Opinions on 8mm Mag

[fourfive8]

If you reload, there's nothing wrong with 8 Rem Mag. Had one for years. Heckuva cartridge for elk-sized/type game. Not hard or tricky to reload. Components are not hard to find and certainly not harder to find nor more expensive than those for the 8x68s. The 8 Rem Mag is ballistically comparable to the 8x68s. To say the 8x68s is ballistically or functionally superior is pure continental/European caliber bias and doesn't square with reality. If anything the 8 Rem Mag would have a slight pressure ballistic advantage because it has slightly more case capacity than the 8x68s. The 8 Rem Mag simply may have been a cartridge ahead of it's time.

The original Remington factory ammo loaded with either 185 or 220 gr bullets was horrendous!!! It simply over cooked the original factory loads with the weak cup and core design Remington bullets. The tough, well designed big game bullets currently available work well at the higher vels the cartridge yields.

 

[One Day...]

This is one where, truly, the caliber itself tells the entire story: 8 mm = .315" And this is exactly what it is with its full length case: a mid point between a fast .300 Mag and a fast .338 Mag (Wby, RUM, Nosler, etc.).

The bullet weights tell the same story: the .300 Mag is generally considered to top its practical weight range at 200 gr, and the .338 Mag is generally considered to top its practical weight range at 250 gr. The 8 mm Mag is generally considered to top its practical weight range at 220 gr. Right in the middle again.

So what is the 8 mm Rem Mag? A big .315 that is a dang near perfect intermediary between a big .30 and a big .33 as implied by dchamp:

• With a 200 gr TSX at 3,060 fps the 8 mm Rem Mag picks up exactly where the .300 Wby with a 200 gr NP at 3,060 fps leaves it;
• With a 220 gr SGK at 2,920 fps it is almost on par with a .340 Wby 225 gr TTSX at 2,970 fps;
• With a 250 gr slug at 2,800 fps, it ends almost right where the .340 Wby picks it up with a 250 gr NP at 2,940.

I notice Glenn Slaven, that in your list there is no .300. That 8 mm Mag could occupy this niche very well. It will fly faster, flatter and further (and it will hit noticeably harder) than the 8x57, and it will not compete with the .375/9.3 stable. If anything, it will challenge the usefulness of the .338 Win because it will outpace it in every race from 200 to 250 gr, which makes sense because it has a full length case compared to a standard length case.

Beside, if you reload ammo if not an issue, and it puts you in a somewhat exclusive club: there are not too many 8 Rem Mag out there, and it is, with premium bullets (older 8 mm slugs were not built for that speed as noted by fourfive8) the great cartridge that you would expect it to be just in between the .300 Wby and .340 Wby

The heck with reasonableness, I say do it. Life is short... OK, better yet: sell that soon to be useless .338 Win (let's see what that one triggers ).

PS1: before you lick the stamp on the hate mail , let me disclose that I own a .338 Win Mag and love it . It is a Belgium custom Dumoulin built on a K98 action with a short barrel, full length stock, claw mount Schmidt & Bender rail scope. About perfect for deep woods elk, moose, or bear, although it runs out of steam in the open tundra or mountain sides, which is where the .340 Wby picks up .

PS2: when I grew up in Europe I was enamored of the 6.5x68 and 8x68 duo. For a while when I moved to the US I thought that no one needed anything more to hunt the US than a 6 mm Rem, a 7 mm Rem Mag and a 8 mm Rem Mag. Still a neat Plains Game battery...

 

[bruce moulds]

it can be handy necked down to 7mm too.
bruce.

 

[Hoss Delgado]

There's a Remington 700 in this Caliber lying on the " used" rack in our local gun store. No one really seems to want it. You'd be better off getting an 8mm Mauser .

 

[enysse]

Get a 8 mm Rem Mag! I have a .325 WSM that I won at hunt convention that is pretty similar in performance to the 8 mm Rem Mag. It’s a great longe distance rifle.

 

[Johnny reb]

I say scratch the itch for the 8mm rem mag. There are a plethora of quality bullets available now. If you reload you can come very close to 340 wby numbers. If you end up with one and need any reloading data to start I will furnish some information.