French Remington RB 8x50R lebel

[artu44]

Just today I got at an auction this RB poor looking but with sound action and good rifling and wood. Of course it needs cosmetical restoration and a good blueing job but after that I'd like to have a lot fun in shooting this venerable WWI old horse and for 250$ I cannot have more than a shooter. I've already a mousqueton Berthier and relevant handloading facilities but I have the insane idea to load some black powder round. After all its austrian cousin, teh 8x50R M95 was originally loaded with BP. My purpose isn't to push the first smokeless cartridge a step rearward mut make my Remington smoking.

[Texas by God]

Cast them soft, put triple F in the case to the base of the bullet, use SPG Lube or equivalent and a Magnum primer and go Boom! You got a hell of a deal on that gun.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[artu44]

A good tip, thanks.

[Wayne Smith]

If you use FFFG Black you don't need a mag primer, either.

[Mark Daiute]

I like the way it looks now.

[Argentino]

WOW, a french RRB chambered in 8mm. Lebel. I always wanted one of those.

I would respectfully suggest not to reblue it. Those guns have a lot of history attached to them and yours seems to be in original condition after more than 100 years. It has a lot of character the way it is and a good part of it would be gone if a reblueing process takes place. JMHO.

Regarding BP loads, it could be done but as you may already know, black powder always need to be compressed inside the case otherwise in can get dangerous. I would stay away from the use of any solid fillers since they can raise up a lot of pressure on a bottle necked cartridge.

Just my 2cts.

[17nut]

WOW, a french RRB chambered in 8mm. Lebel. I always wanted one of those.

I would respectfully suggest not to reblue it. Those guns have a lot of history attached to them and yours seems to be in original condition after more than 100 years. It has a lot of character the way it is and a good part of it would be gone if a reblueing process takes place. JMHO.

Regarding BP loads, it could be done but as you may already know, black powder always need to be compressed inside the case otherwise in can get dangerous. I would stay away from the use of any solid fillers since they can raise up a lot of pressure on a bottle necked cartridge.

Just my 2cts.

How?

I have shot thousands of BP rounds with no compression or loose powder in them.
The problem arises from short seated bullets in frontloaders, not the small volume of cartridge cases.
Do Google and learn!

[Mark Daiute]

were these not a WWI rifle? were they loaded with BP or smokeless? I bet it was smokeless

[Argentino]

I have shot thousands of BP rounds with no compression or loose powder in them.

Good for you.
I´ll stick to what I´ve said. Others may try whatever they want but I won´t shoot nor recommend any BP load that is loose inside a case.

[Argentino]

were these not a WWI rifle? were they loaded with BP or smokeless? I bet it was smokeless

You are correct, Mark. 8x50R Lebel was in fact the first smokeless military cartridge. Developed around the 11mm. Gras, a previous military black powder cartridge that essentially was necked down to 8mm. and loaded with early smokeless powder developed by Mr. Vieille around the mid 1880s.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

How?

I have shot thousands of BP rounds with no compression or loose powder in them.
The problem arises from short seated bullets in frontloaders, not the small volume of cartridge cases.
Do Google and learn!

I think that is true, and you have nothing to fear from a case full but not compressed with coarse grained black powder. It can be compressed, though, and you will get more in that way. In fact if you could manage something like the single pierced pellet used as stopgap in the first .303 rounds (probably deriving from the Congreve rockets used at Fort McHenry), it might give the slow and progressive burn which is desirable in such a strongly bottlenecked cartridge.

The British necked a straight case after inserting the pellet (and indeed did the same for evermore with cordite powder in long strands). But you could probably achieve the same thing, if you have the patience to let it dry, with dampened powder and a tapered mandrel, extended with a rod which fits the flash-hole.

I expect such rifles were issued to rear-echelon or colonial troops in the First World War. We do see patriotic postcards with Chassepot and Gras rifles in the hands of soldiers, who are sometimes young ladies doubtless accustomed to a less uniformed type of French postcard. But it's hard to distinguish weapons used by railway guards etc. from civilian-owned photographic props. I haven't heard that the French had a "sold out of service" mark like the second broad arrow, point to point with the "government property" one which the British used.

But I would suspect that the conversions were pre-war, and probably nineteenth century. A considerable quantity of the Egyptian Remington order was diverted to France, although it may have been to the Army of the Loire, assembled from volunteers, provincial National Guard, sailors and latecoming colonial troops after the main French field army was destroyed. The Remingtons were highly regarded by the French, not just for themselves but for the new idea of an all-metal military rifle cartridge. Up to then they had known only the non-sealing paper cartridge of the Chassepot and the shotgun-style paper cases of the Mitrailleuse machine-gun and the Tabatière muzzle-loader conversion. They were probably crucial in the decision to go for the metallic-cartridge Gras.

[artu44]

WOW, a french RRB chambered in 8mm. Lebel. I always wanted one of those.

I would respectfully suggest not to reblue it. Those guns have a lot of history attached to them and yours seems to be in original condition after more than 100 years. It has a lot of character the way it is and a good part of it would be gone if a reblueing process takes place. JMHO.

Regarding BP loads, it could be done but as you may already know, black powder always need to be compressed inside the case otherwise in can get dangerous. I would stay away from the use of any solid fillers since they can raise up a lot of pressure on a bottle necked cartridge.

Just my 2cts.

I was forced to rebluing it cause its miserable aspect would spoil the joy of handle and shootin it. Nothing too much invasive, just a minimum sanding and rust blueing. During disassembly I noticed numbers (different from french s/n)on trigger assembly and corresponding in the tang but I wasn't able to find explication for them. An internal remington assembling number or a serial number?

[nekshot]

I love it! The older I get the more I like this real old stuff shooting whatever is at hand!(with careful consideration) I know what you mean by needing to tear it down and put some love back into it. Rewarding feeling of love!

[artu44]

I love it! The older I get the more I like this real old stuff shooting whatever is at hand!(with careful consideration) I know what you mean by needing to tear it down and put some love back into it. Rewarding feeling of love!

Me too, I was tired of old junk from WWI with swollen chambers and rough rifling so last year I switched to the first breechloaders I have to say I was lucky beyond any hope: my two Sniders, the Vetterli and this Remington all have a mirror like bore. BTW within a month I'll be 74.