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My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 12:55 pm
by JohnP
My son inherited his GGF's Model 8, SN# 24,XXX made ca. 1910-1912 in .25-35 Remington but converted (presumably by the factory) to .25 Remington. Breach is still marked .25-35 Rem. He also inherited 5 boxes of original .25 ammunition. I put five rounds thru it and it cycled fine and still makes round holes. Seen hard use. Lots of stock and bore wear, virtually no bluing when we got it with lots of minor shallow scratches and pitting on the metal. Worse shallow dings all over the tangs and receiver back and back of trigger guard where it appears a hammer was used for whatever reason. Marble sight on tang. It was clearly treated as a tool with no more care taken than one would take throwing a shovel in the back of a pick up. Decided to "restore it". Lots of steady but light refinishing to remove surface pits and dings etc. Oxypho blue for bluing. Stock was refinished with filler using a paste of wood glue and walnut hardwood sawdust to fill the really deep dings. Then a light sanding overall and restain with many coats of linseed oil. Quite a pretty result considering howit started. Great bit of history.

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:33 pm
by Roger
Great job on the m-8. I always am glad to see these old warhorses brought back from the edge of destruction. Take good care of it now.And above all have fun with it.
Thanks for your time
Roger

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:42 pm
by DWalt
Weren't the .25-35 Remington and the .25 Remington the same cartridge (as opposed to the .25-35 Winchester, which was rimmed)? I sort of remember something about an earlier caliber chambering used for the Model 8 never being used in production, and the few rifles made on that caliber being converted, but I don't think it was the .25-35 Remington.

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 4:30 pm
by JohnP
re: .25-35, I'll have to check again , but my recollection is that the .25-35 cartridge, also rimless, was a discontinued predecessor to the later adopted .25 Rem and a subtlely but distinctly differenct cartridge, and that Model 8's chambered in .25-35 were rechambered for .25 Remington for no charge by the factory. Could be wrong.

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 4:51 pm
by rem81auto
John, nice job on bringing the old gun back to life. I think the 23-35 Rem and the 25 Rem are no different. The 35 was dropped to stop the confusion with the Winchester 25-35 cartridge.

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:55 pm
by JohnP
Interesting info on .25-35 cartridge here: http://www.armorypub.com/2001/4-01.htm

My barrel/breach is stamped as you see Model 8 at this site.......

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 6:16 pm
by Roger
This is all very interesting stuff that they are talking about. John Henwoods book doesn't mention anything about any of this .Or at least I don't remember any mention of it. This may be truly new info for some of us.
This definitely bears some research. Although, it may just be another "story" too.
Thanks for your time ,
Roger

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:28 pm
by 81police
whatever the "25-35 Remington experimental" was I don't know, but if you have a Model 8 marked "25-35 Rem" you have a 25 Remington chambered rifle.

Good looking Model 8 JohnP!!!!

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 8:26 pm
by Phyrbird
Very good to see an honest restoration, my complements.
Side note: my research indicates the 25-35 Rem and the 30-30 Rem may have been Remington's attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the already known cartridges. My research says 25-35 Rem is 25 Rem; 30-30 Rem is 30 Rem. I have one of the rifles with the 30-30 R chamber, a rimmed 30-30 Win case won't fit period...

Check for my previous post listing Steve's pages, it has a link to the SAAMI specs with dimensional data for cartridges. Check it out. It will save your rifle from damage at least.

Re: My son's great grandfather's Model 8

Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 3:13 pm
by Roger
I stand corrected. And yes I can be wrong. Just not too often!! Upon looking in john henwood's book, I found out that he did mention the earl development of the 25/35 remington cartridge and apparently they weren't pleased with it. So they changed it to be more like the 25/35 winchester cartridge.The ffnalized version is what we now know as the 25 remington cartridg