8MM lebel ammo source
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War One French stuff is utterly ancient right now and there doesn't seem to be any. I would really like to try a dozen rounds myself.
In War Two, the trade unions sabotaged French ammo production because of the Hitler-Stalin (Molotov-Ribbentrop) pact: it would be working against Russia to produce ammunition to fight Hitler. Remember, the Communists were very much predominant in the French trade union movement (as later in the Resistance, which only came to much after Barbarossa).... and they took their orders from Moscow, not from Paris. True internationalism at its finest! I had some 1939 stuff, lovely ammo, beautifully packed in paper wraps of 8 rounds and the stuff was worse than useless. One round out of about 6 or 7 would go the first time through the rifle; another 1 out of 3 or 4 would go on the second firing, some took 5 firings before they would actually fire, some never did. You can develop an AWFUL flinch like that!
Rifle was fine (still is, for that matter), so I asked the only guy I knew who had any experience with European ammo. He looked at the cartridge and said, "That's French; that stuff was like that when it was made. How else do you think we walked through them in 6 weeks? I spent 5 weeks riding around in the back of a truck. I fired my rifle exactly twice, and one of those was at a rabbit. That was the battle of France." (Thank you to Soldier Theodor Schroth, who was actually There.)
And France did not build up a huge war reserve supply of ammunition. It was (and is) an industrially-developed country with a strong manufacturing sector. They believed that they could make ammunition when it was required, so what point in piling it up in peacetime? Worked.... most of the time.
Following War Two the old cartridge was so obsolete that only a bit was produced for colonial use.... and most of the colonies now are long gone. Currently, the only producer seems to be Serbia, but the Serb ammo is not approved for import into Canada... yet. It IS coming, but there will be a wait.
In the meantime, get some of that Serbian brass (which IS being imported: Prvi Partizan, which is Boxer primed) and some bullets from Trade-Ex, up top of this page 10 o'clock from The Beaver, and simply roll your own. That's what I did and, right now, I have a trio of Berthiers waiting for the official end of the LGR, which is when we ALL will want to make some noise!
Come to think of it, I had better get some more of that brass..... it just makes up into so MANY odd old cartridges..... short version of the Gras, bevel the rims for Krop, open out for Norski Remingtonsgevaerer, makes nice .50-70, you can fake Beaumont amd Vitali from it if you are sneaky enough.... oh, my! Just so MANY!
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In War Two, the trade unions sabotaged French ammo production because of the Hitler-Stalin (Molotov-Ribbentrop) pact: it would be working against Russia to produce ammunition to fight Hitler. Remember, the Communists were very much predominant in the French trade union movement (as later in the Resistance, which only came to much after Barbarossa).... and they took their orders from Moscow, not from Paris. True internationalism at its finest! I had some 1939 stuff, lovely ammo, beautifully packed in paper wraps of 8 rounds and the stuff was worse than useless. One round out of about 6 or 7 would go the first time through the rifle; another 1 out of 3 or 4 would go on the second firing, some took 5 firings before they would actually fire, some never did. You can develop an AWFUL flinch like that!
Rifle was fine (still is, for that matter), so I asked the only guy I knew who had any experience with European ammo. He looked at the cartridge and said, "That's French; that stuff was like that when it was made. How else do you think we walked through them in 6 weeks? I spent 5 weeks riding around in the back of a truck. I fired my rifle exactly twice, and one of those was at a rabbit. That was the battle of France." (Thank you to Soldier Theodor Schroth, who was actually There.)
And France did not build up a huge war reserve supply of ammunition. It was (and is) an industrially-developed country with a strong manufacturing sector. They believed that they could make ammunition when it was required, so what point in piling it up in peacetime? Worked.... most of the time.
Following War Two the old cartridge was so obsolete that only a bit was produced for colonial use.... and most of the colonies now are long gone. Currently, the only producer seems to be Serbia, but the Serb ammo is not approved for import into Canada... yet. It IS coming, but there will be a wait.
In the meantime, get some of that Serbian brass (which IS being imported: Prvi Partizan, which is Boxer primed) and some bullets from Trade-Ex, up top of this page 10 o'clock from The Beaver, and simply roll your own. That's what I did and, right now, I have a trio of Berthiers waiting for the official end of the LGR, which is when we ALL will want to make some noise!
Come to think of it, I had better get some more of that brass..... it just makes up into so MANY odd old cartridges..... short version of the Gras, bevel the rims for Krop, open out for Norski Remingtonsgevaerer, makes nice .50-70, you can fake Beaumont amd Vitali from it if you are sneaky enough.... oh, my! Just so MANY!
.
