The Basement Articles: The Paper Jacket

[Ian]

Wow that is a long way to the rifling. About what my grandfather's old 270 looks like. I need to do the same for it.

Buy a Midsouth Cruise Missile mould and make sure it casts .2715" with water-quenched WW. Two wraps and a twist of 100% cotton Vellum graph paper, lube with JPW. If any of the bullet sticks below the neck when seated to engrave the patch pretty snugly, mill the gas check shank, rear band, and last lube groove off the top of the mould to make a 140-grainer. Use starting 150-grain jacketed loads of RX-22 or any similar magnum rifle powder and work up. BPI shredded buffer helps here but you have to be super-careful with how much you use. Should be good for MOA at least until you run out of pressure headroom around 2750 fps.

 

[freebullet]

Thank you. I'll put that mold on my list. I'll be ordering several others this spring & hope to try this then .

I'm curious why the difference in papers?

 

[Ian]

Patch integrity, I think. Don't take it as a general rule, some people have gone over 3k with Green Bar which is tough but not THAT tough and it's worked fine. I had to go with the really tough rag paper in my .270 (hard to wrap, too) to keep patches from disintegrating in the barrel and causing some particularly horrific leading. Sometimes a load will shoot well if there's nothing but a puff of microscopic fibers coming out of the muzzle, sometimes it works better if there's a big cloud of confetti because the patch stayed together better. This is where the espearmentin part comes in!

 

[freebullet]

Got it!
The rifle is a 1957 remington 760. Was grandads last new rifle purchase and he used it to hunt deer & coyotes around Palmer NE until he could no longer.

My father bought it and proceeded to shoot yotes with it heavily through the 70's. The problem is my uncle was making his ammo & with the beer they drank it must have seemed appropriate to fill that long case full of 4895 and ram a bullet on as much as possible. I fired one of the left over loads. It didn't show pressure signs but was way over the top of anything factory ammo offers.

I resurrected it about 2008 and had it shooting Jax into a rough 6"@200yards which is real bad but, it allowed my wife to use it. She shot her first 3 bucks with it, however the accuracy has continued to degrade. We don't shoot it much now.

I have the rcbs 150 mold, a bunch of checks, & a 278 push through die. Due to the throat my first dummy rounds prove it will need to be loaded longer then mag length it's likely pp will be too.

I'm ok with single loading just to keep using it. Eventually I'll have it refinished or have to leave it in the safe & I can't do that very long.

 

[S Mac]

Thanks for mentioning O'rielly's auto Ian, said something to our delivery driver this morning and he just brought me a few sheets. One part of the puzzle.

 

[Ian]

Awesome. Little industry secret there.

 

[JWFilips]

Ian...I have nothing & your post speaks a lot! to me Now just to find my magic co-ifficentt !

 

[S Mac]

Ian, I think your suggestion about using my Lyman sizer as a nose first push through is going to work for me, but the bullets I have wanting to size are too hard, I'm afraid I'm going to break something, even taking 3 steps, .309, .306, .3015. Maybe I need to cast some 50/50 instead of ww? I have A Lyman 311466 that I want to try, these were cast a couple of years ago and they are pretty tough.

 

[Rick]

S Mac, try annealing them. Place them on a tray in an oven set to about 400 degrees & leave them for an hour. Leave the bullets in the oven and turn it off, leave the bullets in the oven until they are at room temp. They will be as soft as that alloy can get. After sizing if you want or need the hardness just heat treat them though I wouldn't think you need to if your paper patching.

 

[Ian]

If they're that difficult to size they're likely way too hard for what you're wanting to do with them. Rick has a good idea there with annealing them. Near-pure lead in the 6-ish BHN range is good to 2200 fps in .270 and .30 caliber, I can assure you. 14 BHN WW metal is good to over 2700 fps.

 

[S Mac]

Annealing them would be a good plan, but I only have a handful of these cast right now. I'll just cast some fresh with a softer alloy, maybe they won't cast quite as large also.

 

[S Mac]

So I'm still trying to work up my sizing dies, I did break the handle on my 4500 trying to do it 3 steps, even with some fresh cast 50/50. So I'm working up a another die, .309, .3065, .3045, .3022, and .3015. The final 2 are because I'm not sure what the final step will need to be. A fired case measures .310+ with my calipers. i'haven't tried rolling the greenbar paper yet, can I assume it is .008 with 2 wraps wrapping wet? I'm hoping to load fired cases, no sizing. Suggestions?

 

[Brad]

That kind of sizing is what Lee push thru dies are made for. Your loading press can handle the stress. A little case size lube helps a bunch too.

 

[S Mac]

Your right Brad, but I bought several blank dies the perfessor sold a while back and a poor man has poor ways.

 

[Ian]

I bought one of the sets with four calibers of push rods from Keith's first run, before he lost his foot. It's a great tool, just mount it in a press and use RCBS or Lyman H-dies.

Brad's right, roll those bullets on a case lube pad and get busy. That's how I do a lot of my rifle bullets after pre-seating gas checks, then into the 45 with same size die just to apply lube.

 

[JWFilips]

Ian,
I have sinned!
I took a chance on a slightly smaller "Core" sized bullet then bore ( because it was convenient) But the paper patch wraps I was happy with ( including the final sizing)
Loaded 10 Fired 10 and that Is all I needed to see! A shotgun pattern at 50 yards from my JP Sauer mauser! It shot better then that before the fire lapping.
Yes I definitely need bore /core at .317" New Lee die on the way to Hand lap!
Jim

 

[Ian]

Heheh! See, now you don't have to take my word for it, and if someone asks you about sub-bore-diameter cores for smokeless powder loads, you can advise them with first-hand experience.

My general guideline for both bullet hardness and core size is I should be able to poke a sized core into the muzzle nose first, stick a quarter on the base, and push it in flush with about all the force I can muster with my thumbs stacked together while standing over the rifle with the butt on the floor.

 

[JWFilips]

My general guideline for both bullet hardness and core size is I should be able to poke a sized core into the muzzle nose first, stick a quarter on the base, and push it in flush with about all the force I can muster with my thumbs stacked together while standing over the rifle with the butt on the floor.

Ian,
That is something I will remember Good method.
I think what is was ..was an itch to try to make them ( more then shoot them) just to see how I do at it. Took me awhile But I got the hang of it & rolled 10 good ones ( patch wise}......then I made the mistake to trying to shoot them!

 

[KHornet]

Tried paper patching, lot of effort, didn't care for it don't have much patients. Probably great for some people, not for me.

 

[Ian]

The most difficult part for me is figuring out the components needed and cutting the patches. Once I get the patch size and shape worked out, I tend to cut a whole bunch of them, like 500+ at a time because it's too difficult to ever get the exact same setup on my cutting board guides again. The actual wrapping is the easy part.