8mm Rem Mag Hunters

If you compare the 8 mm rem mag to the 338 Win Mag the 8mm will outperform the 338 wm
In velocity @ less pressure and with a 200 grain bullet, the ballistic coefficient of the 8mm will be better because of it's diameter to length if the same brand and style of bullets are used.

Lack of different bullets has been the downfall of many great cartridges, but now that we have more bullets and many powder choices, the 8 mm Rem has more potential. Many of the old cartridges have a new lease on life with all of the improvements in components today.

If you feel like you need more and still have the 8 mm rem, all you have to do Is AI it and a 200 grain bullet at 3,000 becomes a 200 grain bullet at 3150. placing it with the big boys.
And if you are into designer names you can call it a "SUPER 8" or something catchy. :cool:

Just saying don't count the old guys out.

J E CUSTOM
If you compare the 8 mm rem mag to the 338 Win Mag the 8mm will outperform the 338 wm
In velocity @ less pressure and with a 200 grain bullet, the ballistic coefficient of the 8mm will be better because of it's diameter to length if the same brand and style of bullets are used.

Lack of different bullets has been the downfall of many great cartridges, but now that we have more bullets and many powder choices, the 8 mm Rem has more potential. Many of the old cartridges have a new lease on life with all of the improvements in components today.

If you feel like you need more and still have the 8 mm rem, all you have to do Is AI it and a 200 grain bullet at 3,000 becomes a 200 grain bullet at 3150. placing it with the big boys.
And if you are into designer names you can call it a "SUPER 8" or something catchy. :cool:

Just saying don't count the old guys out.

J E CUSTOM
I have used the 8mm mag for many years now. I have loaded the Hornady 220 Spire Points . Hornady no longer makes them. I bought 600 of them and still shooting them. I use Reloader 25 and shot them over the chronograph at 3025 FPS. I have taken numerous elk and oryx, all one shot kills and DRT. One of the oryx was shot end to end with the bullet traveling the entire length of the body with the bullet recovered under the skin. It is definitely a hammer.
 
My 8MM Mag is a 700 Classic that I bought sight unseen and it was a bit rougher than was described to me. But WOW!!! I bought a Stocky's laminated stock and threw some cold blue on worn bluing on muzzle and it came back to life.
Consistently shoots 200 Grain TSX into 5/8 MOA out to 300 yards using the old Accurate XMR 3100 at 3050 FPS
 
The Eight is a proven elk gun for the ages. I have lost track of how many elk that have fallen from an 200 grain Accubond or Partition but its over 30. The powder has always been a problem but Vihtivouri N565 seems like a new possiblity. The Hammer bullets have brought my interest back and look forward to taking a few more with it.
 
The Eight is a proven elk gun for the ages. I have lost track of how many elk that have fallen from an 200 grain Accubond or Partition but its over 30. The powder has always been a problem but Vihtivouri N565 seems like a new possiblity. The Hammer bullets have brought my interest back and look forward to taking a few more with it.
I agree with powder being a problem. If memory serves me IMR 4831 is shown as an accuracy powder from a few sources. I have owned my current rifle and a twin to it and out of all the powders I tried, 6-7 of them they both shot best with XMR3100 and 200 grain bullets. Unfortunately, neither rifle REALLY liked the 200 Gr Accubond. This was THE BULLET I wanted to shoot. The rifle I still have is a tack driver with the 200 TSX's
 
I bought a Remington 700 BDL in 8MM Remington Mag the first or second year they came out in 1978. I bought it in the Base Exchange at Eielson AFB, AK. In September 1979 I took a bull moose with it on Birch Creek, 50 air miles from the nearest road and 150 from the nearest town. We were 4 days into a 160 mile float trip and still had a long way to go. I climbed a ridge to do some spot and stalk and had a great horned owl use me as a bird dog. Every time I moved, the owl would swoop in and land over my head. After I moved for the third or fourth time, I flushed a vole and the owl swooped down and grabbed it. As soon as the owl flew off, I turned and saw a bull moose raking a willow about 500 yards away. (Since that incident, I've always considered seeing an owl hunting as a good omen!) I didn't have a scope on the rifle; so, I came down off the hillside and made a stalk across the tundra toward the moose. I had one little tamarack tree between me in the bull that I used for cover. If you've ever tried to stalk across tundra tussocks, you know what the stalk was like. I finally slipped off one of the tussocks and my foot stuck in the mud below. I couldn't get loose without a lot of movement and noise, so I unsnapped the hip boot from my belt and closed the last 20 yards to the tamarack tree with one boot on and the other off. The bull was about 200 yards away, facing me as I took a rest against the tree and centered the front sight midway up on the bull's chest. I touched the trigger and the bull dropped like a rock. I went back and got my boot out of the mud and started walking toward the bull.
He was right beside the creek we were floating, literally less than 10 feet from the water. I got to about 50 yards, and the bull managed to stand up. I put another 220 gr. bullet through his ribs and he went down. I walked a little further and he managed to wobble to his feet again. I put another round through his chest across the top of the heart. Down he went. I got to about 25 feet from him and he managed to hobble up again, except now he's less than 5 feet from the creek and the creek was about 20 feet deep right there. I put a final round through his neck and that ended his escape. When we were skinning him out, we found my first round had completely penetrated the moose lengthwise and was lodged under skin of his right hip. It was a 220 gr Corelokt that still weighed 165 grains and has expanded to about .65 caliber. He was dead on his feet after the first shot, but didn't know it. The load was a hot handload, the 220 grain Corelokt (that was all I could find in Fairbanks at the time) on top of copious amounts of IMR 4831. I had the rifle free-bored 1.5 diameters so I could make use of all that powder.

