I was recently looking at ballistics for a new build, and just happen to have access to a pacnor barrel at a great price!

Can any one tell me there experience with this cartridge?

The ballistics look great.

Thank you

FMP

It probably deserves more respect than it gets. It's a very unpopular chambering. Nothing wrong with it as far as I know, but the 338 Mag offers still better performance on very large game and costs the same to build.

more info here

Given the choice I'd pick the 8mmRM over the .338WM every time.

Great cartridge but it is a full length cartridge and not shortened like the .338WM so you may be limited in action choices.

The 8mm is a hammer. It is the parent case to most (all?) of the Remington Ultra Mag offerings. It does not have a great selection of bullets, but there are getting to be more. As above, it is a full length case, and will outperform the .338WM.

R.

It's not the parent case to the Ultra Mag line - see e.g. the Ross Seyfried story copied on another thread.

It is the parent of the .416 Remington and connected to the STW series.

As the ads said at the time more energy than the .338 Win at all but the closest ranges and more energy than the .300 Win Mag at all but the longest ranges and that implies a lot to offer - but not in factory loaded ammunition today. Elmer Keith is reported to have asked "What's it good for?" at the writer's introduction. I've often thought of one but never carried through. If I were debating between a .300 Weatherby and a .340 Weatherby I might split the difference with an 8mm Remington.

I am building one.. Done deal!

I handload so factory ammo isn't neccesary!

Excellent FMP.

Keep us informed.

I have not worked with an 8mm yet.But I am thoroughly enamored with its baby brother the 7mm STW. And I am just sitting down to do some load work with its big brother the 340 Wea mag.

Like you, the ballistics of the 8mm Rem mag always intrigued me. But bullet choices are somewhat limited. High velocity 8mm cartridges are not very popular, therefor not many different styles of bullets are made for them. Of course, you only need to find one bullet which will meet your requirements.

Good luck with the build.

The case is simply a necked down, blown out 375H&H case,left full length.A friend of mine has hunted with his all over N.america an Africa. I have seen him use it in elk and mule deer over here.It's his favorite all-round caliber with a 200 gr Partition at a hair over 3000 fps, but even he admits that any difference between it and a 300 Weatherby is purely academic.

Best thing about the 8mm Mag is that it makes avaiable brass for the 30 STW (30-8mm).

i have a 700 remington classic in 8 mag and it is a hammer at both ends lots of power

It's being built off of a vanguard action (was a .300 weatherby but wanted something a bit unique!)

26" Pacnor number 3

Factory wood stock(decent enough wood!)pillar/glass

Trigger tuned to 3 lbs

Cerecoated action matte black, the barrel is going to be "titanium" coated.

Being built by HB Custom Rifles right down the road from me!

RD: I blew it out to 35 cal....they got a name for that one....

Thor ?

Before Remington decided to go with the Jeffery case for the Ultra Mag's they build a couple of rifles in the custom shop in 30 and 338 off the 8mm Mag case. Little birdy (named Ron Engle) told me so back when I had the 700 APR built by them.

"she'd?"

".8mm?"

I guess I didn't realize the typo in my title!

iPhone key pads kill me!

FMP

The .8mm Remington Magnum was a joint venture between Remington and the Singer sewing machine company with the latter providing the .031 caliber projectiles.

The rifle used a necked down Fireball case to propel a 6 grain bullet at a MV of 4800 fps. The chambering never really caught on as only ball powders were usable, extruded powders being too big to fit individual grains into the mouth of the case.

It did achieve some popularity among indoor mouse hunters as it proved to be very fur friendly to Mus musculus and any tiny holes in walls and moldings caused by overpenetration were rarely noticed by spouses.

