Which powder for my M48B with CB? Listen to your rifle.

[Peregrine]

I recently picked up a lovely Yugoslav Mauser and set about to finding what propellant would be ideal for it.
A key consideration for me has been that i'm fairly set on the heavy 216 grain spire point boolit that NOE offers a mold for, therefore i'm quite wary of using too fast a powder behind it, however being completely new to the CB game i'm not sure how justified that is.

I decided to ask an old hand at reloading (not cast) that I know at the range about my dilemma and he told me that eventually the ideal load is going to come down to what your rifle wants, and when it chooses a load it likes it will tell you.

I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that, and I was quite skeptical but none the less I grabbed the Yugo from it's corner and paid attention.

I guess the oldtimer might have know a thing or two after all. (http://imgur.com/oBLYfEM)

169525


:razz:

First post here on the forum guys, thanks for having me. In all seriousness, does anyone actually have data for a load using ~216 grain CB with IMR 4064? Preliminary searching on this forum has yielded a few nuggets, but not enough for me to feel comfortable with a starting point. I already have it lying around, it seems like it will work, and it would be too funny if I could work something up using it.

In addition, if you have familiarity with that particular 8mm bullet (NOE 325365) or heavier 8mm pills in general, please share any and all advice, friendly words, wild rants, ect. I've searched extensively and have a general idea from posts here and a few loads from a couple manuals but want to see specifically what knowledge I can gleen here.

Thanks fellas!

-Mike

[Shiloh]

Well,
There are oodles of powder to choose from. I've beeb using IMR 4227 and 4759 clone.
I'll see what the Lyman book says about 4064

Lyman 49th addition has load data for a cast 165 gr. The only load for 4064 in your range is a 220 gr Jacketed SP.
35 grains to start giving 1817 fps. up to 40 gr. for 2087 fps.

Hope this helps.

Shiloh

[runfiverun]

4064 reduces down for cast shooting quite well.
at the lower end it usually does better with a tuft of Dacron filling the case from the powder to the boolits base.

if this boolit has a gas check [and your dead set on something that heavy] start at 30 grs and keep on going up towards the jacketed load mentioned above.
you'll find something in there that works.
if it's a plain base mold I would look at the faster powders and speeds more in the 1200 fps area.

[Peregrine]

if this boolit has a gas check [and your dead set on something that heavy] start at 30 grs and keep on going up towards the jacketed load mentioned above.
you'll find something in there that works.


I'm not dead set on anything yet, i'm new to casting and rather impressionable at the moment so i'm open to pretty much all suggestions.

However there are two main factors why i'm looking at that particular bullet, the first is that thread (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?66143-Flat-Nose-cast-in-the-M48)s on this board have informed me that the M48's really does need spitzer bullets to feed properly, and the second being all i've ever shot out of 'em is either yugo surplus with a 198 grain bullet or current production Serb stuff with the same. I've kinda grown attached to heavy bullets out of 8mm mausers.


4064 aside, I have an "acquired" digital copy of Lyman's Cast Handbook for 214 grain CB and H4895 that shows a starting charge of 27gr. giving 1645 fps and a max of 35 gr. giving 2044 fps. Sounds very promising, i'm leaning towards trying it out.

How does this compare to what you've gotten to work?

Again though, i'm dead new to reloading and especially to producing/reloading cast bullets.
Any and all guidance, positive or negative is much appreciated.

[chutesnreloads]

When you have published data for it ... h4895 is NEVER a bad choice

[Kraschenbirn]

My near-mint M48 (no letter suffix) really likes the Lee 329-205 over 31.5 gr. H4895. Boolit drops 209-210 gr. from my 'rifle' alloy and groups as well or better than milsurp ball (>3" @ 100 yds w/issue sights). Haven't bothered to chrono the load but I'm guessing somewhere around 1800-1850 fps based upon 'book data'.

Bill

[runfiverun]

in my 8 mauser I use 2 boolits.
one is a 140gr loverign style from NOE I generally shoot it on top of 18grs of 2400.
the second [and my main load for this rifle] is a 170gr rnfp style by ideal [which I also use in my 32 Winchester] I generally use 30grs of imr 4895 under it.
that's it's hunting/target/plinking load.

those are pretty much my standard "go-to" [30/31/32 cal] loads for everything from the 308 up into the 30-06 case sizes, if one the two don't shoot well the rifle has issues.
I could use H-322, AA-2230, 3031 or 4064 in place of the 4895 I just happen to have a cabinet full of 4895 and only about 30-40 lbs of the others. [except the 2230 that I have another cabinet full of]

anyway those boolits work in my rifle but my throat is not sloppy or big it's cut to saami standards and I use .324 as a sizing diameter.
that shape and diameter is what drove me to choose the boolit molds I did, as well as influenced my powder choice.
unfortunately the chamber is not exactly in line with the barrel [thanks Remington] so I keep the loads in-line with normal everyday pedestrian cast boolit speeds and just go with it.