8MM Question

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Reading the local online newspaper, a couple local teenagers exchanged gunfire (over a non-drug-laced candy bar one sold the other, no doubt!) The one arrested was reported shooting an 8MM at his adversary. I'know there are 8MM handguns, but I'm thinking a misprint or stolen gun and ammo. Are there popular or unpopular 8MM guns out there that "all-knowing Jeff" doesn't know about? I would guess it was a semi, as anyone with "street cred" wouldn't be caught dead (pun) with a wheel gun. So maybe
it was a .32 caliber? Just wonderin'. I'm not a subscriber so I don't think I have the ability to comment on the article.
 
I'm guessing typo, but did the article actually mention "handgun"? I guess he could have had an 8mm rifle, but I doubt it.
 
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In my teenage years (1970's) all the boy had at least one surplus military rifle! 30-06 was most popular, then 8mm Mauser, then 7.62x 54 Russian, There were very few 303 British and just two 7mm Mausers.

We would never shoot at each other! But just about anything except livestock was fair game! We all got along great with the LEO's in our area! One time had a mini-match with two WWII vet Deputys!

It was normal to see a teenager walking down the road with a Main Battle Rifle on him (except when squirrel hunting). Today the passersby would call out the SWAT team!

Ivan
 
At least once a year the local newspaper reports some incident or another featuring a .12 gauge shotgun. Do the math and that is about an 8-pound ball. I suppose the gun had wheels?
 
I think that the reporters do this on purpose. They are proud that they don't know anything about those icky guns.
 
At least it wasn't an AK-15 automatic, you know, the one with the thing that slides out so you can hold it like this, and has a 30 clip magazine.
 
The local newspaper loves to report whenever a ".12 gauge shotgun" is used in a crime.

Of course, a .12 gauge gun would be impressive, as by my calculation it would fire about an 8-pound ball...
 
My thoughts are "Typo" ... the 8 is so close to the 9 ...
... or could it have been 8X57 Mauser rifle ?
Not too many 8mm handgun calibers ...and those are rather obscure .
8mm Nambu is all I got ... and I don't know where the kid could even get ammo fot one ... My Bet is ... Typographical Error or Dumb Reporter !
Gary
 
A local PD just swapped duty weapons. The Newswoman reported they were going from “ 45mm pistols to 9mm’s”.

I think the real reason they switched to 9mm was those 1.8" diameter bullets for the "45mm".....I could find no one who makes magazine pouches for that large of caliber, and also the recoil was said to be "stiff", and fatigue set in early during firearm qualifications.....
 
I remember one summer day back in the early 60’s….My Buddy who lived across the street, showed up knocking on the door.
When I opened it, He’s standing there holding a Rifle, muzzle up.

I asked him “where did you get that?” He replied He found it in the Attic. His Dad had been in the Islands during WW2, USMC..

He wanted to shoot it , so we walked about 3 miles to the closest gun shop…Imagine a couple teenagers walking thru City streets carrying a Rifle today.

We told the guy at the gun shop we wanted some ammo…He had a large plastic bucket behind the counter on the floor containing ammo…After a few minutes he declared it was 8 mm. and sold up a box of surplus ammo….


We took it up to the south side of an air base where people dumped abandoned Cars and Dove hunted….I told him we need to tie a string to the trigger and test fire it first….We found an old wheel and tire and set the Rifle in it pointing at a dirt bank…..When we pulled the sting, it fired without blowing up…

We went thru that box of ammo , without any injury, and it wasn’t till later, we discovered the caliber was 7.7. Japanese….I told him it kicked hard…A couple years later, we were sitting in the EM club there, drinking.25 cent Beer.


He still has that Rifle today.
 
There is the story of Hatcher rechambering an Arisaka Type 38 to 30-06. Trouble was it still had a 6.5 barrel on it. Credit goes to Japanese manufacturing and metallurgy as the action survived, although recoil was described as brutal.
 
LOL!!!

The local newspaper loves to report whenever a ".12 gauge shotgun" is used in a crime.

Of course, a .12 gauge gun would be impressive, as by my calculation it would fire about an 8-pound ball...


Maybe they confused 'gauge' with 'caliber' and mean a .12 caliber shotgun. If that's the case is would be something a little smaller than a .177 shotshell, which would be good for flies at close range.
 
Maybe it was one of those 8mm Rast-Gasser assault revolvers. Those need to be banned because they hold way more bullets than a normal revolver!
 
I guess a few boxes of......

There is the story of Hatcher rechambering an Arisaka Type 38 to 30-06. Trouble was it still had a 6.5 barrel on it. Credit goes to Japanese manufacturing and metallurgy as the action survived, although recoil was described as brutal.

...ammo smeared with lapping compound would relieve the tight bore a tad. Why in the world did they try that anyway? There are only a few dozen 6.5mm cartridges that they could have chambered it for.
 
There is the story of Hatcher rechambering an Arisaka Type 38 to 30-06. Trouble was it still had a 6.5 barrel on it. Credit goes to Japanese manufacturing and metallurgy as the action survived, although recoil was described as brutal.

I had a cousin who owned a Type 99 (7.7 Jap) that had been rechambered to 30-06 with the original barrel being left on. You couldn’t hit the side of a barn with that undersized 30 caliber bullet.
 
IIRC it wasn't Hatcher who rechambered the Japanese 6.5 rifle. I collected old American Rifleman magazines and this was the subject of a short article in one of them. Some would be "gunsmith" got a 30-06 reamer and ran it into a Type 38 as he had heard people were rechambering Jap rifles to 30-06.......... But was seemingly unaware that they were doing it to Type 99 7.7 cal. rifles.

After being fired a few times and being unhappy with the tremendous recoil the owner had someone else look at it and the gun ended up in the hands of the American Rifleman staff. Who tested it and reported on the results (mainly that the gun held together!!). ...... This is from memory, all those old magazines are stored away and it would probably take me a week to find that one. Possibly someone has digitized those old mags and could retrieve it easier.


PS: There were deliberate blow up tests done by P. O. Ackley on various military rifles in the post WWII era. Massive over loads mainly though I think he also tried obstructions and oversize bullets too. It was widely reported that the Japanese rifles proved to be among the strongest rifle actions made taking ridiculous pressures before failing.
 
Idiots in the media. A bit redundant I guess. They are like Sgt Schulz. " I know nothing!"
 

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