thegreatmodel8.remingtonsociety.com

Being one who searches eBay for gun parts, there was a Model 8 barrel assembly listed so I bought, with the intention of parting it out. Turned out to be nice enough to keep, but our 8 & 81's are .35 & .300, so what to do.

I started a search for a Model 8 in 30 Remington and there were quite a few 8 & 81 list on Guns America. But after searching I thought why get a .30 which is so close to the .32, why not get a .25. Being a fan of the 25-35 Winchester but not having one anymore this seemed like a good idea.

Well I bought one of the ones listed on GA, with several to chose from. I had called and inquired about the bore and was told it was dirty, but looked okay, so I put the one I liked on Layaway. Well it turns out it wasn't quite as nice as the pictures made it seem, but its growing on me. The metal is good nothing serious, finish so-so, forearm has issues, stock not to bad for an oldie, and the bore was rusted up at one time, but cleaned up pretty good. I had hopes to get a decent bore, lands are a bit worn, but it is what it is, and I don't feel I overpaid. I think it will shoot okay might find out this weekend.
The good news so is the barrel assemble came right apart, I'm use to struggling with that.

I made up some loads using Graf's brass, which BTW seems to be Quality Cartridge Brass, the Hornady 117 SP, IMR 4064 and W 760. I don't have the .32 dies and brass yet, but do have .32 special bullets.

This 25-35 barrel assembly has the wood buffer/spacer, as well as the split washer, which didn't come out. Its glued in with old oil and solvent.

Finally got to the range and shot the Model 8 25-35 Remington. Shoots pretty good for and old gun with a worn bore. I guess I need to post some pictures of it.

That`s Mo better. Enjoy shooting them !

Shot it Friday. We also have a Model 8 - C in .35, and an 81 in .300.

Finally got some 32 dies and brass, and shot some loads on Monday. Going to the range tomorrow. I have the dies backed out about 0.25 just to resize the neck and the body for good feeding. I used the Hornady bullet, but have some Speer's also.

Redding sell a die spacer kit, it is three spacers: one for 38/357, one for 44 Spl./44 Mag, and the other is 0.62 for partial resizing. I have some on the way as these cases barely need resizing. RCBS does sell a neck die.

Caution with sizing is a Good plan
I like the Redding idea, got a spacer made by RCBS decades ago, too.

The nice thing with these Remington 8's and 81's is that they are takedown and you can size the case as needed. With the 25 Rem. with the second batch and reloading some from the first batch I back-set the dies using feeler gauges. This worked pretty good. With the .32 I did the same, but found that I did not even need to size as much as I did. I was searching Brownell's site and saw the Redding spacers but they didn't give any thickness, but a seller on eBay did I ordered them: should be here today.

I also had some .32 Winchester Special brass I loaded and found out again that full length resizing was unnecessary.