I have used 45/90 but have not added any material ahed of the rim and foud the firing pin will not hit. Made up a collar which slips over case and slide it down to the rim which solved the problem but is a pain. Will modify rest of casses with a silver soldered ring. have also shot a couple of the factory dominion roads and had the rim separate and am glad I had glasses on.
1871 Mauser
- Thread starter 35Wailin
- Start date
Tinman, I would be VERY interested in your conversion tutorial. I'm going to use the proper head stamped brass to get me started, but by the sounds of everyone who has one, I think I will want to be shooting this. A lot. .45-90 might be a little easier to source and it also seems to be a little cheaper.
My Bertrams came in from Rusty Wood today. I'm going to have to trim open my Lee shell holder, but I managed to get one through the sizer die and bell out the mouth to get a bullet in for a mock up.
I can't wait to load them up and " 'Choot it!"
I can't wait to load them up and " 'Choot it!"
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Just for the hell of it the other day I took a few 300 Win Mag. brass I had laying around and did a bit of playing with them with an eye to forming them into usable cases for my 71 Mausers.I have a good assortment of tapered plugs and in combination with my 43 Mauser trim die and the expander plug with my die set I was able to make up some usable brass.Both of my rifles have extractors that just barely engage the rim on the cases and extracted the dummy rounds OK, I think I may make up a few live rounds to try out over the next little while and we'll see how they work in my rifles.If they are Ok that will be great if not when my stash craps out it'll be the Bertram's or the 45-90 route I guess.
I started priming a few cases with my press, as I don't have a shell holder for my hand primer. Fourth case, the lee shell holder snapped where it grabs the rim. Now I need to find an RCBS one. No choice.
I managed to load up one round with the broken shell holder, as it is simple entering the case and pushing it into the die.
Test fire next week...
I managed to load up one round with the broken shell holder, as it is simple entering the case and pushing it into the die.
Test fire next week...
I contacted Lee to have it replaced. Their website has a page where they say they have opened up the #18 shell holder (.43 Mauser) by 0.015". So it appears that they are awar of the tight fitting problem and have taken steps to correct it.
Here's hoping I don't have to modify the other 40 cases once I get my new shell holder.
Here's hoping I don't have to modify the other 40 cases once I get my new shell holder.
I bought an RCBS shell holder and loaded a few rounds.
I took it out for a spin... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Q3iW1ZGEI&feature=youtu.be
FUN!!! I can't wait to load more.
Bertram brass, CCI primer, 77 gr Goex FFg and a 370gr lead bullet.
I took it out for a spin... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Q3iW1ZGEI&feature=youtu.be
FUN!!! I can't wait to load more.
Bertram brass, CCI primer, 77 gr Goex FFg and a 370gr lead bullet.
This is what I do for both 43 Mauser and 8X58RD brass. The only downside is poor extraction but that's hardly an issue. On first firing make sure that the bullet is seated out enough that the cartridge is tight against the bolt head.
For sure, want to get this right first time around.Kind of wish now I would have hung onto that bucket of magnum brass I sold for scrap awhile ago.
A bit of an update to the above.I got a chance to head up to the North Bay,ON area this week for a few days.I brought along a couple of rifles to do some shooting with, one of them is one of two Model 71 Mausers I have. I thought I would try out some of those 43 Mauser rounds I made up on a test basis with some magnum brass I had kicking around. Here are a few of photos of some of the rounds and fired brass and rifle,
A bit of an update to the above.I got a chance to head up to the North Bay,ON area this week for a few days.I brought along a couple of rifles to do some shooting with, one of them is one of two Model 71 Mausers I have. I thought I would try out some of those 43 Mauser rounds I made up on a test basis with some magnum brass I had kicking around. Here are a few of photos of some of the rounds and fired brass and rifle,[/URL][/IMG][/URL][/IMG][/URL][/IMG] they worked OK and this rifle has just enough extractor to pull the fired case out.I think I'm going to go ahead and make up a few boxes based on this experience,certainly a good alternative in my opinion to very costly new made brass in this chambering.
That's very good to know. I've been making my 43 mauser from 45-90 brass but I have some 300 win mag kicking around.
I was bored as heck one day and decided to try this out on a handful of older magnum brass from my odds and sods bucket just to see what was involved.Wasn't really that much work for me as I have lots of different expander plugs that made the process easier.I think though that the use of 458 Magnum brass would work out a bit easier as there would be a couple less steps on the necking up,at least the way I do it because I was afraid of split necks going up too much at once.Both of my Mausers work ok as they have enough extractor(barely) to work with the final result,others may not but I don't think that would be a major problem,maybe a bit of an inconvenience.
This project is becoming a bit more important to me as my supply of original Dominion/CIL brass is dwindling down mostly due to cracks in the head area.In fact one of the handful of Dominion brass reloads on this outing cracked across the head.Last year on one of my 43 Mauser shoots I had a complete casehead separation which happened first shot of the day and that was it,had to go home and dig her out,that was a bit frustrating to say the least.
By the way, the idea for this project came from none other than that crafty ol' guy Smellie.
This project is becoming a bit more important to me as my supply of original Dominion/CIL brass is dwindling down mostly due to cracks in the head area.In fact one of the handful of Dominion brass reloads on this outing cracked across the head.Last year on one of my 43 Mauser shoots I had a complete casehead separation which happened first shot of the day and that was it,had to go home and dig her out,that was a bit frustrating to say the least.
By the way, the idea for this project came from none other than that crafty ol' guy Smellie.
So far, so good. Only fired 2. They will not hold the bullets for the second load, but my rifle slugs out at .451" and the bullets I have are .439", so I'm not really surprised. I loaded the other cases with the .439 bullets and they hold fine. I'll get another 50 of the .439s and paper patch them until I can get a proper sized mold to proper sized bullets.
I had never fired BP and I was curious what it smelled like. Not sure how I feel about it. I like the smell of shotgun powders. My rifle powders smell acidic after firing, I don't really like the smell of rifle powders. That being said, I want to go out and smell the BP again. I have 48 rounds ready...
