons I have only shot it a little. All in all the gun impresses me as one nice truck gun. Problem is I need to be able to adjust the front sight. I think I can make a tool to do that, but if someone is already making them I would gladly pay a little $ to save the time an effort.

As for shooting it. A random off the bench reload seems to do about 4-5" at 100 yards, which for me and iron sights is not bad.

All in all a nice off the rack Mil Surplus gun that I would not hesitate to buy again. Except Big 5 has not had any of them in stock since I bought mine.

Ted

Samuel Adams August 1, 1776:

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."

Trails650 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 03, 2003, 05:45:55 PM »

:twisted: I've had one for almost 3 years now and love it. I can get the rounds to touch at 50yards and blow away milk jugs at 130 yards at farious field positions.
Not sure about adjusting the front site have not needed to yet. I'll look into it.
Nailed a red squirrel at 80 paces with one shot using surplus ammo. :sniper:
I've plains for a scout scope. Just needed to stop spending my money on my new blackhawk. :shock:

alpini · « **Reply #2 on:** March 04, 2003, 03:08:32 PM »

I had one a long time ago and I beleive I made a sight tool from an old nipple wrench.
Clayton

grendel · « **Reply #3 on:** March 04, 2003, 07:27:38 PM »

What loads do you use? Factory? Mil/Sup? Home brew? I have been thinking of buying a battle pack or two of .308 Mil/Sup from J&G just to have a little stash. Mostly I plan to reload for it, but first I have to do somthing about that front sight. It shoots about 12" high at 100yards.

I have also thought about turning it into a P-Scout. And I am sure I will bed the action and work over the trigger, but I am not sure that I want to drill and tap it for a scope. I like the rear sight as it is. I just need to be able to get it to hit POA + 2-3" at 100 Yards rather then POA + 12".

Quote from: Trails650

:twisted: I've had one for almost 3 years now and love it. I can get the rounds to touch at 50yards and blow away milk jugs at 130 yards at farious field positions.
Not sure about adjusting the front site have not needed to yet. I'll look into it.
Nailed a red squirrel at 80 paces with one shot using surplus ammo. :sniper:
I've plains for a scout scope. Just needed to stop spending my money on my new blackhawk. :shock:

saltydog · « **Reply #4 on:** July 18, 2007, 02:00:13 PM »

Nice example of militaria - you should have a good quality CETME to go with it. Keep reloads in light to middle range.

Merle · « **Reply #5 on:** July 19, 2007, 01:59:47 PM »

Quote from: grendel on March 04, 2003, 07:27:38 PM

What loads do you use? Factory? Mil/Sup? Home brew? I have been thinking of buying a battle pack or two of .308 Mil/Sup from J&G just to have a little stash. Mostly I plan to reload for it, but first I have to do somthing about that front sight. It shoots about 12" high at 100yards.

I have also thought about turning it into a P-Scout. And I am sure I will bed the action and work over the trigger, but I am not sure that I want to drill and tap it for a scope. I like the rear sight as it is. I just need to be able to get it to hit POA + 2-3" at 100 Yards rather then POA + 12".

Quote from: Trails650
:twisted: I've had one for almost 3 years now and love it. I can get the rounds to touch at 50yards and blow away milk jugs at 130 yards at farious field positions.
Not sure about adjusting the front site have not needed to yet. I'll look into it.
Nailed a red squirrel at 80 paces with one shot using surplus ammo. :sniper:
I've plains for a scout scope. Just needed to stop spending my money on my new blackhawk. :shock:

You might want to re-consider any permanent mods - these are starting to show some collector interest.
There is a forum that covers these at gunboards.com and the last time I looked Tapco had the sight adjusting tool. I am very pleased with mine. I mostly shoot surplus ammo in it, and use it for various vintage / surplus rifle matches.

Mikey · « **Reply #6 on:** July 20, 2007, 01:05:51 AM »

grendel: if that FR-8 shoots 12" high at 100 yds you need a new, taller front sight blade. It seems that anyone who made a Mauser, whether it be the Germans, Swedes, Yugoslavians, Austrians or whoever, all made the front sight base the same size (exactly the same) and as a result, you can get new front sight blades to replace the one that is too short - which is why you are hitting 12" high at 100 m. And, they just drift into place

Last I looked I believe either SARCO or SAMCO had front sight sets for the Swedish Mausers - you need one taller than whatcha got. They come marked as a +1, +1.5, +2, etc. I believe a package of front sight blades is around $15-20, maybe. Also, they are 'squared' front sight blades and give you a great sight picture. I replaced the front sight blade on my Yugo M48A with one of those, then squared the rear sight notch with a Swiss file and got a much better sight picture than with the older 'V' and inverted 'V'. HTH. Mikey.

Stan in SC · « **Reply #7 on:** July 20, 2007, 02:05:42 AM »

Replacement of the front sight bladeis not an option on the FR8 .Mikey is incorrect on that point indicating that he has no idea what an FR8 front sight looks like.The FR8 front sight is very much like an SKS front sight.It screws in and out to adjust height.In addition it is eccentric to allow windage adjustment.
Bu sure to unscrew the locking screw at the front of the sight base before attempting to turn the front sight.It is an allen wrench screw.Likewise be sure to retighten it after you adjust.After unlocking you are able to turn the front sight with needle nose pliers.Look at the position of the eccentric post and you will see how it is very slightly offset from center(eccentric).
The rear sight has four positions for elevation.You just turn the rear sight wheel.The open position is 100 yards.Then there are three peep positions of varying height.The lowest of these is 200 yards,the next highest is 300 yards and the highest one is 400 yards.

