More Swiss 1882 cartridge ideas...

Well even 308 bullets when fired will expand in the forcing cone and will get swaged down to proper size. I will not be overly concerned with this.
After a while reloading this cartridge I see no real benefit for me to use anything bigger than 308. I use 7.62 sizing die for resizing my brass and the cases sit properly in the cylinders.
Once again, just my opinion.
 
Use lead .314" and there will be no worries. The factory military BP cartidges as a larger diameter and are true FMJ's. .308" shoots ok, but not as accurate in my revolver.

Load at your own risk and comfort level. For an 1892 thin strap, I would keep loads under 800 fps.
 
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Yeah I bought a .30 Carbine resizing die.
A 3 die set of .30 Luger for the expander and seating.
And now I ordered a .32 S&W crimp die.
So now I'll be using 4 dies from 3 different calibers to reload it.
Oh well it's why antiques are a challenge! I think I've figured it out though.
 
trial and error. It seems that no die combination is right for every person.

I have found that 30 Carbine resizing die, 30 Luger expander die, and 30 Luger seating die works best for me... using .314" lead bullets.

As noted by drslav above, .312" S&W Long bullets also work ok.

Enjoy the revolver, they're exceptionally accurate and nice to shoot!
 
Interesting results at the range today.
I tried my 7.5mm reloads with unique powder.
The bullet is a cast 96gr dry lubed SWC sized .313, the cases are .32-20 trimmed to 23mm.
2.5gr Unique -av. 465 fps
2.8gr Unique -av. 525 fps
3.0gr Unique -av. 675 fps

The velocities in the lower powder charges were all over the place. With 3.0 they tightened up quite a bit to an e.s of 62 fps
The cases were quite dirty from soot running halfway down the case at the lower charges, at 3.0 the soot was only around the case mouth.
The revolver printed about 8" high and 3" right at 15 yds with all loads.

Tomorrow I'm going to try 3.2gr over the chrono and as long as I'm still below 750fps I'll shoot some benched groups and see how the old girl does.
If it continues to shoot so high I might try some lighter 71gr .32 auto bullets higher speed loads to bring it down
 
Interesting results. I have found Trail Boss to exceptionally clean burning, at any charge.

The "sweet spot" (for me) in terms of accuracy and velocity is 3.1-3.3 grains of Trail Boss behind a 100 grain lead WC. It shoots point of aim, within 3 inches (every time) as 15-17 yards.

Keep at it. :)
 
Trailboss is unobtanium at the moment around here. I'd like to try some though.
I've got HP38 and titegroup but I kinda thought Unique would be more forgiving pressure wise.
I might be running it at pressures too low to get consistent burning. If its still all over the place at 750fps I'll try HP38
 
I'd also be worried about squib loads at some of those velocity levels. I think 700-750 would be ideal for your Swiss.
I'm running loads up to about 1000 fps. My 71 grain .311" 32 ACP bullets are flying much faster :) However, my ideal range is around 700-865 fps in terms of accuracy, and only with lead WC. The FMJ 32 ACP bullets aren't as accurate. I mainly use them to "clean the lead out" after a range day. :)
 
The Kurgan said:
I'd also be worried about squib loads at some of those velocity levels. The FMJ 32 ACP bullets aren't as accurate. I mainly use them to "clean the lead out" after a range day. :)
Click to expand...
I was worried too, especially with some of the 2.5gr loads!
Luckily I was shooting steel so I could hear each bullet hit, and got a chrony reading every time.
I'm going to bring the charge up to where I get consistently around 750 and leave it there as mine is the older thinstrap version.

Do the .32 ACP bullets have a lower point of impact out of your revolver than the heavier 100gr'sh lead bullets?
 
