Is it a '38 turkish 8mm mauser? A few years ago these were selling for just $36.95 at the wholesalers. This was my first purchase with my C&R FFL03 license back then. I still have it tucked away in the safe. They take the same bolt as the german 98k 8mm mausers.
The german 8mm rounds had more power over our 30-06's because of the gun powder the germans used back then too bad the gun powder is no longer manufactured. The orginal turkish 8mm rounds are very hot and should only be used in bolt action rifles because the gun powder they used is the wrong burn rate for the semi auto's. We do have a choice of new ammo which is either 150gr, 170gr or 196/200gr soft points. The PMC ammo which is 170gr is pretty accurate in the 8mm mausers. The accuracy is so good i don't need a scope at 100yds. At
http://www.aimsurplus.com there offering the military surplus 8mm ammo manufactured by the romanians with free shipping. I believe its $199 for 680rds. There also offering the Prvi-Patizan soft point ammo thats 196gr for $12 a box of 20. I found the Prvi-Partizan ammo to have decent accuracy too plus its boxer primed so we can reload it. I also found there brass to be a quality brass too. I have some of the 8mm military surplus turkish ammo thats dated 1937 that still goes bang. These banderlero's sold at one time for just $4.95 for 70rds. and these were on stripper clips too.
I'm sure your hooked on the surplus military rifles by now??? If you are i would suggest getting your C&RFFL03 collectors license so you can buy off the net and it gets delivered to your door by ups. You can still get great buys on surplus military rifles and handguns right now. Just checkout the prices at aim surplus, allens armory, samco and sarco. You will get a dealers discount at
http://www.midwayusa.com and at
http://www.brownells.com too on accessories and ammo plus reloading equipment.
It only takes one surplus military rifle to get the disease. You can still get the cheap russian mosins and the ammo too right now. Aim has them for under $100 while there hitting $200 on gunbroker. Samco has some yugo mausers too in 8mm.