Got the ammo, now need the firearm

[abunaitoo]

Good friend saw me at the range the other day. Said he's been carrying a box he wanted to give me for weeks.
Good size box. Heavy. Asked him what was in it. All he said was "I think you'll like it".
Brought it home and opened it up.
Full of 8mm Lebel ammo on Hotchkiss maching gun strips.
Now all I have to do is find the firearm to go with it.
176754176755

[Butchman205]

Now that's a great friend!


-Butchman

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Yes, good friend and great thing to have. I've got an old (aren't they all?) French Berthier rifle that I purchased from a consignment rack in a gun shop back around 1975. It hung on my office wall for years and then, in preparation for a move, I took it down and thought I'd write down the serial no. while I was at it. Found that it had become a bit rusty so took it entirely apart and cleaned it up. Then I thought, why not shoot it? Somewhere along the line I had acquired 8 rounds of Remington non-corrosive soft point hunting ammo, so off we went to the range where I discovered that it shoots very high out to about 250 yds., where the elevation is about right but where it shoots 4 or 5 ft. to the left. It seems like the only windage adjustment is to drift the front sight in it's dovetail--too bad, because at present it is nicely centered and may look odd. I did acquire a set of used 8mm Lebel dies here on the forum, and will reload my 8 pieces of brass and try again! All in all a much nicer rifle than I had originally thought. In detail stripping it for cleaning I found it to be a very interesting design mechanically. So, if when looking for a rifle to shoot your gifted ammo don't pass on a Berthier if it is offered, but do expect it to shoot high.

[runfiverun]

8mm lebel rifles are not 323 diameter.

those machine gun strip rounds may or may not fire.
when I first got mine some time in the 80's the rounds were pretty reliable the last few years they have come to be more unreliable than reliable.
the good thing about them is they will penetrate 2 steel plates and a tank engine.
don't be surprised if you have to pull the rounds down and re-work them.

Graf and son's usually has the brass for a decent price.

[Ithaca Gunner]

French guns ain't too bad, a lot of history in em for the most part. What's the date on your ammo? I remember I bought a round tin full of mostly .30/06 and 8mm Mauser from a shop in the early 70's. The 06' went off without a hitch WWII stuff in M-1 clips, some of the 8mm was loaded with round nose FMJ bullets and dated late 1890's. A few rounds went off, but most didn't. I pulled the bullets of the ones that failed, what was inside wasn't even powder anymore, just a lump of, (if I remember right) greenish stuff. Only other trouble I ever had with old military ammo was some 7mm Mauser from the 30's. It all went off, but with a few pierced primers. The rifle was an Interarms Mark X Mauser and the gas shield worked a Paul Mauser designed it, just a warm breeze along the scalp line when a primer pierced.

[10x]

This is much better than picking up 30 or so fired brass. Then deciding to get a gun and dies for it so you don't have it sitting on your shelf for no reason.

That being said I did get a deal on 5000 8x57 ball that took two years to get a gun to shoot it

[Big Boomer]

If you have enough brass to justify the purchase, you buy a firearm for the brass. Back in the 1980s I had a set of Ruger Redhawks - .357 mag., .41 mag., & .44 mag. I really liked all of them, but especially the .41 mag., but I traded the set to Hamilton Bowen for him to build for me a a 5-shot .45 Colt Ruger Bisley, a genuine .45 mag. Having purchased 2,000 pieces of .41 mag. R-P brass from the Chicago Police Dept. when they went to autos instead of the S&W M58, that brass has set around in my basement for around 30 years. So recently I opted for a new S&W M57, 6" bbl. The first group I fired without any test loads produced a 1 1/2" 25 yd. group with a Lee boolit mould boolit. Good to hang onto brass, especially if you have a gaggle of it. Big Boomer

[Butchman205]

Nothing worse than a barn full of horse feed and no horse.
I suggest getting something that will eat the ammo!


-Butchman

[bouncer50]

I have a Lebel rifle i was told years ago the Machine gun ammo is too hot to shoot in a bolt action rifle. I dont really know how true that is. But i also have machine gun ammo in strips that i have never used. I rather be safe then sorry shooting that stuff.

[abunaitoo]

I have a Lebel that I reload cast for.
Friend did shoot some of this ammo through a Berthier.
It is to hot to shoot.
He said he got lots of duds.
When I have time, I hope to take them apart.

[elk hunter]

You may want to try to sell your find to a collector and then use the money towards a rifle and some modern brass. All the old Label ammo I have is Berdan primed and prone to splitting if it does fire.

[bullet maker 57]

and it is corrosive as well.

[abunaitoo]

Would be nice to sell it to a collector, it's just the shipping would make it unreasonable.
I was thinking of turning the rounds into dummies, put them back in the strippers, and selling as wall hangers.

[Menner]

Friend of mine just got a Lebel told him about your find and he said he would like one for his shell collection.
His little carbine is a good cast shooter. He has had a lot of fun with it so far
Tony

[waksupi]

I had a Lebel. One of the hardest kicking rifles I've owned. I do not think I would care to shoot the machine gun loads.
I found out after I got rid of that rifle, a box of cartridges was worth more to collectors than the rifle was.

[fatelk]

Funny thing: I went to a gun show yesterday (only go to a couple a year nowadays), and I bought a little can full of a couple hundred bullets, fairly cheap. They looked like Turk Mauser 8mm pulled surplus bullets, but when I got them home and checked them out I realized that they were heavier and fatter than I thought they should be. They were 232gr and .326" consistently, very decent quality for military pulls, I think.

Anyhow, a quick search tells me that these are from the same ammo you have there, French Lebel MG ammo.

[abunaitoo]

If i could only find a 8 Lebel Maxium machine gun, in semi auto, and for really cheap, I'd be set.

[Hawgsquatch]

Take that stuff to the annual machine gun shoot in Nevada and someone may let you use it up?

[abunaitoo]

Cost to much to bring it on the airplane.
Probably can't take it all at once.
I've always wanted to go to one of those.
More interested in the old stuff than the new.

[mold maker]

All my adult life I have accumulated molds, brass, and dies in anticipation of a gun I wanted.
I'm still looking for the last I'm prepared for.
When the guns are found, it would be maddening to search for the needed supplies before being able to shoot them.