A few years back, I purchased a French Berthier rifle with a 'cut-down' stock.
I quickly obtained a missing action-screw to get it in shooting condition. Range results were promising, but, I shot up all my ammo and put the rifle on the 'back burner'.

I finally found a front barrel-band last year.
I recently gave up on finding a complete stock and bought a large piece of walnut and have started making a replacement forearm (to splice under the rear barrel-band).

I ordered some supplies from Graff's, last week, and a set of Lee "8X50R Lebel" Dies, 8mm bullets & brass (PPU), arrived today.

I will update as things progress.

BTW - I don't have any trouble seeing the Berthier's front "blade"!
 

Another closet 8MM Lebel Berthier shooter speaks out.

For a long time I have scrounged the odd (old) partial box of Remington UMC ammo at gun shows. Pulled them apart for the brass and 170 Gr 8MM factory bullets. Tried the 198 Gr BTHP bullets for the Military load. Yikes! way to stiff for my liking especially in the carbine.

Working on cast bullet load with an old Lyman mold I have. This is two 5 shoot groups with the Berthier Carbine.

I have had an interest in the Berthier, since my teen years, when a friend inherited a three-shot Ste. Etienne made carbine.
We never got to fire it because the ammo was a collector's item. But, the petite carbine was a cool piece of machining and fun to handle!

I never fired an arm, chambered for the 8X50R cartridge, until the Prvi Partisan factory ammo came onto the U.S. market.
The Prvi (Full Metal Jacket) factory rounds, I have measured, appear to have a .327" projectile.

In the last 12 years, I have owned and fired a couple of nice Berthier carbines, which I 'flipped' for a good profit.

I briefly had a 'cut-down' (Remington made) Berthier rifle that was too altered for 'reasonable' restoration. I sold it, for what I paid.

My project Berthier rifle was built at Chatellerault, in 1917. Although the rifle received the (post WW-1) "N" chamber alteration, it has proved to be the most accurate Berthier, I have fired.

The Prvi 198 grain soft-nosed projectiles, I purchased, are measuring a maximum diameter of .325". It remains to be seen, how they perform. This is my first experience reloading this cartridge.

Although a .325" diameter bullet appears to be undersized for French rifle bores, on the "Gunboards Forum", knowledgeable participants have reported good success and accuracy with .323" diameter bullets of U.S. manufacture.

I slugged the bore of my Berthier, today. The four-groove rifling measures .318" from Land to Land and .329" from Groove to Groove.

We'll see how the Prvi .325" diameter (jacketed-SP) projectile performs.