Hello

[sliverflinger]

Old fng reporting in. I just got my first Mod. 8 at a show about six hours ago. I know very little about the rifle, other than that it looked to be in great shape. It's in 7MM Rem and has a 27,xxx serial no.. A little research shows that it may be bear to feed. Hope I can find brass or ammo for it, or I'll have to unload it. I'll probably never do justice to the rifles I have now ,but I won't have one I can't shoot.I handrload about twenty calibers now, so if I can the parts I'll put it together

[81police]

sliverflinger,

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your first Model 8, that's exciting!

Did you say your Remington Model 8 is chambered in 7mm? How is the caliber marking worded?

[jack1653]

Welcome aboard siiverflinger,

Good to have another proud owner of a Model 8. If you have a 7mm it must have been re-barreled and that would make it unusual. The boys at Remington made the model 8 in .25, .30, .32 and .35. The serial number would indicate the year 1911. If you can send a picture of the rifle, we would like to see the 7mm.

Regards,

jack1653

[sliverflinger]

My bad, I've been dealing with a lot of metrics lately. D on.t know where the 7 came from. It's a 25 rem.. Sort of a heart stopper to see a box of ammo for this and find out it's $100 . A guy had one at the show today. It's sort of jarring after buying surplus ammo at 15 cents a round. To think paying $1 ea for 6.5 Grendel brass used to bother me.

[DWalt]

If you plan on shooting it much and don't reload, now would be a good time to start. Even though .25 Rem brass is hard to come by, you can neck down .30 Rem brass which is much easier to find new. If you don't already have the basic equipment you can plan on spending 2 -3 hundred on tools, reloading dies, and components for starters. Could be less with used tools and dies. Ask if you need help in that area.

[sliverflinger]

I just checked, at present I load 25 calibers. Just haven't been able to find 25 Rem. brass, but then that's part of the "fun". I live in the heart of fly over country, so I get my supplies on line or at gun shows( one of our state senators is my best dealer).

[DWalt]

I have you beat by a few, not even counting using dies for calibers not originally intended for (see following). Check on-line with Reed's in Oklahoma City. He was recently stocking .30 and .32 Rem cases at a reasonable price, but no .25. A set of .25-35 Win dies would probably work OK for necking down .30 Rem brass, also for reloading it. For just neck sizing there might be some other .35 die calibers, maybe .250-3000 (I don't know) that would work for that. I load .30 Rem with a .30-30 die set, works fine. If you do neck down .30 Rem brass, just watch neck wall thickness. Should be OK, as .30 Rem usually won't thicken much when necked down.

[imfuncity]

Ron Reed's info http://shop.reedsammo.com/category.sc?categoryId=32 Great guy and good service.

As a heads up regarding the 25 Rem:
In '07 Reed quit making/carrying 25 Rem as he could only get Jamison brass for it (the 30 & 32Rems were OK as they were made from Remington brass). Feb "07 Ron Reed told me, “… we are not planning on another run of 25 for some time, as Jamison is not available/able to fix the existing problems.” There were several issues with the cases in many guns including my M8, but he bought it all back. I have not seen 25Rem for sale since.

I'm not a reloader but from what I understand your best bet is to start with old 25Rem or use 30/32Rem brass - as long as it is Remington brass you should be good to go.

[DWalt]

The .30 Remington brass I got from Reed's was brand-new with R-P 30 Rem headstamp. Either Remington is still making .30 Rem brass (possibly as special order or in occasional runs) or else Reed has a large inventory dating back to whenever Remington was making it as a stock item. It was bulk loose brass, not in any kind of Remington factory packaging. I don't know, but the .32 Rem brass he stocks is probably the same way. In any event, his price is better than elsewhere that I have seen. I have seen .30 Rem brass at gun shows, but somewhat higher priced.

As I have previously posted here, I have made up .30 Rem cases from ,30-30 brass on a small lathe. It's not difficult to do, but at 50 cents each from Reed's (including shipping) it's easier to buy it unless you enjoy doing lathe work. I have a total of about 160 .30 Rem cases, and that's enough for me. My Model 81 does not throw empties very far, so I haven't lost any yet.

I think the best way to go would be to form .25 Rem cases from .30 Rem. HS is not correct, but who cares? It still goes Bang.

[sliverflinger]

Thanks for the help guys.