Well I tried out Unique at 3.2gr. It was averaging right around 740 fps discounting the anomalies.
But I still had a few pretty low velocity shots. There were a couple that were closer to 500 fps. I think my crimp and neck tension problems might be part of the ignition issues.
I just got a .32 s&w crimp die that I have to knock the carbide ring out of to use. Then I'll be able to deliver a stiff roll crimp and see if that helps.
Another factor might be space in the case and orientation of the powder when fired. I'm going to load up a few more and see if tipping the gun either way affects velocities.
I'm going to load a few more up at 3.2 unique with a stiff crimp and try again.
Also I might try some HP38 as well and see if that's more consistent. It should be pretty consistent at lower pressure.
 
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Cool thread, I always wanted a Swiss. The closest I have come is my Swedish Nagant. Sadly, I have yet to fire it even after having it my possession for several years. Ugh, always another project taking priority.

As a point interest to anyone that cares the revolver is a very early piece made by the Nagant brothers not the later production by the Husqvarna factory. This is one of the earliest pre Husqvarna production model 1887s that I have come across. Has pre 1893 Liege proofs, also based on the 3 digit serial was made in the the first year of production for this model(1888). It would have been part of the original Swedish Army's order of 2600 revolvers that was produced by Nagant. It has the Swedish inspection officer's initials CL -Christofer Lemchen one of two officers assigned to inspect and accept these for the army. Based on the rack markings looks like it at some point ended it's martial duty and was reissued to Swedish paramilitary Landstormen unit( akin to a territorial army) probably pre WWI but certainly could have served well past WWII. Neat history.

nagant1.jpg


nagant2.jpg
 
Tried Unique with the 96gr LSWC again today.
This time I put a small square of toilet paper above the powder before seating the bullet, then put a stiff roll crimp on it from a modified .32 S&W long crimp die.
I was hoping these 2 things would lead to more consistent ignition of the powder. It didnt.
I had lower velocities then before and my velocity was all over the place. Quite a few shots in the 620 range, a few around 550 and only a couple up around my target velocity of 720 fps. This is with 3.2gr of Unique so it should be hitting closer to 750fps with plenty of pressure to run consistent ly. But it isn't.
Accuracy was good though. About 2.5" at 20 yds. POI Still about 3" high and right of POA.

I'm switching to HP38 to see if I get more consistency. Also I got some beautiful cast bullets from jethunter I'll try tmrw too.
 
Even worse results with HP38. Velocities were super low. Around 400 fps. This was with a near max .32SW long load recipe of 2.3gr. There was partially burnt yellow powder flakes kicked out around the cases too. This load should have got about twice that fast if everything had been working properly.
Good news is I figured out the issue with these bullets is they are too loose in the chambers and arent sealing with enough pressure. They are Bullet barn cast 96gr RNFP .313 bullets.
Heres a pic of the Bullet Barn (right) and Jethunters offering (left)

IMG_20160501_185951_zps8zzleszx.jpg


I loaded up some of jethunters 110gr .32-20 gaschecked .314 bullets with 2.8gr of Unique and immediately got consistent results. I think this is because they were sealing much better than the undersized ones.
Avg velocity 743fps
Min 717fps
Max 761fps
This is a little hot for 110gr loads so I'll back it off to 2.6gr and expect around 700 fps I think.
They shot about 5" high and 2" right at 20yds with a 6 shot group strung horizontally of 3". I will carefully drift the front sight over a bit, then just get used to holding a little low.
I'm going to stick with .314 bullets after these results. I might pick up some .314 HBWC to try as well. I imagine smaller .32 pistol bullets like .311 would be utter crap in this gun.
 
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Yep, .314" lead is the ticket. Mine shoots point of aim. It also throw's the 32 ACP .311 FMJ's pretty well to, but not like .314" lead. I also have some of Jethunter's 110 gr .314 LSWC, and I have been very happy with the quality! They also shoot very well out of my Martini .310 Cadet :)

I really wish you can source some Trail Boss ! It's definitely the better powder for this fine revolver. I have 1 1/2 containers and I find that I'm really stretching them out for fear of not finding any more.
 
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