Stan

Mikey · « **Reply #8 on:** July 21, 2007, 01:23:29 AM »

Stan - you're right, thanks for clarifying that. I had made the mistaken assumption that the front sight set-up was the same as on all Mausers. My apologies to grendel. Mikey.

Bigdog57 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 21, 2007, 03:17:58 PM »

I've had my FR8 for about three years. I have a small collection going of Spanish Mausers - the M43 Airforce Model and the M1916 Guardia Civil also.
I've been using 7.62X51 from Spain, Australia and Austria (Hirtenberger). The Aussie seems to be best, though the Hirtenberger is good too. The Santa Barbara (Spanish) disappointed me, as it's the ammo it SHOULD be best with. It shot okay, just not as good as the others.
I have shot Remington 150 grain soft-point, and they did well too.
My FR8 and M43 both have the scarcer bent bolt handles - usually the straight bolts are seen.

I find the FR8 a very handy rifle (more a 'carbine'), and recoil isn't as bad as many shorter-barrelled rifles.

xhare · « **Reply #10 on:** July 23, 2007, 07:24:18 AM »

This is the Cetme sight tool sold by Tapco. It worked perfectly for an FR-8 I used to have. It is a small tool, and easy to loose if you are not careful.

http://www.tapco.com/catalog.aspx?id=221

NRAJOE · « **Reply #11 on:** August 02, 2007, 11:01:00 AM »

I had one a couple years ago...paid $150 for it...sold it for $325...violent little sucker...didn't like those odd sights either.

mtbugle · « **Reply #12 on:** April 24, 2011, 03:16:39 PM »

I have been meaning to reply to this thread for some time now and am sorry if reviving an old thread is a bad thing. But have question for those who have been shooting an fr-8.

"The open position is 100 yards.Then there are three peep positions of varying height.The lowest of these is 200 yards,the next highest is 300 yards and the highest one is 400 yards."

My experience was that with the open sight set at 100 yards, the others are set more for 400,500, and 600 yds based on number of inches high used at 100 yds.
Has any one else actually tried to check the various sight distances for these sight settings?
Thanks Don.

xhare · « **Reply #13 on:** April 25, 2011, 09:52:47 AM »

Its been years since I owned one, but if memory serves mine shot very high at 100 yards. I bought the Tapco sight tool, but could not adjust the sight enought to bring down the point of impact.

mtbugle · « **Reply #14 on:** April 25, 2011, 07:45:32 PM »

I tried to get 100 yd zero or even 200 in one of the peep sights and ran out of adj of front sight. It has been a few years since I played with it but was impressed that it seemed to always shoot an inch at 100 for me which is very good for me with irons, specialy with such a short sight radius.
Thanks Don.

gordie · « **Reply #15 on:** April 27, 2011, 04:12:04 PM »

i had one years ago... i made a sight tool from a screwdriver.
as i remember the chamber was long throated too..YMMV.

EMC45 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 12, 2011, 10:41:25 AM »

I too made a tool for adjusting the sight. Also cut the front post off (GASP-HORROR!!!!). I replaced it with a decapping rod for and RCBS decapping die. Now it brings the rounds down were they need to be. I also made a new lower peep for the rear. Kept all the old parts unmodified to change it back though. It will shoot to POA now. Used a piece of sheet metal and drilled a tiny hole in it. Works great! I think the trough type rear sight for 100 yds is crap! Still shoots too high and is hard to get a good sight picture with it.

mtbugle · « **Reply #17 on:** September 28, 2012, 06:24:42 PM »

so I did a little experimenting. Using a tall sheet at 100 yds I patterned the sights. My open sight is 5 inch high, first peep left 16 inch high, next peep left 20-21 inch high, peep right of open25 inch high. So figure open sight set for 100 yds would put peeps at 11, 15 and 20 moa high. Would put them approx 500, 600 and 700yds. perhaps some one with a ballistics program could be more exact.

tdoor · « **Reply #18 on:** September 29, 2012, 07:49:01 AM »

I have both an FR-7 and FR-8 , got my frt sight sdj. tool from tapco then built the rest I needed. On my rifles the open rear sight ia a battle site good out to 300 meters, found that the peeps are good out to 600 meters. I shoot hand loads keeping the pressure around 47 to 48K. this works well with the sight on both rifles. Both rifles will shoot better than I can see but I have shot 1" or less groups at 100 meters and milk jugs at 600 meters. Great rifles I love them.

1911crazy · « **Reply #19 on:** October 02, 2012, 10:34:19 AM »

Weren't these practice rifles while the cetme's were being manufactured?
In the old days when the meriden trading post was i9n business and they were selling wall to wall C&R military guns they had 20' long racks of guns from each country. In plain view the short muzzle hider of the FR8's would be seen. This little rifle looked mean like a wolverine but priced higher too. I guess that why i never got one. I did get a cetme when they were first offered. I only shoot the 308 military ball ammo in it because of its fluted chamber.
Mi8key; Is correct on the info on filing the higher front sight on the swede mausers. I purchased the 3.50 higher front sight and filed it down till she shoots 1 1/2" groups at 100yds using sellier & bellot 131gr sp ammo. I out shot some SWAT rifles that were scoped oneday at the range. They were in shock to hear a 100yo swede mauser with iron sights could out shoot a scoped 308 rifle. PaPa(me) was a proud owner of the 1907 swede mauser that day.