I got the dies , brass and bullets but I don't have a single gun in 8x50 lebel , same with my 7.5 french and 7.5 swiss and the 6.5x54r MS.... Crap I can load for a lot of old guns I don't own.... Yet
depending on the region your in you should be for hire to make some rounds
Report from south of the border: The Privi Partizen ammo is excellent but if it not being imported to Canada yet well. If international purchases of brass is OK Grafs Reloading has the brass. I have been told by my French rifle Guru DO NOT use Lee data for reloading the 8mm Lebel it is way to light, like bullet getting lodged in the barrel light!
http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/792?
Grafs does have a minimum purchase of $500 on international orders (What happened to NAFTA?)
Best I could come up with
http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/792?
Grafs does have a minimum purchase of $500 on international orders (What happened to NAFTA?)
Best I could come up with
Reloading is nothing to be scared of, friend. I was scared as hell the first time I did a handful of .44-40s with Black powder; made an awful mess of them but the old Colt straightened them back out.... more or less.
Start with ONE type of cartridge, ONE type of powder, ONE type of brass, ONE type of primers and ONE type of bullets on your bench. That way, you CAN'T screw up too bad. Take it slow and careful. Look up the load you want and set your SCALE. That is the most important safety precaution you can take. And you CHECK the scale setting every time you use it.
For small batches of ammo and for really accurate stuff, I use just the Scale, along with a small teaspoon and a cat-food tin for a ready powder supply. I shot for many years with a fellow named Gavin Tait, who loaded the most accurate hunting ammunition I have EVER seen. Gavin's ammunition won so many local/area competitions that Accuracy International doesn't even want to know about it. Gavin Tait did not even OWN a powder measure: all of his ammo was made with..... (you guessed it!) a little silver spoon, a cat-food tin and his scale.
So you set everything up to do that ONE JOB and then you change everything over when it is time to do the NEXT job.... and it's pretty hard to get mixed-up. And a REALLY good point to remember is that, if you are loading rifle cartridges, it is likely that you will be working with mid-range burning-speed powders.... and it is fairly hard to screw up really badly with them. If you are using a (more or less) "perfect" military rifle powder such as IMR-4895, the charge will so nearly fill the case that it will be impossible to double-charge the thing, although the top of the charge will be close to the bottom of the seated bullet. So you go with SLIGHTLY-reduced loads (for better accuracy: NO military rifle shoots its best with top loads) CHECK all your charged cases, in their loading-block, with a little flashlight, to make sure that they are all pretty much the same, and THEN you put the slugs in place (if you are using the boat-tailed bullet the Berthier likes) to serve as corks.... and put away the powder. NOW you seat the slugs, load up your clips and head off to the range to UNLOAD.
Rocket science it ain't friend. EVEN I can do it.... and I'm the guy my Dad used to say had "the mechanical aptitude of a Turtle".
GO fer it!
It adds a whole new DIMENSION to your hobby, believe me!
.
Start with ONE type of cartridge, ONE type of powder, ONE type of brass, ONE type of primers and ONE type of bullets on your bench. That way, you CAN'T screw up too bad. Take it slow and careful. Look up the load you want and set your SCALE. That is the most important safety precaution you can take. And you CHECK the scale setting every time you use it.
For small batches of ammo and for really accurate stuff, I use just the Scale, along with a small teaspoon and a cat-food tin for a ready powder supply. I shot for many years with a fellow named Gavin Tait, who loaded the most accurate hunting ammunition I have EVER seen. Gavin's ammunition won so many local/area competitions that Accuracy International doesn't even want to know about it. Gavin Tait did not even OWN a powder measure: all of his ammo was made with..... (you guessed it!) a little silver spoon, a cat-food tin and his scale.
So you set everything up to do that ONE JOB and then you change everything over when it is time to do the NEXT job.... and it's pretty hard to get mixed-up. And a REALLY good point to remember is that, if you are loading rifle cartridges, it is likely that you will be working with mid-range burning-speed powders.... and it is fairly hard to screw up really badly with them. If you are using a (more or less) "perfect" military rifle powder such as IMR-4895, the charge will so nearly fill the case that it will be impossible to double-charge the thing, although the top of the charge will be close to the bottom of the seated bullet. So you go with SLIGHTLY-reduced loads (for better accuracy: NO military rifle shoots its best with top loads) CHECK all your charged cases, in their loading-block, with a little flashlight, to make sure that they are all pretty much the same, and THEN you put the slugs in place (if you are using the boat-tailed bullet the Berthier likes) to serve as corks.... and put away the powder. NOW you seat the slugs, load up your clips and head off to the range to UNLOAD.
Rocket science it ain't friend. EVEN I can do it.... and I'm the guy my Dad used to say had "the mechanical aptitude of a Turtle".
GO fer it!
It adds a whole new DIMENSION to your hobby, believe me!
.
