In checking around at various rounds for big game, I found several references to the 8mm Rem. mag. and see Remington still has a 200 gr. factory loead for this cartridge. Anyone have experience with it? How does it compare with the .338 Win. or .338 Rem. Ultra. mag? Is it closer to the .300 Win. than to the .338 Win.? Any ideas as to why Remington discontinued rifles in 8mm Rem. mag? Any information will be much appreciated.

Basically, very similar ballistics to a .300 Weatherby. That's the problem in a nutshell, at the time of introduction, a very limited market for something that kicked so hard :) The 'Weatherby' market was probably a bit high-end for a Remington, as well.

Now we've got 'ultra' this and that, maybe there will be some renewed interest.

8mm being a less common bore size in the U.S. didn't help it's cause, either.

Gun writer Craig Boddington is a big fan of the 8mm mag.

This lies exactly between the 300 WM and the 338 WM in all catagories.

Most Americans seem to shy away from the metric designated chamberings (.243 - 6mm, .264 - 6.5mm and .284 - 7mm being a few exceptions) and favor the english decimal calibers instead. As a result, most of these chamberings won't hold sales for long in the US and the mfg'rs tend to drop them rather quickly. The 8mm Rem Mag is just one example.

You can run some numbers through this calculator on Remington's site. The Swift A-Frame has a fairly low ballistic coefficient compared to the big three bullet companie's offerings, but it's better if you're up close and personal.
http://www.remington.com/ammo/ballistics/ballistics.htm

Bye
Jack

Remington dropped it because it wasn't selling. It failed to fill a niche that wasn't already filled or crowded by other cartridges that were just as good. Until ranges exceeded farther than most of us can shoot accurately in hunting situations, it didn't offer anything over the 338 Win Mag. The 338 was introduced a couple of decades before the 8mm Mag and several companies were making factory ammunition, reloading components, and different flavors of factory rifles. You could only get the 8 Mag in the Remington 700. If you didn't like the 700, you were out of luck. Also it was brought out in the BDL version, not the most recoil reducing effective stock on the market. Many that use the medium bores over .30 cal are looking for a CRF action also. The 700 didn't have it. Remington offered two loads, the 185 grain Corelokt and 220 grain Corelokt. The 185 had impressive trajectory figures, but the bullet wasn't built for really big game (the reason most folks would buy an 8 Mag). The 220 grain load didn't offer anything the 225 or 250 grain 338 loads didn't. AND, the 338 loads could be loaded with Nosler Partition or Jack Carter's Trophy Bonded Bearclaw bullets. Bullets that were reknowned for taking dangerous game.

I remember reading just before I bought the 8 Mag I had, something along the lines of "the 8mm Remington Magnum won't sell very well until Nosler makes a Partition for it. Nosler won't make a Partition for it until it sells well." It wasn't until after Remington dropped it's regular production run of the 8 Mag that Nosler did offer the 200 grain Partition for it. But by then it was strictly a custom shop chambering, whether from Remington or anyone else.

It's a fine round, but I believe it was offered in the wrong platform to begin with. If Remington would have brought out a CRF action, maybe taking some of the Remington M30 or a Mauser type action, would have offered a more classic styled stock (like their Remington Classic or the new CDL), would have offered a 180, 200, and maybe a 240 or 250 grain load, possibly worked out a deal with Nosler or other premium bullet manufacturer, it may have had strong sales. We'll never know, I guess. Those are the things I was wishing for when I had mine, anyway. Nothing wrong with the round, but I feel it was offered in the wrong package and don't think Remington marketed enough, or correctly, and didn't stay loyal to their own creation long enough.

Look at the loading tables and you will see that it just didn't give the velocity that the 30's gave ! It is weird to see this as you would think that it would be better , but it wasn't in it's loadings ! JAGG

In checking around at various rounds for big game, I found several references to the 8mm Rem. mag. and see Remington still has a 200 gr. factory loead for this cartridge. Anyone have experience with it? How does it compare with the .338 Win. or .338 Rem. Ultra. mag? Is it closer to the .300 Win. than to the .338 Win.? Any ideas as to why Remington discontinued rifles in 8mm Rem. mag? Any information will be much appreciated.
Everyone here stated pretty much the right reasons. The elk hunting 20 years ago when the 8mm Rem was introduced was not as good as it is now. Nosler was pretty much THE premium big game bullet then also, and it did not come in 8mm. There were only a couple of bolt actions back then that were commonly available to accomondate the round and Winchester was not going to give it's 338 any competition. With these factors, western hunters back then chose the 338 or the 300 mags if they wanted something "bigger". Other than that I think the big" 8" is a fine round.