Bullet for the M39

Ian

Notorious member
So how do I take the throat engraving and turn it into the static fit of this bullet? I get why I should, and I will, but will it aid in the final design of this bullet or is it a learning experience?

Both. You now have several slightly different bullet designs that fall within the same narrow window of weight, and samples of most of them cast from two different alloys (except the 188G, I think you only have those in AC 50/50 alloy, but you can heat treat it). Put together a load for several of the ACWW samples and see how each nose design compares (use something like Unique or 2400), then try the WD50/50 samples using slower powder pushed a little harder (4895, 4064, h335, etc., use your imagination). You should be able to size most of those to .311" for an apples-to-apples test, and most of the ones already sized, checked, and lubed are around .311". I provided some extra gas checks for the as-cast 190X bullets because your AL checks won't work very well on that rebated shank.

The point is to ink and tap a few to see how your particular rifle "accepts" the bullets into the throat, what part touches first, did they go straight or were you able to tap them in crooked, etc., then go shoot them and see how they do in the real world, and how the different designs compare to each other in your rifle. You should start to see trends and begin to understand which shape your rifle likes best, and then you can fine-tune seating depth of the better-shooting ones to see where to put the crimp groove, how long to make the front band, what angle to make the nose-to-front-band transition, how big to make the nose at the base of the ogive, how long to make the bullet in the neck, how long your nose can be over-all, and all those other little details. You can guess like I have, and the rest of us can help you guess, or you can take what you have now and actually find out for sure how to design a bullet that your rifle will like.