8mm Thread

[mgood]

Looks sharp. Is that an old Redfield scope and see-thru scope mounts?

Thanks. And yes, a Redfield 3-9x. The previous owner removed the rear sight, but left the front, and you can see it through the Weaver See-Thru rings. (Not my cup of tea, but cool in it's way.)

The scope was in the pics on gunbroker, but no mention of it was made in the description. I wasn't sure if it'd come with the rifle or not. Didn't contact the seller to find out either. Just figured that if I get it, cool, if not, whatever.

 

[MudRunner2005]

If it were mine, I'd order some new glass and mounts for it to get it ready to do some LR work.

EGW HD Picatinny Rail 1 Piece Scope Mount | SWFA

Seekins Precision Scope 30mm Rings Low (0.82") | SWFA

Vortex 6-24x50 Viper HS 30mm Rifle Scope | SWFA

 

[mgood]

Yeah, just gotta decide what I want. I have a Leupold VX-3 3.5-10x40mm sitting around not doing anything. . . . But it's silver, because my next rifle was supposed to be stainless. It'd look like *** on this rifle.

And I have a Konus 3-9x which is my "spare scope." When I buy a new rifle and want to shoot it but can't afford the scope I want yet, the Konus gets mounted up. It's been on several rifles now.

The Redfield that it came with seems like at least as good a choice as either of those for now.
[EDIT: Those see through rings do have to go though, pronto.]

I haven't shot it yet. Working a lot of hours this week, including tomorrow. Gonna need those hours to help pay for ammo! I bought a box of Nosler Custom with 200 gr AccuBond. Not sure if I should shoot that stuff or put it in a safe deposit box. Must be made of gold for what it costs. One box of 20 was all I could afford right now.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Yeah, just gotta decide what I want. I have a Leupold VX-3 3.5-10x40mm sitting around not doing anything. . . . But it's silver, because my next rifle was supposed to be stainless. It'd look like *** on this rifle.

And I have a Konus 3-9x which is my "spare scope." When I buy a new rifle and want to shoot it but can't afford the scope I want yet, the Konus gets mounted up. It's been on several rifles now.

The Redfield that it came with seems like at least as good a choice as either of those for now.
[EDIT: Those see through rings do have to go though, pronto.]

I haven't shot it yet. Working a lot of hours this week, including tomorrow. Gonna need those hours to help pay for ammo! I bought a box of Nosler Custom with 200 gr AccuBond. Not sure if I should shoot that stuff or put it in a safe deposit box. Must be made of gold for what it costs. One box of 20 was all I could afford right now.

Once you have a good stash of brass, and your reloading equipment, you can exclude that from the cost of reloading for it, and it is relatively cheap.

For example (not including brass), I can reload my 7mm STW for less than $1.00 per round...For Berger bullets, powder, and Federal 215M primers. To buy factory Nosler ammo costs nearly $4.00 per round. So I can shoot 4x the amount of reloaded ammo for the same cost as 1 box of Nosler ammo.

 

[mgood]

I keep saying I'm going to stop buying guns and spend my money on getting my reloading setup completed. (You see how that's working out )

I have a Rock Chucker I scored used for $50. Not even sure if it's missing any pieces. I have RCBS dies for 25-06 and 45 ACP (carbide for the 45). I have a bunch (like 1200) .277" 95 gr TTSX bullets for my 6.8 SPC. Several shell holders. I have once-fired brass from 40 S&W and 45 ACP (about 1000 of each) and 25-06 and 6.8 SPC (about 100 of each) I have an RCBS powder trickler, a cheap digital pocket scale. Two manuals, Nosler and Speer. I have a bottle of H4831SC. I have 2000 large pistol primers.

So, I have a bunch of random stuff that almost looks like I reload, but it's not quite ready for prime time. None of it really goes together to make one complete cartridge.

 

[450 Dakota]

Another option for the 8 mag enthusiasts is the 323 Jarrett. (8mm Rem Mag Improved) I had him chamber me one and it shoots lights out. 3250 with a 200 gr Barnes. He has dies and you just fire form standard 8mm Rem Mags. Mine is on a Rem 700 action with a 26 inch Lilja barrel.

