Recently on TFB, we ran a photo of my Model 8 as the “photo of the day”. I must say that I was quite surprised at the amount of people who had never seen, or even heard of this incredibly important and revolutionary firearm. The Remington Model 8 was one of the first successful semi-automatic rifle designs to be built from the ground up as a commercial firearm. Not only that, but it was arguably more advanced than most previous military attempts at a self loader. Browning’s genius shows in this firearm, and shooting one is a great experience.

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Firearm Featured:
Remington Model 8

The full transcript …

– [Voiceover] A while back on TFB, we ran a picture of my Model Eight as the picture of the day.

I was really astonished at the amount of people who have never heard of this extremely revolutionary firearm.

So, let’s take a look at it.

That safety lever should be pretty familiar to any Kalashnikov guys, and it is functionally identical.

You can see here, lowering the safety presses it into fire mode, and it’s simply right-side charging, just like an AK.

The port on the top is where you load the ammunition, and it can accept stripper clips.

One endearing feature about the Model Eight is they’re all actually take-down rifles; what looks like a front sling swivel, is actually a screw that helps you remove the wooden forend.

After you accomplish this, there’s a lever that you rotate a number of times, which can be a bit of a bear, but it does secure the barrel assembly to the receiver very well.

After a little bit of unscrewing, you reach the point where it stops and it is captive.

Lock the bolt to the rear, and rotate the barrel out.

This leaves you with a very nice, compact package that you can throw in a backpack, duffel bag or what have you.

This specific example is chambered in.30 Remington, and they were chambered in multiple calibers including.25,.30,.32,.35, and.300 Savage.

You can see that.30 Remington is about the size of.30-30, because they are almost dimensionally identical, except for the rim.

Loading the Model Eight is quite easy: you click the rounds in through the top; and there is a stripper clip guide as well, should you have some stripper clips.

However, they are quite rare and expensive, and I’ve seen one sell for $100 on eBay, so I reckon clicking them in is just fine in lieu of that.

After you have your five rounds in, you simply pull the bolt to the rear, and it chambers a round.

So let’s start shooting, shall we? All I can say about the Model Eight’s recoil impulse is it is incredibly heavy.

The entire barrel actually recoils into the action, and there’s absolutely nothing soft about this firearm.

However, place it in historical context.

At the time, there really weren’t any commercially available semi-automatic rifles, so this was revolutionary.

You could see here, in slow motion, how the barrel recoils all the way into the receiver to unlock the bolt.

And as the barrel comes forward, the shell ejects.

After this, it was time to take a brief accuracy test.

It is worth noting that these were accurate enough to be part of the guns in the posse that took down Bonnie and Clyde.

As a matter of fact, it was a Model Eight chambered in.35 Remington that took down Clyde Barrow with a shot to the head.

These were the tactical rifles of their day, and it’s easy to understand why.

You had five rounds of a hard-hitting, centerfire firepower, and accuracy that was very impressive, actually.

You can see here I shot a five-shot group at about 40 yards that measured about an inch.

So that about does it for the great Model Eight.

While complicated, they were an important step toward semi-automatic rifle design.

Should you see one for a good price, why not take a look at it? This is Alex C., with TFB TV.

Thank you very much for watching.