8 MM mag is one of my favorites, right up there with the .222, .220 Swift, .257R and the .35 Rem, have owned several, all Rem 700's mostly BDL's and one rare 700A, it came from the factory in a Brown Precision stock. It never achieved any great amount of popularity, the metric designation was a crippler as were the thin jacketed factory bullets of the time (late 70's early 80's) and a 24" barrel. I had a friend in Germany that would send me Brenneke 196 and 198 TUG bullets that he used in his 8x68s, they worked very well, today there are a lot of good quality bullets out there including Nosler, Barnes etc. The only problem is finding a rifle, used 24" 700 BDL's show up from time to time, the Remington custom shop will turn one out for you for a fair exchange of cash and Cooper chambers 8 mag, in a 26" barrel, in fact Clay has one on his site at the moment. The 8 mag was supposed to beat out the 300 Win mag at one end and the 338 Win mag at the other, while it had some advantages over both, they were very minor, and the 185 gr and the 220 gr factory loads just were not up to scratch. Using modern powders and proper bullets the old 8 mag can keep up with the rest of pack no problem. You just have to decide how much you want to spend for the privilege of owning a rifle chambered for a cartridge that spawned many wildcats, any of which were more popular than the parent cartridge.
