JWFilips
Well-Known Member
Well Folks,
I completed another "learning experience" this month! I have been working on issues with my 1916 Spanish Mauser ( got it as a gift from my friend, and member here: Brian Palmer this past March)
After very serious scrubbing of the bore I realized it was never going to be a 7x57 ....but finally ended up a 7.5mm x 57 and even then the barrel is still very rough.. Still in all I decided to glass bed and refinish the stock.
The only bullets that I had any success ( somewhat) was some gifted NOE 293-170 FN bullets unsized at .2945" and hand applied thin 7mm gas checks that I crimped on to their bases with a piece of steel having a tapered hole.
I got these to shoot about 4" at 50 yds then I added a Williams receiver sight and shrunk the groups to 3" After the 1st 10 rounds this went down hill.
A pound test showed a very conical throat starting at .2965" That explained why even with gas checks I was getting leading.
I wasn't about to get a custom mould for a rifle I would shoot occasionally (with a rough bore)
Then I asked Ben if he thought I could hone out a cheap Lee .285-130 mould to .296"+
He said it would be a lot of work and probably out of round but it may be possible. With his guidance I started into the project.
I had in my shop some 340 industrial diamond grit that I thought may make for faster cutting ( although I could have used valve lapping compound).
After spinning up the first set of bullets and cleaning the mould and recasting it was apparent I would need at least 4 sessions of honing to get where I wanted to be.
After one very long day and 4 honing sessions later I cast up some bullets and measured them.
It looked like the front cavity ended up being .297 to .299" the rear cavity coming in at .296 to .298"
If I didn't size these I felt they would shot however there was no chance of getting gas checks on their bases now! I use a 7.5 MM drill bit to plain base both cavities a'la Ben's method and polished up the bases bringing both to about about .298" At this point I was using the "Not Rocket Science" mind set!
Since I couldn't wait I loaded 50 rounds of the 3 day old air cooled new bullets.
I had these 2 bullets divided up into front and back cavity groups and also weighed into .3 grain groups
Selecting the front cavity group first ( lubed with Ben's Red and BLL) my first shot went high the next 9 seemed to group rather well in just about 1 3/4 " I was very excited!
After that the next 10 shot group got bigger then I couldn't keep anything on paper. Went home and started to clean the bore and it was fully plated with lead. It took days to get it completely clean so at that point I gave up!
It wasn't long before I got the crazy Idea that before I packed it back into the safe I should give that
PC coating crap a try! I had nothing to loose and I vowed to use the cheapest start up I could.
Some of you guys here gave me a few suggestions....so I took them and a few grains of salt and ended up after my 3 batch with good shootable PC coated bullets!
They seem to "chamber" & shoot very well after I figured out I needed to size the bullets to .298" So I made a new piece of steel that has a longer tapered hole that terminates at .298" It is a pain tapping the bullets through nose first with a wooded mallet and brass rod but I proved a point that I can get it to shoot now!
Below are two of my most recent targets. The second one was shot after 30 rounds before so I cured the bore deterioration problem.
At this point I feel I can say goodbye to 2017 knowing I got this rifle to shoot as good as it can after all her years.
Jim
I completed another "learning experience" this month! I have been working on issues with my 1916 Spanish Mauser ( got it as a gift from my friend, and member here: Brian Palmer this past March)
After very serious scrubbing of the bore I realized it was never going to be a 7x57 ....but finally ended up a 7.5mm x 57 and even then the barrel is still very rough.. Still in all I decided to glass bed and refinish the stock.
The only bullets that I had any success ( somewhat) was some gifted NOE 293-170 FN bullets unsized at .2945" and hand applied thin 7mm gas checks that I crimped on to their bases with a piece of steel having a tapered hole.
I got these to shoot about 4" at 50 yds then I added a Williams receiver sight and shrunk the groups to 3" After the 1st 10 rounds this went down hill.
A pound test showed a very conical throat starting at .2965" That explained why even with gas checks I was getting leading.
I wasn't about to get a custom mould for a rifle I would shoot occasionally (with a rough bore)
Then I asked Ben if he thought I could hone out a cheap Lee .285-130 mould to .296"+
He said it would be a lot of work and probably out of round but it may be possible. With his guidance I started into the project.
I had in my shop some 340 industrial diamond grit that I thought may make for faster cutting ( although I could have used valve lapping compound).
After spinning up the first set of bullets and cleaning the mould and recasting it was apparent I would need at least 4 sessions of honing to get where I wanted to be.
After one very long day and 4 honing sessions later I cast up some bullets and measured them.
It looked like the front cavity ended up being .297 to .299" the rear cavity coming in at .296 to .298"
If I didn't size these I felt they would shot however there was no chance of getting gas checks on their bases now! I use a 7.5 MM drill bit to plain base both cavities a'la Ben's method and polished up the bases bringing both to about about .298" At this point I was using the "Not Rocket Science" mind set!
Since I couldn't wait I loaded 50 rounds of the 3 day old air cooled new bullets.
I had these 2 bullets divided up into front and back cavity groups and also weighed into .3 grain groups
Selecting the front cavity group first ( lubed with Ben's Red and BLL) my first shot went high the next 9 seemed to group rather well in just about 1 3/4 " I was very excited!
After that the next 10 shot group got bigger then I couldn't keep anything on paper. Went home and started to clean the bore and it was fully plated with lead. It took days to get it completely clean so at that point I gave up!
It wasn't long before I got the crazy Idea that before I packed it back into the safe I should give that
PC coating crap a try! I had nothing to loose and I vowed to use the cheapest start up I could.
Some of you guys here gave me a few suggestions....so I took them and a few grains of salt and ended up after my 3 batch with good shootable PC coated bullets!
They seem to "chamber" & shoot very well after I figured out I needed to size the bullets to .298" So I made a new piece of steel that has a longer tapered hole that terminates at .298" It is a pain tapping the bullets through nose first with a wooded mallet and brass rod but I proved a point that I can get it to shoot now!
Below are two of my most recent targets. The second one was shot after 30 rounds before so I cured the bore deterioration problem.
At this point I feel I can say goodbye to 2017 knowing I got this rifle to shoot as good as it can after all her years.
Jim
