Pleasantly surprised.

[freire]

Since i joined CGN i only heard good things about the Schmidt-Rubin K31 and finally before Christmas i bought one.
over the last couple of months i ordered some brass, casted some 180gr bullits
and loaded a couple hundred with 4 different powders.
So today being +16 in southern ontario i decided to take her for a spin,drove down to Silverdale .
I had lots of 3" and 4" groups but then i tried A2400 and at 18.5gr i did 1" 5 shot group at 100 yds,i was impressed. my next goal trying to find .5" with
168gr match bthp if possible ,by the way the K31 trigger awesome.
Victor..

 

[freire]

by the way i sould have mentioned that i used a scope with a St Marie scope mount.
Victor..

 

[tigrr]

cool when it all comes together eh? Keep us in the loop.
+16, +16 I'm jealous.

 

[donor]

Can you give us more details about load you are using?
Bullet design,size,hardness,sight setting used etc...

I'm loading same caliber for model 1911 long infantry rifle and so far it likes Lee 155Gr cast sized .311 with 12.8Gr of Promo, except it shoots about 14 inches above POA.
Groups also leave some of room for improvement.

 

[9Guns]

Can you give us more details about load you are using?
Bullet design,size,hardness,sight setting used etc...

I'm loading same caliber for model 1911 long infantry rifle and so far it likes Lee 155Gr cast sized .311 with 12.8Gr of Promo, except it shoots about 14 inches above POA.
Groups also leave some of room for improvement.

Try sizing bullets to .308. The origional military GP-11 load was a 174 Gr boat tail spitzer round with a velocity around 1650 fps and .308 in diameter. I'm not sure about lead though I've only fire jacketed bullets out of mine.

 

[buffdog]

.
Many Military rifles shoot quite well with cast bullets because of their deeper rifling. The original 1889 Swiss load was a paper patched lead bullet.

C.E. Harris, a staff writer for the "American Rifleman" magazine did a lot of experimenting with lead bullets. He developed what he called "The Load" for lead bullets of near original weight for the calibre in Military firearms. It worked well in a wide range from 6.5 mm up to about 9 mm calibres. This load was 13.0 grains of Red Dot shotgun powder. It gives approximately 1700 to 1800 feet per second to a 170-180 grain 30 calibre loading such as in 30-06, .303 British, 8x57 Mauser and so on.

It is best to use a longer round nosed bullet for accuracy, rather than a pointed spitzer cast lead bullet, because ther is more bearing surface on the round nosed one for the rifling to grab onto. Many new cast bullet shooters choose a mould that resembles the service load and then try to drive them too fast. This gives minute-of-barn door accuracy, but, if they slow them down to the 1500-1600 FPS range, usually the accuracy is acceptable.

It is simple to make up a small chart for sight settings for various ranges. Cast bullets can be accurate and when younger with not a lot of money, a lot of lead bullets went downrange, out to 600 yards. The accuracy could be about the same in .303 as the Mark VII load out to 600 yards and usually would outshoot Mark VII at 100 and 200 yards.

I eventually went to paper patched bullets for target shooting, as it was more accurate, able to reach higher velocities without leading, relatively easy to make, and was more forgiving of load combinations.

Gee, that sounds just like what the Swiss did in 1899 with their Military cartridge!
.
.

 

[(((Echo)))]

Try sizing bullets to .308. The origional military GP-11 load was a 174 Gr boat tail spitzer round with a velocity around 1650 fps and .308 in diameter. I'm not sure about lead though I've only fire jacketed bullets out of mine.

???????????
I think you slipped a 1 where a 2 should be. GP11 ammo chrono's about 2550fps.

To the OP, watch your COL with K31's. They have a short throat. To make sure I wasn't jamming the bullet into the rifling, I had to seat deeper. GP11 ammo has a very long ogive, allowing a longer COL without the hassle of a bullet/rifling interference fit.

(E)

 

[freire]

Can you give us more details about load you are using?
Bullet design,size,hardness,sight setting used etc...

I'm loading same caliber for model 1911 long infantry rifle and so far it likes Lee 155Gr cast sized .311 with 12.8Gr of Promo, except it shoots about 14 inches above POA.
Groups also leave some of room for improvement.

I used CCI 200 for primers.
Prvi for brass.
18.5gr of A2400 for powder.
180gr GC Lee mold #C309-180-R.
And the O.A.L was 2.800".
Rifle K31. Shooter me.
Victor..

 

[freire]

I use WW water droped, the hardness is about 15 bhn, i lubesize them with FWFL,sizer die .309"

 

[donor]

I used CCI 200 for primers.
Prvi for brass.
18.5gr of A2400 for powder.
180gr GC Lee mold #C309-180-R.
And the O.A.L was 2.800".
Rifle K31. Shooter me.
Victor..

Thank you.I will try 2400 and if that does't work any better I will have to get new mold.

Buffdog-155Gr Lee is a boolit designed by Mr.Harris and it's working perfectly fine in my M91 and Israeli 308 Mauser, hence the attempt to make it work in 1911.As for "The Load" of 13Gr Red Dot (and 16Gr 2400) it is a universal load and it can be improved to work with individual rifles.For example most of my rifles prefer loads closer to 14Gr.

9guns-In general casts should be made and shot about 1-2 thou oversize but it seems like some guns prefer exact size or even undersize boolts but those are mostly BP cartridge guns.

 

[freire]

That particular bullet has worked really well in my 308 and my 30-06 and now the Swiss , hope it works for you too.
Victor..