OK, so I acquired an 8mm Rem Mag rifle [Remington 700 BDL, Custom shop] I want to take it Elk Hunting.
It was 'lightly" used when I bought it for an attractive price from a Gunnut on here.
I suspect someone did not like the recoil this cartridge generates. I immediately fitted it
with a decelerator recoil pad.
The bore in this rifle looks exceptional for a factory barrel, my borescope failed to find any
significant imperfections at all.
So I have been experimenting with bullet/loads for a while now, and have found some interesting
things. This rifle shoots every bullet I have tried well, with one exception: The 200 Nosler Partition.
This simply meant I had to look elsewhere. In so doing, I found that this 8mm Mag has a preference
for Hornady bullets [195 grain and 220 grain (the latter no longer in production)]
A big load of IMR 7828 behind the 195 results in very satisfying, sub-moa groups. [3215 fps]
Likewise, a stiff load of Vihtavuori N170 behind the 220 works similarly.[3005 fps]
Here's the good part of these two loads....they shoot to the same point of impact at 100 and 200 meters.
In doing some research, Hornady claims that both these bullets were developed with this big "8" in mind,
so they are quite sturdy bullets. I managed to find a fair quantity of the 220's so am set for the foreseeable future.
I have shot the 220 Sierra SPBT as well, and it shoots around 1 moa, the 200 Swift A-Frame is at 1¼ moa, but at
a bit slower speeds. Cranked up, the groups grow significantly.
The 200 Accubond is also shooting well, so no lack of options out there. Now to see a legal elk this fall, lol.
Regards, Dave.
It was 'lightly" used when I bought it for an attractive price from a Gunnut on here.
I suspect someone did not like the recoil this cartridge generates. I immediately fitted it
with a decelerator recoil pad.
The bore in this rifle looks exceptional for a factory barrel, my borescope failed to find any
significant imperfections at all.
So I have been experimenting with bullet/loads for a while now, and have found some interesting
things. This rifle shoots every bullet I have tried well, with one exception: The 200 Nosler Partition.
This simply meant I had to look elsewhere. In so doing, I found that this 8mm Mag has a preference
for Hornady bullets [195 grain and 220 grain (the latter no longer in production)]
A big load of IMR 7828 behind the 195 results in very satisfying, sub-moa groups. [3215 fps]
Likewise, a stiff load of Vihtavuori N170 behind the 220 works similarly.[3005 fps]
Here's the good part of these two loads....they shoot to the same point of impact at 100 and 200 meters.
In doing some research, Hornady claims that both these bullets were developed with this big "8" in mind,
so they are quite sturdy bullets. I managed to find a fair quantity of the 220's so am set for the foreseeable future.
I have shot the 220 Sierra SPBT as well, and it shoots around 1 moa, the 200 Swift A-Frame is at 1¼ moa, but at
a bit slower speeds. Cranked up, the groups grow significantly.
The 200 Accubond is also shooting well, so no lack of options out there.
Now to see a legal elk this fall, lol.Regards, Dave.
