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I found a thread on this from 2004/2005:
Thread

I hope our Central European friends might be able to help me on this.
Bear with me, please, this is a long post.

I've been looking at a suitable calibre for a lever action rifle which does not have a tubular magazine, in practice the Win m/1895.
For my hunting purposes .338 or 8mm (.323) would be ideal as the game is rather big, mainly elk.
I'm unwilling to go below the .30 calibre but also reluctant to go beyond the 9,3mm (.366) as I'm recoil shy. In bolt action, I've been happy shooting 9,3x62 and my Winchester is chambered for 8,2x53R, i.e. a necked up 7,62x53R. I shoot 200grs (13g) Sako Hammerhead ammo.
(Note to American readers: I live in Europe so 8mm bullet availabiliy is no problem.)

In looking at alternatives I came across the 8x65RS but no rifles chambered for it. Rather the European singles, doubles and drillings come in 8x75RS.
Question: why?
The 65 seems very potent to me, and the 75 is awfully long. OK, in a break-open action it matters little, but still.
Also, where the devil do you find this ammo? Even RWS doesn't load it.

My other alternative has been the 8x57IRS but it has it's limitations. Sako loads the 8,2x53R stronger, and RWS's load for the IRS is the same as Sako's so the IRS does not grow very much upwards.
The 65 and 75 would: they'd have a flatter trajectory and/or shoot heavier bullets such as 220grs or 250grs well suited for heavy game and short ranges.
My concern is that they might not fit into the Win action. The .30-06's max. lenght is 84.8mm and that of .405 Win is 80.6mm whereas the 75's max lenght is 96mm. Same problem with the 9,3x74R: max. length is 94.5mm.

As to "why not the 9,3x74R, then?": no reason at all! But on that note, any other ideas besides the obvious .30R Blaser? I'm not keen to go down to 7mm.
If we were to wildcat, then to neck up the Blaser to .338 would be interesting, indeed...

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