Remington Model 8

[toad]

I was over at the Firearm Blog:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2015 ... n-model-8/
I followed some links there on shooting the Remington Model 8 designed by Browning.
One thing that was interesting was a link that said the Texas Ranger who organized the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde use a model 8 in .35 Remington, with a removable 20 round magazine. I wonder if that was a custom gunsmith job?
An uncle of mine had one but I didn't realized that it was a take down rifle.
Everyone says the recoil is pretty harsh but these day there are recoil pads for both shooter and rifle that might help tame that a bit.
Given the cost of some of the ammo for it looks like it would really payoff to invest in reloading.

[JAG2955]

Ah yes, where Mikhail Kalashnikov stole the safety for his AK-47 design.

Lots more info on the Model 8

[JKosprey]

One of these, or it's descendant, the Model 81 (in 35 Rem) have been on my list for awhile. Still haven't actually come across one I could write off as an impulse buy and don't have the funds to actually LOOK for one....

[PawPaw]

It's well known that Hamer used a Model 8 in his infamous ambush of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow near Arcadia, LA in May 1934. Linky!

Barrow stopped his car at the ambush spot and the posse's 150-round fusillade was so thunderous that people for miles around thought a logging crew had used dynamite to fell a particularly huge tree.[29] Accounts of the last instants before the gunfire vary widely: Sheriff Jordan said he was calling out to Barrow to halt as the shooting started; Deputy Alcorn said that Captain Hamer was calling out; Deputy Hinton wrote that Alcorn called out. The only agreement between all six was that Deputy Oakley, perhaps nervously jumping the gun, stood and fired the opening burst from his Remington Model 8, and that his bullet into Barrow's left temple killed the outlaw instantly.[30] The posse then fired off another hundred-plus rounds, any number of which would have been fatal to Parker and also to Barrow.[31]
Hamer used a customized .35 Remington Model 8 semiautomatic rifle with a special-order 15-round magazine that Hamer had ordered from Petmeckey's Sporting Goods store in Austin, Texas. He was shipped serial number 10045, and this was just one of at least two Model 8's used in the ambush.[32] The rifle was modified to accept a "police only" 20-round magazine obtained through the Peace Officers Equipment Company in St. Joseph, Missouri.[28]

That rifle, #10045 is now in the Texas Ranger Museum, Waco, TX.

[toad]

I kind of like the idea of having a compact rifle with a 20 or 30 round magazine that fires a .35 Remington round.

[PawPaw]

The Model 8 aside, there is a lot to like in the .35 Remington. That big ol' 200 grain bullet, traveling 2200 fps has lots of momentum. Considered an underpowered cartridge by today's standards, it has a certain usefulness that you won't see by simply looking at the ballistic numbers.

I bought one back in 1973, a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington. I mounted a 2.5X sccope low over the bore in the standard scope position. The rifle still wears that scope today. Until the late '90s, it was my only deer rifle. I hunted the piney woods of central Louisiana with it, and never saw a need for anything more. Most shots were 100 yards or closer, with the vast majority being closer. Much closer. I didn't reload for the cartridge, buying one box of Remington 200 grain each year. At the end of the year, I'd shoot the remaining cartridges for practice, clean the rifle and put it away till the next season.

The cartridge received a surge of popularity as a pistol cartridge when Thompson Center chambered it in their single-shot Contender. Metallic silhouette shooters loved the cartridge because it carried enough energy to take down the steel ram.

[John_in_Longview]

It's well known that Hamer used a Model 8 in his infamous ambush of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow near Arcadia, LA in May 1934. Linky!

American Rifleman had a story on Frank Hamer in 2011. Link

[HTRN]

One thing that was interesting was a link that said the Texas Ranger who organized the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde use a model 8 in .35 Remington, with a removable 20 round magazine. I wonder if that was a custom gunsmith job?

It was custom work for Police departments. These examples bring in top dollar at auction.