I am thinking of buying a 8mm mag. Has anyone had anyone had any personal experience with this round. The rifle has a 24" barrel, which I think probably restricts it some. I'm am mainly interested in the velocity, accuracy, etc. Any commits will be appreciated. Thanks. fws

I had 3 of them. All hade 26" custom barrels. The best loads were:
220 gr Hornady/Sierra with 215 caps at 3100 fps

80 gr H4831, 80gr RL22 and 83 gr RL25.

I got the 175 Sierras to do 3400+ fps with RL22. These were max in my guns.

Nice round especially now with all the great bullets around.

I have one. The selection of bullets is limited but much better than is was when the rifle was in production. Mine has the standard 24" Remington barrel. I consider it a niche gun and only use it for Elk. Use 220 Gr. Sierra Gamekings in it with RL 25. Best accuracy is around 3006 fps; wish I had a 26" barrel. My hope was a 500-yard gun for Elk but it shoots at about an inch to an inch and a 1/4 at 100 yards and I feel it�s on the ragged edge 3/4 or smaller would make me feel a lot more comfortable. If you have really studied the ballistics of this gun they are pretty impressive. I intend to use it as my backup gun on my trip to Alaska. It has a little more push to it than a 300 Weatherby with 200 Gr. bullets not that unmanageable. Woodleigh makes a 250 Gr. that has my interest as a good bear bullet. I don�t consider this gun a good choice to use on lighter game.

A very much under-appreciated cartridge. It's ironic that its offspring, the .416 Remington and 7mm STW are both more popular.

I load for a friend's 8mm Mag. It is a standard Remington BDL with 24" barrel. Any cartridge gets more velocity with a 26" vs. a 24", even a .30/30, but I don't consider the 8mm Magnum handicapped by a 24" barrel.

I would agree that it is a near-perfect elk cartridge, but it is also more versatile than that. I load 150 grain Hornady's for my friend for whitetails, and the fellow he bought the gun from used 150 grain Sierras exclusively for long-range whitetails with excellent reported results. I haven't used it, but the 200 grain Nosler Partition looks like an excellent elk-bear-moose (or large African plains game) bullet. The Nosler 180 Ballistic Tip should be super for deer and caribou type game out to very extended ranges.

If I had a chance at an 8mm Magnum at an attractive price, I'd jump on it.

BTW, another friend has a .338 built on an otherwise unaltered 8mm Magnum case. His rifle is an outstanding performer, and obviously even better than the 8mm for truly heavy game (but takes second place to the 8mm for long range work on lighter game).

[ 11-06-2002, 21:23: Message edited by: Stonecreek ]

I have one, a 700 with a 26" barrel. It's very accurate with the 220 gr Hornadies, gets 3100 fps with those bullets. I think it is a very underappreciated caliber. - Dan