I owned one for several years but ended up giving it to my buddy in Utah for long shots on Elk in the Uintah Mts, if Nosler had the Accubonds available then I would still own it, I still have
a set of Redding dies and some brass I need clean house a bit

Yep...they seem to do this to all of us...if it were me I would get a 340 Weatherby...it can be loaded with heavy charges to equal a 375 H&H...if I am not mistaken a 275 Swift A Frame can be pushed to something like 2750 from a 24 inch bbl....a 250 to 2900....plenty of power ..then you can use your 257 Wby for less critters...

my 300 rum usta be an 8mm mag.

recoil was wayyy too abusive for me.

first rifle i ever had a muzzle brake put on.

my 300 rum is a pussy cat compared to it.

Yeah, I think the .340 Weatherby is a very useful cartridge too, and I haven't seen an 8mm RM rifle in years (of course I am not looking either). YOu have to look to Europe for more power in 8mm cartridges, I always liked the 8X64 and the 8X68S but never enough to actually build one of either.

jim

No....Thor was a 375AI

I had a heck of a time cleaning my keyboard and flat panel this morning. I will need to be more careful with my morning coffee.

bult one in 87 or 88 forget whitch mauser action douglas barrel lots of punch for any thing in north america would like to see ruger build a no1 in this cal.

I don't have one... but I think it is an underrated cartridge.

In the market it is too close to the 338s and the 30s.

It has plenty of power in its own right.

It is the parent of the 358 STA� that should tell you something.

8mm mag is a excellent round I have owned a couple. It outperforms the 338 win mag by a fair margin,and is right on the ultra mags heals. It would be a excellent round for a custom long range round with some punch.Mine had great accuracy with RL22.

I agree..and the bunk about little bullet choice is just that, bunk....many bullets. The 220 Sierra is one very good one.

I'll try to address the original poster here....not make a case for or against the 8mm Magnum.

I tried the 8mm Magnum when it was fairly new on the market. Like Elmer Keith (and I do remember his original statements about the 8mm)....I was underimpressed to say the least.

It's not that the big 8 won't do any of the things that are claimed for, it's just that I already owned rifles in .300 Wby, .338 Mag. and .340 Wby......as well as .375 H&H and .378 WBY. Nothing "wrong" with the 8mm......I just already had rifles to fill the needs it was developed for. As I recall, that was Elmer Keith's feeling. Not negative but "What's it good for?"......or as I said...."Why?"

The 8mm Magnum is more a gun for the true "rifle looney" because it is "different" (which is a good enough reason for gun nuts like me). It shoots flat enough to be usefull at any reasonable range, but with more punishment to the shooter than a .300 Magnum. It is a medium bore rifle that with proper bullets will likely be "perfect" for elk/moose size game......but no better than existing .338 or .340 rifles. It can be used on really big game such as the big bears with great effect.....but it will still be behind the .375 class rifles as a dedicated stopping-type rifle.

The 8mm Magnum is a very, very good round.....just not unique enough to justify picking it over a more common .338 Magnum. Because of it's length a typical 8 Mag will be heavier than a .338 and require some thought as to a proper action.

However, if you already have a proper action and barrel......and WANT (not "need") a rifle in this caliber.....you will be pleased. It will perform great.....just don't expect to be "amazed" by it. For a "gun nut" just "wanting" something a bit different is reason enough......you won't be disapointed.

Got to witness how well a buddy's M700 worked on whitetails, stoked with 150gr Sierras. 500 yard one shot kills from a Harris bipod, became fairly normal occurrences over the years.

Although, it did once root about half the ham off'n a running buck, at a much closer distance. The only blemish on a stellar record compiled by man and machine. ;O)

And had he chosen to head off in search of large, nasty critters elsewheres, it would've handled those chores too, with the right bullet.

Every blue moon I bump into a used Remington 700BDL in
8RM.

I had one, shot it 5 rounds at the rifle range...traded it off.
Recoil was so heavy, it set the ear muffs off sideways on my head, and screwed my hat sideways.

Yes, my shoulder was quite Thor after I shot one off the bench.

Thanks for asking.

