Mauser VZ24 project: 22-250 to 358 Win ...

wquiles

Well-Known Member
OK, with the barrel out, I took the 30 cal pure lead wire, pounded it to make it fater, and feed it through my .3599" sizing die, and then from the chamber side lightly tapped until I got a solid impression of the throat area (see Ian, I "am" listening and learning - keep the advice coming buddy!):
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The "best" thing about this throat is that from trying to use my micrometer to measure the exact OD at the throat, it feels to me that it is tapered - it is not a hard transition at all to the bore. The bore is more or less right at .358-ish:
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But the throat is, depending on how light I can try (since it is a taper), right around .360-ish:
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I tried to take a good close-up of the throat. I hope you can see the smooth transition to the bore:
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If what I am measuring/seeing is correct, this would explain why Jessy's rebores shoot so well with cast bullets :)
 
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wquiles

Well-Known Member
That looks very nice! I can imagine you are looking forward to shooting it :)
You know it :)


OK, assembly:
20190922_102715.jpg


Moly Resin is self-lubricating, but I still put a little bit of this:
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Torque/align with the mark Jessy made:
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Re-install Timney trigger:
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Outdoor pictures:
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wquiles

Well-Known Member
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With the steel scope mount, total weight is 7.22 pounds - "almost" like a Scout rifle :) :
20190922_111315.jpg


Now to start assembling some dummy rounds to check if everything works OK :)
 
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fiver

Well-Known Member
I can see the freebore and the angle.
but I'm not positive if some of the rifling comes all the way back to the case mouth or if it all stops in the free bore section.

Ian.
is there a 35 silhouette bullet?
I'm positive that one or a modified 165-A type would do real nice here.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I saw the same thing about the grooves not being cleaned out by the throat part of the reamer but I didn't want to continue my reputation of raining on everyone's parades here lately so I didn't mention it. It probably won't be a problem anyway unless it causes the bullet to get washed out a little before engraving, but I'd like to see it cleaned up to a smooth cylinder or at least smooth cone at the entrance. That radius at the entrance is very nice.

My only question is what the "practical" throat entrance diameter really is, especially if the grooves are larger than the end of the straight tapered part. That makes me wonder if the grooves are .360" after all or if the groove depth actually increases a little at the the throat too.

The Lee 200-grain bullet has a short parallel bore section and ought to be about perfect for this...except it casts about .3585". Tom at Accurate can cut a sillywet style .35 caliber easy peasy.
 
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wquiles

Well-Known Member
Modified my bullet seating die for the "fat" .360" bullets:
20190922_162323.jpg

And after some trial and error, got to an COL of about 2.445" with the PC-coated Lee 220gr bullets - before Lee Factory Crimp:
20190922_180742.jpg


And with a very light touch of the Lee FCD:
20190922_180922.jpg


Those were the PC boolits I had trouble with earlier, with the humidity/contamination, but I figured to get the rifle going, initial targets, etc., why not shoot them down range? :)

I had family visiting today so outside of the dummy rounds, I didn't have time to actually assemble my first loads for the rifle. Hope to make a few rounds to try the "new" rifle soon.
 

wquiles

Well-Known Member
For starting loads, looking at Quickload data, and some of the older Lyman manuals, I have some options here for the Lee 200gr GC PC bullet:

1) Trailboss: 100% load density - 14-15gr - 1338-1389 fps (about 30kpsi chamber)

2) GreenDot: 11-13 gr - 1369-1498 fps (26-33kpsi)

3) Unique: 11-14gr - 1369-1568fps (21-31kpsi)

This is of course with the 14.7" barreled portion of the 16" barrel.

Any tips/advice on which to try first?
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
your not gonna see much difference between green-dot and unique.

I've never tried going that slow with my 358.
I took the rifle out of the box and started right in with Jacketed loads.
I never changed anything after doing a small ladder test, settling down on 48.5gr of RL-19 with the saeco 250gr bullet.
the combination shoots the same group size and pretty much in the same place with 50grs or any amount anywhere in between the two.
I went with the lower amount mainly because the velocity was also about the same and really started to flat line above 50grs.


anyway:
if you plan on hunting with the rifle I'd look at something in the 1900 fps area using a slower powder and go with that.
if your looking at paper punching use the faster powders and lower amounts.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
here is how I'd choose.

Plan A.
find that one leftover powder I got about 1/2 lb of and go shoot it.
then complain they quit making it in 1986 ]Alcan NO-5, win-680] and then go look again and try another one.

Plan B.
look in the powder cabinets and see I have 16-48lbs of something and go hey I got a lot of this I ain't using let's burn some up.

or Plan C.
find that one 8lb jug of powder you bought just so you didn't run out during the Obama [or Clinton] administration and start with it, saving the 1/2 lb. of powder in that cool looking can from plan A.
 

Ian

Notorious member
For punching paper suppressed I don't know why you'd ever want to go past 1050 fps.

Any of the LONG BURNING but fast pistol powders such as Bullseye or Titegroup are your friend here. Red dot, Clays, and Titewad are much more "peaky" and can rivet the bullet bases by the time you get to even the speed of sound. But really anything will work that will burn efficiently in the system at the pressures you load it to.

After a lot of experimentation I settled on 6.5 grains of Titegroup under a 225-grain bullet in my 20" suppressed .308 and all you hear is the lock noise and the bolt lugs click tight as the primer goes off. Learning to gauge the wind at 100 yards with these subsonic loads is great fun, and they are extremely accurate for me.
 

wquiles

Well-Known Member
Ian, that is about 20%-ish load density. Did you use anything to hold down the powder in place, or made any effort to level the charge against the primer before each shot?

I don't have Bullseye, not Titegroup, but do have Green Dot, and TrailBoss. Looking at TrailBoss, which is of course slower burning than TiteGroup, I came up with 6.7gr at 60% load density, and about 1021fps from my shorty barrel on QuickLoad.
 

Ian

Notorious member
That's the thing about Titegroup and Bullseye: Forget about load density, it doesn't matter. Some other fast powders are like that too. When you get down around Unique's burning range, position sensitivity shows up in a big way with light loads. Clays is also a little sensitive to location within the case, but Red Dot not so much. Red Dot is like straight Dynamite, I don't like it. It peaks the pressure almost instantly and is gone just as fast, but isn't all that clean-burning either. I have no experience with Green Dot but if that's what you got, for sure give it a go.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
use red-dot data for the green-dot if you can't find data for it.
or split the difference between red-dot and unique.
it will probably leave a little stuff behind too [shrug] it doesn't hurt anything.