 

[mgood]

With CEB now making some nice high BC bullets, I've had plans to rechamber one of the Mausers to 8mm/26-Nosler but....

Someone listed and I popped for a Pac-Nor 9twist 8mm (.323) barrel. Rather than mess with the Mauser bolt head work. Just gonna put that Pac-Nor on a Weatherby Mark V action to be the 8mm/26-Nosler. CEB 8mm 225 and 256s should fit the Mark V magazine seated per CEB.

The 26 Nosler duplicates the 6.5mm STW performance in a shorter, fatter case. The 6.5mm STW is just an 8mm Rem Mag necked down to .264".
The 28 Nosler duplicates the 7mm STW performance in a shorter, fatter case. The 7mm STW is just an 8mm Rem Mag necked down to .284".
A 32 Nosler would duplicate the 8mm Rem Mag performance in a shorter, fatter case.

Shorter powder columns seem to be more efficient (in terms of how many grains of powder it takes to push a certain weight bullet to a certain muzzle velocity) and may even lend a smidgeon of accuracy through more consistent powder burn. Plus you get a beltless case.

I am very interested in any results you get, also in any thoughts on why something will or won't work, or why it will be better or worse than something else. I'm considering an 8mm wildcat with similar goals, but I'm a novice, so any input is appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

Not arguing just clarifying (from my POV)

I'm not going to build or by a 26-Nosler but I've built 270, 284, 308 and 338. Not news.

Of course I am going to add the 8mm.

My belief based on the above is the xx-Nosler exceeds the STW (sorry STW lovers) at the same pressures but only by a little bit. If you like STW, there is no reason to switch.

As for fatter, only in so much as the difference between belted case and non-belted. To convert a Wby Mark V in 338 WinMag to 338/26-Nosler all that is required is to rechamber it. The width is the same. Some receiver designs will require minor adjustment but not much. My R700 based 28-Nosler was built on an action that was originally 300 RUM. Rechambered a 7mmRemMag barrel and good to go. The 270/27-Nosler is built on a 270 action, traded the bolt for a mag bolt and rechambered the 270 barrel. Still working on feeding. Just being careful opening up the feed rails to the same as the RUM .556" straight.

 

[mgood]

Yeah, I'm not arguing either. I was just stating my limited understanding from what I've read in regards to the Nosler cases vs the STW cases and in regards to the advantage of putting nearly the same powder in a shorter case. Hoping that if someone disagrees they'll educate me on where they think I've got it wrong.

I think the 325 WSM comes pretty dang close when using lighter bullets, but heavier, longer bullets occupying space that could otherwise be filled with powder would put the WSM at a disadvantage compared to the longer cases.
Something as simple as chambering the 325 WSM in a longer action, allowing the longer bullets to be seated out to a longer COAL might put the Little 8 up there with the big boys. Just an idea I've been kicking around. When I recover financially from buying a new rifle, I'm going to get QuickLoad and QuickDesign and run some of these ideas.
[EDIT: Surely someone has loaded a 300 WSM extra long and I could compare their results. But my searches have yet to come up with any such thing.]

 

[mgood]

Now it looks more like my kind of hunting rifle. Leupold VX-3 6.5-20x40mm robbed off my 22-250. In Weaver Grand Slam medium rings. Since it already had Weaver bases, why not? (I thought they'd be plenty high. I just barely got them to fit with this scope.) Not the scope that will eventually go on this rifle, but it'll do for seeing what kind of groups this thing will make.

Yes, there is clearance between the scope and the barrel.

And with the Harris bipod, more for added weight than anything else

 

[mgood]

Well, she do kick. I finally got it to the range this morning. I only fired one round off my shoulder, standing. Decided it won't kill me. I'd compare it to a very stout 12 ga shotgun load. (Not having a shotgun with me today for comparison, that's just a rough guess.) I sighted in and shot for groups from a Lead Sled Plus with a 25-pound barbell weight in it. I need a heavier weight. It bounces the lead sled around pretty good and still hits the shoulder pretty hard.