John

The facts are that the 8mm in any cartridge has never been popular in the USA; The 8mm Rem Mag. really hasn't got a thing over a .338 in the field and any difference is in the head of the shooter; The bullet thing wasn't bunk, it blew up a lot of bullets on big heavy animals in the beginning and got a bad reputation thanks to poor planning on Remingtons part, and Nosler came out with a good bullet too late to save it perhaps; It got some bad press over these things plus it was only available in the Rem 700 rifle, perhaps the big bore guys preferred control feed, I know many of them did..Add to this the recoil as compared to the .338 win and you have the answer to your question.

You may agree or disagree, but this is the story as too why the 8mm failed in the market place..American hunters did not accept it.

I suppose that I am one of the masses that failed to accept it, although I realize its a good enough round, I happen to believe the .338 Win. is the best North American magnum cartridge, all things considered..

For those that have to have something different its probably a great choice, much like a wildcat round, lots of good ones out there and it they bring joy to your heart then have at it..:)

The 8mm Remington Magnum may have sold better if it had been sent onto the field as, say, the ".325 Remington Magnum."

But Remington, in its minuscule wisdom, decided that the market that year was lusting for a metric magnum.

Remington has long been driven by sales superficies rather than by what's field-practical.

Pity.

Remington was possibly trying to recapture the magic that made the 7mm Remington Magnum one of the most successful cartridges introduced in the second half of the 20th century.

Of course they were � but were nevertheless too spot-visioned to realize that field performance was far, far more attractive and persuasive to shooters than cartridge designation, sales gimmickry, or ad propaganda.

I'll never forget how long, vociferously, and enthusiastically the Remington big shots bragged to us how much time, money, and "thought" they had put into market research to determine whether their stuff would sell better in yellow boxes with green lettering or in green boxes with yellow lettering. But I don't remember what they introduced at that particular shindig.

All that, I hasten to add, was the old Remington. I've never been surprised that they had to acquire new owners, and I fervently hope (and assume) that the new owners' new management team has a lot more practical sense.

I'm with Ken, the Remington bean counters rate right up there with the Obama administration and the far left, they talk the talk, but none of them have walked the walk..I don't think they shoot guns or hunt animals, and that also includes the Obama administration! at least that has been my take on Remington!

When it finally dawned on Remington to come up with a control feed, they just made a deal with a well known but poor quality Mauser maker..If they were smart they would have given the old Rem 700 a long extractor, a M-70 safety etc. and made it a controll feed rifle IMO..

Winchester was right up there with Remington for awhile with the post 64 junk, but after Lord knows how many years and changes in ownership they came around a bit and after years of failure they reinvented the wheel and brought out a new pre 64 type rifle, that was a big move, and may have put them back on track but perhaps too little too late, I don't know. I still buy pre 64s.

I think Ruger has been the most progressive and has made an honest effort to give us what we want..

Just my personal opine, and I wouldn't swear to any of it..

It was a pretty decent round that suffered from bad press and a lack of decent 8mm bullets at that time.

My 375s seem to kick less, and anything that needs more killin' than the 30-06 class of cartridge provides wth heavy partitions gets a dose of a 260 Partition at Mach 2.5 or so.

Wayne

It's one of those cartridges that you look at, and say, "yes it will efficiently slam an elk, but other things are faster/hotter/easier/more common/etc. - so I won't plan my battery around it". Then of course you stumble across a good deal on one, and you think, "well...". That sequence is how I came by mine.

It's pretty easy to pass 3000 fps with 200 gr bullets. I still have some load development to do on mine, but it is an impressive round. The recoil, as others have said, is not trivial.

I guess to me it is one of those rounds like a .280, a .300 Norma, or a .357 magnum. Logically, it's redundant to other things in the battery, but if you stumble across a good gun in the caliber, there's no reason not to buy it and use it to its potential.

