Anyone work with a Remington model 8?

[RickinTN]

Hello All!
Anyone here work with a Remington model 8 in 30 Remington? A friend was just given one and asked me to research for it. I have several hundred jacketed 30-30 bullets but what fun would that be? I also have at least 4 30-30 molds that I expect to work quite well. My biggest concern/question would be how hot of a load does it take to cycle the action? Mild, middle, or fairly hot. We want to shoot the old girl and have some fun.
Rick

[gc45]

Any 75-80% of max load will cycle the model 8. Look for loads with similar bullets like what you have and load then up. 30 Rem is equal to the 30-30 but is a rimless case. 4064 is a good powder for either, plenty other powders as well but what I use for all my 30 cal rifles.

[uscra112]

Never owned one myself, but about 15 years ago a pal at work inherited one, and came to me for help. Brass was the first hurdle, of course. Because he wanted to hunt with it we settled on a 170 grain RNFPGC cast of sweetened wheelweights, and 28 grains of Varget. I don't remember what we sized the bullets to. That gave him 3MOA groups at best. It was a hard gun to shoot well, what with all that monkey-motion happening on the recoil. I also recall that when he took it to the U.P. (Michigan) that year, he never saw a deer.

[Thumbcocker]

Those are really cool old rifles. Please keep us updated on your progress.

[pworley1]

I have 2 in 30 Rem and 2 in 35Rem. I can only tell what little I have learned from my four. This may or may not apply to yours. The 35's were no trouble, they don't really care what I feed them. The 30's were a different story. There is a fine line between getting the bullet large enough not to lead the bore and still chamber in the rifle. The thing that helped was not being limited to flat point bullets. Any bullet in the 130 to 180 range in in play with the model 8. Mine will cycle with any load that will produce about 1600'/sec or more, and are usually most accurate around 1800'/sec. .309 bullets were as large as I can use, and powder coating eliminated the leading. The fun shooting them was worth the effort.