The previous posters are all correct about the recoil from the big 8- it's brutal and well deserving of a muzzlebrake. A couple years later, we were on a spring bear hunt in the same area north of Fairbanks and my good friend Larry, who weighed about 135 lbs soaking wet with rocks in his pocket, kept bugging me to shoot the "8". I told him many times that he was too light to shoot it. I think he took that as a challenge. After the 100th time he asked to shoot it, I finally relented. We were camped on a bluff above Birch Creek and it was about 250 yards down to the water. Breakup ice was floating down the creek so I told Larry to take a shot at one of the ice chunks. I stood beside him with my right hand about 8 inches above and behind his shoulder. Sure enough, when he touched it off, I caught my rifle as he went back on his ***. He got up, rubbing his shoulder, using all kinds of four letter words about the recoil.
Jls in az: Just read your novella. You are a very good writer for a creek-floating, moose killing sort of guy. I would tell you all about all the moose and elk, and eland and elephant kills at 1,000 yards, but I do not remember ever doing any of that. But I would have if I had ever had the chance, but alas, I made the wrong career choice and have never seen a live moose in the wild.

I do, however, shoot a Weatherby 378, and it has a wee bit of recoil, too. I like to let other people experience all of that power with the muzzle break and then without the break. I have had some rather small folks shoot that rifle, and it is always a camp favorite. I hope you will regale us with more camping stories. I enjoy the camaraderie of this forum, though I can add little to the long-range shooting facts of this sport.
 
Jls in az: Just read your novella. You are a very good writer for a creek-floating, moose killing sort of guy. I would tell you all about all the moose and elk, and eland and elephant kills at 1,000 yards, but I do not remember ever doing any of that. But I would have if I had ever had the chance, but alas, I made the wrong career choice and have never seen a live moose in the wild.

I do, however, shoot a Weatherby 378, and it has a wee bit of recoil, too. I like to let other people experience all of that power with the muzzle break and then without the break. I have had some rather small folks shoot that rifle, and it is always a camp favorite. I hope you will regale us with more camping stories. I enjoy the camaraderie of this forum, though I can add little to the long-range shooting facts of this sport.
I had a friend in Alaska that managed to take 3 Sitka blacktail deer with one shot while shooting a 378 WBY on a November hunt to Montague Island in 1980. He waited for 45 minutes for the deer to line up just right. Two does and a 3X3. He also took a monster brown bear on a different hunt with the gun.
 
300 to 338. Order of magnitude. 300 weatherby, 340 weatherby, 8mm remington. The 8 falls half way . All 3 are big energy killers. So then you look at bullets, how slippery, energy at range. Supply? How available? Give me a big 30 or better a 338. Ross Seyfried said it best and he probably killed more BIG game than anyone on this site. If a 340 with a 250 nosler partition can,t get it done it doesn,t need to be done. Back that up with what Bob Hagel wrote.
 
All I can say now is, "Thank God for muzzlebrakes!" I shoot a Remington 700 LR in 300 RUM with a brake and a standard 700 in 30-06. The 30-06 moves my lead sled more than the RUM.
 
I had a friend in Alaska that managed to take 3 Sitka blacktail deer with one shot while shooting a 378 WBY on a November hunt to Montague Island in 1980. He waited for 45 minutes for the deer to line up just right. Two does and a 3X3. He also took a monster brown bear on a different hunt with the gun.
Three Sitka blacktail deer with one shot! That is nothing. When I was young and dumb and first got my 378, I was shooting it and decided I needed a rest. I was driving a rented car, and it occurred to me to use the roof of the rented car for a rest. With one shot, I managed to blow out the windshield and both front windows. I couldn't eat the glass or mount it on my wall, but that was almost as heart-stopping as killing three Sitka deer with one shot. I told the rental car company that the car was parked under a tree that was hit by lightning. It wasn't raining that day, but they took the car and never asked another question. How's that for a one-shot kill? Or was that two shots?
 
300 to 338. Order of magnitude. 300 weatherby, 340 weatherby, 8mm remington. The 8 falls half way . All 3 are big energy killers. So then you look at bullets, how slippery, energy at range. Supply? How available? Give me a big 30 or better a 338. Ross Seyfried said it best and he probably killed more BIG game than anyone on this site. If a 340 with a 250 nosler partition can,t get it done it doesn,t need to be done. Back that up with what Bob Hagel wrote.
Atleast the big 8 is interesting. I like interesting and has tons of power and can kill way out there. With Hammers line up of their heaviest offering make the big 8 great. Give me a big 8 and I'll be quit happy going forward.
 
@jls in az - Funny you bring up owls. Our guide saw one about an hour before my Buddy and I shot our elk less than 30 seconds apart from one another. He told us that he believes owls are a sign that a hunt is about to be successful.

That was the first I'd ever heard that perspective and now you mention it too in your story.
 
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