Holy TUMBLING!

[yorgi]

My friend, who lives in Germany, recently bought a milsurp Steyr (M1903) in 6.5X54 MS. The only ammo he could find, for now, was a 20+ year batch made by RWS.

Below, is a pic of his first 100m "grouping".Would you say that it's time for a new barrel, or should he try shooting again, with another brand of ammunition?

 

[OneBarfly]

He needs to slug the bore to determine the proper bullet size. Should also confirm twist rate and bullet weight. Something is wrong here.

 

[maynard]

The bullet is too heavy for the twist rate. but there is also a chance of the wrong caliber altogether. I saw this happen once when a guy fired .30/30 out of a .32 Special

 

[green]

Most of the MS military rifles I have examined have poor bores which can cause tumbling. The military MS was made for a 156 gr bt.

 

[Claven2]

Are you sure the rifle is still in 6.5MS? Mabe it's rebarelled in a wildcat like 7mm MS or 8x54MS?

 

[yorgi]

Thank you for your excellent input guys.

I've forwarded all your tips and suggestions to my buddy, as soon as I hear from him I'll post his response.

 

[10x]

There are a number of things that cause tumbling. Bullet diameter not matching bore, bullet weight too low to stablize with twist of rifling, and a bad crown at the muzzle. Or the rifling washed out by a cleaning rod at the muzzle will cause tumbling.

Also if the bullets have bases that are corroded or are damaged, that will cause a tumble as well.
Or any combination of the above.

I have several rifles that tumble some cast bullets and I can NOT figure out why. They handle jacketed bullets just fine.

 

[Levi Garrett]

Thats Awesome groups pretty good to.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

Yugo Steyr captures were rebored to 7.9x57mm Mauser IIRC for standardization. He could be throwing little bullets down a big bore.

 

[Gibbs505]

Hey, that looks neat!