Swedish Mauser!

[Bret4207]

good shooting!!!!!!

i still have to do my richard's gun stock on the 1916 Spanish Mauser in 6.5x55 swede ( https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/726180A ) after muzzleloader season.

i have a bunch of 120 or 140gr sst( or are they nosler bt?). what i don't have is brass. i'm going to make 6.5x55 from '06 brass.

It's nice to see a "normal" looking shop, complete with radial arm saw! Some guys here are so neat and organized it makes my skin crawl! I'd feel right at home in your place...not sure if that's good or bad...

 

[todd]

off to right of that picture i have a drill press, bandsaw, a tabletop sander and a tabletop saw. to the left, under the leaf type tabletop cloth is a tabletop jointer. the picture was taken on my workbench, not a good place to be!!!!!

 

[Ian]

Heading out with 30 grains in a little bit.....should be about 2225 fps. Wish me luck.

 

[462]

Luck!

 

[Ian]

Thank you.

Didn't chronograph. Quickload says 2,244 FPS at the muzzle. 207,000 RPM.

 

[Spindrift]

Wonderful!
That takes more than luck. Good work!

 

[PAT303]

So 3031 unavailable in Australia but Benchmark 2 has the same burning rate, is worth buying a tub?

 

[Bret4207]

Just got to start fine tuning it now. Excellent!

 

[Ian]

So 3031 unavailable in Australia but Benchmark 2 has the same burning rate, is worth buying a tub?

I'm not familiar with that powder. 3031 gives a very gentle pressure rise behind cast bullets in medium rifle cases, yet delivers outstanding velocity potential at low peak pressure and low muzzle pressure compared to just about any other powder available. Its cousins 4320 and 4064 spike terribly yet delivers about the same end result, with 4320 being the most spikey. Even IMR 4350, which is several clicks slower than 3031, peaks pressure nearly half the distance to the chamber for same peak pressure level and nearly same velocity as 3031 and has much more muzzle pressure left over.

That said, any single-base medium stick powder you can get your hands on should work OK with powder coated bullets in the Swede. I would caution against ball powders unless using actual jacketed load levels for the equivalent weight bullets. My 30 grain load of 3031 is only predicted to produce 33K PSI, which may or may not be safe with spherical ball powders in the medium-slow burn range.

 

[PAT303]

I've had the best luck with AR2206H, which is 4895 in your neck of the woods. http://www.adiworldclass.com.au/burning-rates/

 

[Ian]

Today I scrounged around and managed to come up with barely ten more aged, powder-coated bullets from the cull pile. All had pinhole voids and/or large sprue tear-outs, but I wanted chronograph data for a new powder that I had modeled for lowest pressure and longest curve at or just over 2400 fps.

Here's the model:



And the target. First five from mildly cleaned barrel for a group (having trouble with waxed stock on denim bag but I got it settled down), then five more for the chronograph. Had to pull one bullet as I made a seating depth adjustment and it the bullet was loose in the neck afterwards, it dropped to 2385 and printed in the black circle so I deleted it from the string.



The four into 1-5/8":



224,767 RPM.....I need to sort and coat some more bullets and get them aging and try this again.

 

[Spindrift]

Awesome results with culls!
I realize I’ve done much to little HV testing with PC bullets in the 6,5s. Time to load some ammo!

 

[Bret4207]

Holy crap guy! That's great! That tighter group with the barrel mounted chrono makes me recall those barrel tuning devices that were all the rage for a while. Your groups make me think there may be something to it.

It's funny, but I've had ugly "culled" bullets shoot tighter groups than the nice ones on many occasions. Weird how that works, but then we can't see inside the casting. Well done!

 

[Maven]

John Alexander, president of the CBA has also reported that Brett.

All, Before I forget my manners, Merry Xmas!

 

[Ian]

The thought occurred to me, Bret and Maven, but I really think in this particular situation it was me letting the rifle slip on the bags...or at least that's what I think because shots 2 and 3 were relative flyers and after rearranging the bags it settled back down. As far as cull bullets go, I have seen definite flyer tendencies when a big base void collapses but it is so tedious and difficult to recover each bullet after each shot for examination that my data points are small.

I know John is very interested in positively identifying causes of cast bullet group inconsistencies (aren't we all?), but the more we try to nail down facts, the more we find exceptions or the great muddler: IT DEPENDS.

One thing I find which so far has NO exceptions whwn the bullet is allowed to jump a little is how a case will throw a shot significantly out of the group if the neck tension is less than the average by enough to feel it in the press handle.

 

[Bret4207]

I've been accused of being brutal when I cull visually. But dang it, after seeing those beauties Ben produces I know what I want them to look like!

Seriously though, I think internal voids show up more when greater pressures are applied. I kinda think maybe that's part of why "low node" stuff is easier to get decent grouping with than faster stuff. Others have likely noted this in far more eloquent/scientific terms than I can years back, but I think that's where weighing each bullet, which I hate and avoid doing, would likely pay off.

 

[Ian]

I didn't weight sort any of these, either.

 

[Bret4207]

Just sayin' that is about the only other thing we can do besides visual culling.

 

[Spindrift]

I don’t weigh bullets either, only visual inspection. And I pay attention when sizing the bullets. If a bullet offers much more resistance through the sizer than the others, I consider it probably larger/out-of-round, and cull it.

 

[Ian]

Pushed it on up to 39.6 grains of Hybrid 100V today, barrel got hot fast!

First two almost touching, third made it 7/8", then the scatter happened. It is what it is. 11.6 SD before the last shot with a sizzling barrel, gained 40 fps, yawed, and went high right. Bumping 2500 fps/230,000 RPM with a 162-grain cast bullet. That's getting close to pressure limits and I got about all I want to get out of her speed-wise. I may try swabbing between shots and using a light coat of BLL over the PC.