I've been puttering around for a few months with reloads for my Swedish model 1867/89. My approach was incremental, start simple (i.e. cheap!) and work from there.
Results were OK for the first 5-10 shots, then accuracy went rapidly downhill, e.g. keyholing. Barrel was leading up. The powder speed didn't seem to make a big difference. I'd hoped that the faster powders would obdurate the bullets into the rifling and create a seal. POssibly seating the bullets into the lands would have provided a greater initial pressure peak to obdurate, but with those short cases and the apparent long throat, it didn't appear possible to seat those bullets against the lands.
One step I ought to have taken was to take a cast of the chamber.
After firing, the necks were blown out to about .330" ID, i.e. without neck-sizing, the bullets would fall right into the case.
I had the ladder rear sight at the 400m setting to shoot on target at 100 yards, so these are not flat trajectories. But if that's all I was after, I'd have bought a modern varmint rifle!
- Bought the gun and 8x56 Mannlicher brass from Tradex
- Slugged the barrel: rifling was .326-.327".
- Fire-formed the brass (Unique and corn meal)
- Bought a Lee mould (175gr .235"...), cast some bullets, lubed with Lee Alox. Lead was very soft, no idea of BHN, but I'd had excellent results with the same alloy in my m1867 12.7x44R.
- Found a cheap RCBS .325WSM die set for neck-sizing and bullet seating.
- Loaded said bullets with various combinations:
5-8 gr Trail Boss
7-12 gr Unique (with and without Dacron tuft for fill)
20-24 gr SR4759
20-25 gr H4198
and even 15-16gr H110 (with dacron tuft for fill)
Note that these had NO GAS CHECK. All bullets were crimped.7-12 gr Unique (with and without Dacron tuft for fill)
20-24 gr SR4759
20-25 gr H4198
and even 15-16gr H110 (with dacron tuft for fill)
Results were OK for the first 5-10 shots, then accuracy went rapidly downhill, e.g. keyholing. Barrel was leading up. The powder speed didn't seem to make a big difference. I'd hoped that the faster powders would obdurate the bullets into the rifling and create a seal. POssibly seating the bullets into the lands would have provided a greater initial pressure peak to obdurate, but with those short cases and the apparent long throat, it didn't appear possible to seat those bullets against the lands.
One step I ought to have taken was to take a cast of the chamber.
After firing, the necks were blown out to about .330" ID, i.e. without neck-sizing, the bullets would fall right into the case.
- Procured come 8mm gas checks.
- Also bought a Lee mould (205gr .329") and sizer.
- Put together more .325"-175gr bullets, lubed with gas checks.
- The .329" bullets wouldn't fit in cases neck-sized in the 325WSM seating die, so I used cases that were fired and not neck-sized, but...
- I realized .329" bullets are too thick to seat using the .325WSM die!
- Found a way to seat and crimp the .329" bullets, using my .32 S&W Long seating die!
I had the ladder rear sight at the 400m setting to shoot on target at 100 yards, so these are not flat trajectories. But if that's all I was after, I'd have bought a modern varmint rifle!
