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8MM remington Magnum long range rifle (update)
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Picture of Rapidrob
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Last summer I decided that that the wait had been long enough. Back in the 70's I bought a Remington BDL in 8mm Remington Magnum that I thought would be my Elk rifle. Recoil was stout and accuracy was good. Being active duty then,time for hunting was just not easy to come up with. I had to sell the rifle. Jump to 2013. I found a Weatheryby Athena long action rifle in .300 WHY.Mag. The stock showed a lot of wear as did the barrel. I wanted the rifle for the action more than anything else. I know it is a Howa, but there is nothing wrong with it other than you need to tweak the trigger assembly.
I wanted to shoot long range. As in one mile. I did not want to pay four bucks a shot or more. I wanted a good accurate cartridge that would propel a 200-250 grain bullet fast enough to be still super-sonic at one mile. Many will do it,but I wanted to go retro. And do it on the cheap for building and reloading. With the new .323 Match bullets being made, the time was now.
I wanted to be able to shoot all day long if need be and not develop a flinch from the Big 8's recoil. I was going to put on a muzzle brake that works.
I called Douglas Barrels and found a XX grade match barrel,air gauged and nice and long. As in 32" in the rough. It was over and inch in diameter. I did not want the rifle to be so heavy that climbing up our mountains here to get to the really long range shooting would take a pack mule. I would use a number 3 type taper. Still heavy but not a telephone pole.
As for muzzle brakes I had to really do some research. Many make claims as to how efficient they are, most are not telling the truth. It seems they want to work but look cool at the same time. The other problem is muzzle blast. Some that did test well were just stupid loud.
A good thing I had going for me is that several of my fellow shooters had the Lapua magnums as well as other overbore rifles with brakes. I got to try most of the brands out there before I settled on the J&P brake. It wins no contest for looks,but there is little if any felt recoil. It works so well that another problem arose that I did not count on. When fired the rifle is pulled forward with great force. So much so I could not keep a scope on the rifle that did not break. You members who own a upper end air rifle with a scope know what I mean.
The next quest was a stock that would work for what I needed. It had to be stable.Take the force on the recoil lug and not warp in the dry weather here in NM.
I settled on a Remington Model 700 plastic stock! It is so close to the Athena stock that a little router time and glass bedding compound I ended up with a stock that was rock solid. It could not have a cheek rest on it either. Try to find a stock for this very long action that a lefty can shoot? I never did. I did not want to pay a thousand bucks for a hand made stock. I needed a workhorse,not a work of art.
I have ape arms so my length of pull was met by a Kick-Eeze pad added to the butt. More for stability than any other reason.
The barrel was turned and sent off to be stress revealed.
Chamber was hand cut for the last .10" and my dummy rounds were used as a head space gauge. I have the 250 grain bullets just touching the origin of the rifling. The right side of the receiver had to be slightly relieved in order to load the rounds.
I ended up putting a Vortex Viper 20 power Mildot scope on the rifle. I had a 25 MOA mount made to give me at least 100 MOA of adjustment if needed. I tried a more powerful scope only to find that all it did was make the mirage worse. 20 power did the trick.
At the range I found that the rifle would shoot just about any medium to slow burning powder made very well. Some powders were not 100% case density loads and reflected this on target at long range. Other powders were just scary accurate and had blistering velocities out of the finished 29" barrel. So far the winner hands down is Winchesters 870 Supreme Hybrid powder. This powder gives me much lower chamber pressures and the highest velocities. I can push a 200 grain bullet to 3,300 fps at 58,000 PSI chamber pressure. ( 65,000 psi is Remington operating pressure!) I found if I try to push it faster the groups open up.
Seven other powders work well all giving very good accuracy. If I do my part the rifle will put all bullets in darn near the same hole at 200 meters. At 800 yards I can place ten shots into a 7" circle. The rifle may be able to do a little better with younger eyes aiming the rounds.
At ranges closer than 600 yards and using AR500 targets,the sound of the impact will get every ones attention at the range. I had to buy AR500 steel targets as the cold rolled 5/8" steel plate targets were being holed. AR500 is denting but holding up well.
I was able to find several WWII surplus pulled German Armor Piecing projectiles and had a go at a 1" thick face hardened steel plate set to 200 meters. The bullet's tungsten core went through the steel plate and almost through a rail road rail it was clamped to!
Since then with the Obama ammo scare, any bullets are getting hard to find. I found a large quantity of 8MM Lebel .327 pulled 243 grain bullets . I swagged them down to .323 and found they shoot almost as well as SMK's.
Any of the .50 BMG and .50 Spotter powders have worked well and can still be found.
So far the weather has not allowed me to try the rifle at one mile. 1,000 yards is no challenge and I can make shots on a 28x28" AR500 plate set to 1,400 yards with a good spotter and the sun over my right shoulder. With the winter sun and our winds I can't go out farther until the end of March. I do look forward to shooting a mile and hitting the target. It is something I have wanted to do for a very long time. The Big 8 can do it. The calculations prove it is very possible. The bullet should still be doing over 1,400 FPS.
Several members of my club have tried the rifle. All came away and told me they had never fired a rifle caliber that large that has no recoil. No one missed the targets.
It took 35 hours to build the rifle. Cost less than 1,300 bucks to cobble it together. It's not pretty, but it shoots well.



200 meter target. sighter shot is off the the side. Five shots into the group.




J&P Muzlle Brake


600 yard 5/8" steel plate target. Many rounds went through the plate. 200 grain SMK's


.338 Lapua put the big dents on the plate. 8mm Rem Mag went right through using WWII German 198's with steel jacket. 650 meters.


Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club
NRA Endowment Member
President NM MILSURPS
 
Posts: 440 | Location: Albuquerque | Registered: 28 March 2013Reply With Quote
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Hi! Try the Speer 200 grain or Hornady's 196 grain and you may have an even bigger smile!

This was the Nazi bullet of WWII and it has a superb trajectory in the standard 98K mauser at just 2,350fps.

Cranked up to a safe load in your 8mm Remington Magnum and it'd be even better.

I knew a guy who said that they came on the receiving end of Serbian snipers with standard 98K rifles and that bullet in former Yugloslavia in the 1990s with NATO and he didn't much like it.
 
Posts: 6813 | Location: United Kingdom | Registered: 18 November 2007Reply With Quote
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Picture of Rapidrob
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Thanks for the tip. Many of the 198's have been found and tried. The original German WWII ball and some of the Yugo bullets are well made and fly well to target. Finding a heavier than 220 grain bullet is a challenge. Only one made that I can find. A 250 plus would be very nice and not too long to stabilize in the bore.


Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club
NRA Endowment Member
President NM MILSURPS
 
Posts: 440 | Location: Albuquerque | Registered: 28 March 2013Reply With Quote
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Great custom rifle!!!
Accurate rifles are the most interesting!
 
Posts: 10079 | Location: Texas... time to secede!! | Registered: 12 February 2004Reply With Quote
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