In the early 1880s velocity was being squeezed from compressed blackpowder pellets. This old powder fouled rifle chambers, obscured targets and gave away positions. A French Chemist named Vieille discovered a smokeless powder which did not fowl, had low pressures and produced high velocities. It was obtained from gun cotton and revolutionized the arms industry. Soon many other countries followed suit, both Germany and Britain developed their own smokeless propellents.
The French employed the new propellent in their new 8x50R Lebel round. The round employed a pointed, cased bullet. There was fear that this round, when used in a tubular magazine, might strike the primer in front of it if the rifle was subjected to a serious jolt. For this reason the cartridge was given a severe bottle form and a large rim. This, it was felt, lessoned many of the possible risks. While it worked well in Tubular magazines, the cartridge rims tended to stick together and jam in box magazines. Thus when the French adopted a magazine capable of utilizing clips, they chose the Manlicher style clip. Unlike a sripper clip, the whole clip was placed in the magazine, and when the last cartridge was fired, the clip was dropped through a trap door infront of the trigger gaurd. This dis-allowed any topping off of the magazine with single rounds. This system lessoned the possiblity of jams with the rimmed round, but for reasons already mentioned, was inconvenient. The French would not gain a traditional boxed magazine until they discarded the 8mm for the 7.5 in the late 1930s.
Much 8mm Lebel ammo can still be found at gun shows and it makes a great accesory to your French 8mm rifle. While much of the surplus ammunition on the market today, despite being 50 years old and corrosive is perfectly good, I would caution against firing some of the 8mm lebel available today. Most of it, like those in the picture, is headstamped CP 2 F 48 and is a little strong for your rifle, unless it is Ball N proof marked. It is possible to reload for the 8x50 R round, but we at the underground have not yet tried it, though we will soon and report back. Until then, a usefull site for 8x50 R reloading and general data can be found at the Berthier home page. |
