I love the 8x57 because ammo is cheap and widely available. I have not lived any place in the USA or Europe that did not have 8x57, 7x57, 308 Win, 243 Win etc.....widely available when it is time to go and hunt! In the USA you could add 30-30 and 12 Slug and Buck Shot to that list usually in the old ever faithful Green and Yellow Remington Core-Lokt box!
I treat the 8x57 as if it is diet 338WM if loaded with 196-200gr bullets. So scale back the effective range for all game you would hunt with the 338WM. It has a larger diamter and the frontal surface is also larger than what you would normally see in mainstream America. Now if you are talking about 150gr factory ammo in America than yes it is a bit anemic but to be honest the 30-06 and 300WM are a waste of potential when people put a 150gr. bullet on them in my book.
It is not a matter of the 8x57 being better or worse or anything like that since talking about cartridges and their numbers on a sheet of paper is almost moronic because plenty of cartridges that look great on paper do not perform that great in real life and then some that do not look so hot on paper have 60-150 years of impressive performance on game in the hands of hunters. We are not going to see anyone winning nationals in BR, F-Open, Practical shooting of any kind anytime soon. Even those unethical hunters that think they can kill Elk at 1200 meters with a 6.5CM will not be recommending 1200m Elk kills with a 8x57 so we are really only talking about hunters and not the sort that would hang on on a sight like this well not in America at least. Since few OEM's in America currently chamber rifles for it and gun writers are not singing it's praises most just chalk it up as another obsolete cartridge.
I think the great combination of low cost componets, long barrel life, devastating performance on N. American game at the ranges that 99% of actual hunter take most game a good many unimpressive obsolete cartridges like the 8x57, 7x57, 6.5x57, 7.5x55, 6.5x55, 243Win, 25-06, 308 Win, 30-06, 30-40 Krag, 30-30, 35 Wheelen(sp), 45-70 Govt, 350RM, 300WM,338WM,300WBY while all of them are obsolete they still work great for harvesting game.