Groups kinda sucked. I put up a target at 100 yds and fired three sighters getting roughly sighted in then shot two 3-rd groups. First was 2.172" and the next was 3.585".

I only had 20 rouds of ammo. Nosler Custom with 200 gr AccuBonds. Advertised 3000 fps. I had already shot up half of them and decided to quit for then.

I went to the gun store where I used to work and talked to the owner. He asked if I'd checked the action screws. I told him I'd had the action out of the stock to clean it all around when I got it. I don't have a torque wrench or anything and might not have gotten them in there right. On Remingtons, he said, he likes to just barely start the back screw and then tighten the front one real tight and then go back and tighten the back one. I admitted I had gone back and forth between them, trying to tighten them down evenly. He loosened them up and saw that the action doesn't really sit flat in the stock. Told me I need to bed it. (I suspected that.) Tightened them down the way he thought they should be. On the bright side, he looked at the bolt and told me "This is a new rifle. I bet it hasn't had two or three boxes of shells through it."

Just to see if it made any difference, I headed back to the range. Groups did not shrink. Three more 3-rd groups measuring 3.805", 2.550", and 4.011". Something I did notice though, the first shot of each group was about 1/2" to the right of my point of aim. I was talking to another guy there between groups, maybe 4-5 minutes between groups. While shooting groups, shots were about one minute apart, maybe a minute and a half on some. The first shot of each of the three groups, if fired at the same point of aim, would be three holes touching. Maybe I just wasn't allowing enough time for the barrel to cool between shots? It was about 90 degrees out there.

ETA:
Bore looked clean when I got it. I ran a patch wet with oil through it anyway and it came out black. 10-15 patches later, it showed clean. I did not use any copper solvent sort of bore cleaner. During my 19 rounds of shooting today, I did not clean it. Project for tomorrow is to give the barrel a good scrubbing with bore cleaner. I need to find an 8mm jag. I'm just brushing and mopping the gunk back and forth.

 

[mgood]

My first attempt at drawing up a wildcat. . . . Ok, maybe not my first attempt, but the first one I saved and the first one I'm going to show anyone.
375 Ruger necked down to .323" and with the shoulder pushed back a little and steepened to 40 degrees. (I had to dust off some trigonometry to figure the measurements when I changed the angle.)

Shoulder was moved back so that less bullet length will have to slither through the case neck. Tell me if that's a dumb idea. Maximum capacity was not the goal. (If it was, I'd make it more like elkaholic's 30/375 SI.) Just want a little more velocity than I'd get by necking down a 338 WinMag or necking up a 300 WinMag. I don't have to have 8mm Rem Mag performance, but being close is nice. Standard long-action 3.340 COAL, beltless case, near 8RM performance.

I'd love to hear your feedback.

ETA: 220 gr bullets. I had the Hawk in mind. It is relatively short for it's weight, at 1.177". I started with that and put the neck-to-shoulder angle 1.100" back from the 3.340" COAL so that very little of the bullet extends beyond the start of the shoulder. That's where I got the 2.240". From there I figured how far back a 40 deg shoulder would go to get out to .515". (That's where the trig came in. And rather than trying to remember opposite, adjacent, hypotenuse, blah, blah, blah, I used an online trig calculator.)

 

[mgood]

An error was pointed out to me in the pic I posted before. I think this one should be correct.

However, it occurs to me that if I have a round-nose bullet seated out to 3.340" and bore the barrel to work with that . . . if I ever decide I don't like that bullet, I'll never get a pointy bullet anywhere near the lands. Right? I may have to do some minor re-engineering.

 

[mgood]

Nosler brass for 8mm Rem Mag from MidwayUSA is $2.35/piece.

Nosler Custom ammunition in 8mm Rem Mag loaded with 200 gr AccuBonds to an advertised 3000 fps is $2.84 per round from MidwayUSA.

Why in the world would I buy the brass when I can get the loaded ammo for a little more and just shoot it up and save the brass?