Question for Doug or other WWII Military rifle experts

Someone on Anything About Guns was given a German rifle, probably WWII. It is in cal. 30-08. Apparently it chambers the 30-08 and will fire the 30-06. Have you ever heard of a 30-08? No one there ever has and I googled and did some other web searching and there is nothing on a 30-08. He thinks it might be a one off. There are no markings on the gun except for a few number and letters scattered around the gun.

Never heard of a .30-08 that's an odd one especially for a German gun and caliber. Most of their calibers are metric. .30-08 sounds very U.S. Armyish. There was a .30-03(.30 caliber made in 1903) made to replace the .30-40 Krag but it only lasted 3yrs to be replaced with the .30-06. Don't have any idea what he has. Must be some wildcat caliber.
I did find a reference to reloading data for a .30-08 Remington Magnum or .30-8mm Remington Magnum
http://www.accuratereloading.com/30-8r.html

A friend bought a couple of cases of 98 Mausers from somewhere. One of them was stamped 30-06 right across the crown of the receiver just forward of the ejection port. However, a 30 cal bullet would fall through the barrel when dropped in the muzzle.

I wound up with this rifle(free) and used it for decoration until one day I was thumbing thru shotgun news and found an ad for new Swedish mauser barrels chambered for 30-06. I bought one of these barrels for $45.00 and had it installed and headspaced, had it drilled and tapped for scope mounts, put it in a synthetic stock, now it is my go to gun for nasty weather.

I wonder if this rifle was stamped 30-06 and the 6 was mis-stamped as an 8. Mine was an Argentine Mauser.

You know, it could be a misprint for one of those .308's that some countries were doing. Or it could be what we know as 8mm-06 which was a popular post WWII conversion. Gunsmiths rechambered 8mm Mausers to a .30-06 case necked up to 8mm.

Sorry, but i must disagree, there is a such thing as a 30-08 i have seen one and fired one.

I thought a 30-08 was what a 308 win was called befor it got named the 308?

Beladran wrote:I thought a 30-08 was what a 308 win was called befor it got named the 308?

Nope the .308 was introduced as a commercial cartridge before Winchester developed the 7.62x51mm NATO from it, in 1952. Think the army had quit use caliber/year designations by then.

xcaliber wrote:Sorry, but i must disagree, there is a such thing as a 30-08 i have seen one and fired one.

Neat!! Was it in a military rifle or commercial?