GS makes a 170 grain .323 bullet that I have not loaded yet but intend to, i am told 3400 is reasonable, I will settle for 3300 fps. I have 180, 215, and 235 Blue Mountain bullets for it, 250 grain Hawks, 180 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips, 200 Grain A Frame, 220 Grain A Frame, and I believe Barnes makes a 200 and maybe another bullet it for it. Double Tap as well as Remington has factory ammo. I live in Alaska and have settled on the 8 Mag as my Alaskan Caliber. Yes it wont do any thing the various 300's or the 338 Win or 340 wea wont do but than again many calibers over lap. I shot my Dall Ram at 450 plus yards with a nosler ballistic tip I dont know that I could of done so with the 308 I was going to use. Also one gentleman in here had his 8mm rebarreled to a 300 Ultra Mag, I had a 300 Ultra Mag, Browning, A Bolt rebarreled to the 8 Mag. I love the cartridge but there are others.

Just FYI.... and I hesitate to say this, as it's not a knock on the 8-mag but might seem like it..... well, anyway, it's said that the 8-mag will break 3000 fps easily with 200's. Fair 'nuff.

The .325 WSM will easily break 2900 fps with 200's, and at least in my two featherweights (Kimber and BLR) recoil is not bad at all.

So... if 8-mag recoil is as stout as everyone says, that makes the .325 look pretty good at only 100 fps behind but (apparantly) much less recoil.

Again, just FYI. Not peeing on anyone's rifle here. The 8-mag seems like it'd be fun to try, and based on how well my "lite" version has done on say elk .... man.... it's gotta be quite effective, to say the least!

As another aside, the 175-gn Sierra PH is a nifty practice bullet. Cheap, very accurate and easy to load in both my .325's, and a decent BC. In fact I've cooked up a load at ~3000 fps that matches the trajectory of my hunting load (200-gn NAB at 2900 fps) that I can use it out to 600 yds with the same come-ups on the turret.

Just some 8mm babbling. We 8mm lovers are few and far between.

Personally I think that if it's too tough to knock over with a .300 magnum and 180 grain premium bullets, there's no point in using anything less than a .375 H&H. My .375 H&H does not seem to kick as hard as my .300 Weatherby. With things that rough you're not concerned with 400 yard shots. At least I'm not.

I'm happy enough with my 8mmMag BDL.I bedded it into a McMillan Mountain rifle stock,and while recoil is substancial,I don't find it overwhelming.Alliant lists a 200gr A-frame load at 3200fps with RL-25,but I found the bolt a bit sticky and backed off.I find it to be the perfect BC moose/grizzly rifle although there are lots of others that would do the job just fine.I'm tempted to try the new Barnes 160gr TTSX in 8mm,and see how fast it'll go! Monashee

I have had a Rem 700 BDL 8mm for several yrs and haven't had opportunity to hunt anything larger than whitetail and it's much more gun,power, & recoil than needed for deer. The recoil is NOT UNMANAGABLE but unnecessary for deer. I have handloaded 185, 200, & 220 gr bullets for velocity and accuracy with ACCURACY having priority.
For deer, 185 or 200 gr. bullets are plenty and in some bullets too heavy i.e. insufficient expansion. I live in Arkansas and apply every yr for an elk permit w/o any luck so far. WHEN,IF I get to hunt elk I will use 200 gr Nosler partitions (because I have them & they're reliable).

For game heavier than deer Barnes triple x come in 160,180, & 200 gr. that I know of. Swift A frame come in 200 gr.
I have had good luck with IMR 7828 & IMR 4831 achieving 3100fps with 200 gr bullets and 2900fps with 220 gr weight. You MUST work up to the maximum powder charge with YOUR gun. I'm not prejudiced against the 338 WM but my personal preference is 8mm Mag over 338 WM because there is more powder capacity, flatter trajectory, and better sectional density and ballistic coefficients with bullets of 200 & 220 gr.
I have handloaded the 338 WM with 225 gr. bullets and 2900 fps is certainly achievable but trajectory and sectional density of 8mm Mag 220 & 200 gr is better, however you might not be able to tell the difference in hunting situations.
I don't pretend to be an expert, I'm offering my experience from handloading & chronographing with experience in deer hunting ONLY with 8 Mag. I hope this is helpful.