Swedish Model 1887......

[Roundsworth]

.......Revolver bullets. Hi everybody! I am currently working on handloads for my 1887 Swedish revolver, and have run into a 'brick wall' in regards to bullets of .325" diamter. I tried the Hornady 90 grain .314" HBWC with good results, but wish to expand my choices. Does anyone know of a place to purchase .325" cast bullets or molds? Thank you. Cheers!

[elk hunter]

The 8mm Nambu used a .320 diameter 85 grain bullet, you might find a mould for it somewhere, but most likely you'll need to have one custom made. Check the sponsor links on this forum.

[Roundsworth]

The only commercially produced bullet I could find that came close to .325" is a jacketed 85 grain bullet at .320". It is for the 8mm Nambu. I recovered two of the 90 grain wadcutters to see how the rifling engraved them. Surprisingly, they performed quite well, despite the .011" difference. I don't cast bullets at the present time, but am seriously looking into it for something to do in my 2nd retirement. Cheers!

[Wdog01]

And what about to cut part of some .324 rifle bullet from some 8mm (.324) moulds? For example LEE C324-175g. moulds?

[HighHook]

Thats a great little pistol. About 10 years ago i took some trimmed 32-20 brass and loaded some lee 90 grain 32's in it with 2 grains of bulleye. i was surprised at how accurate it was. i havent shot it since. I am also curious on what you come up with. Are you sure the bore is .323 8mm? I thought these were 7.5mm. I will have to pull mine out and check on the bore size.

[Dutchman]

Slug your bore before you do anything further.


Belgian Nagant m/1887 Swedish contract that I purchased from Eric Nagant, great-grandson of Leon Nagant of Liege, Belgium.





left to right:

7.5 Swedish Los Patron (blank)
7.5 Swedish paper patch original black powder military
7.5 Swiss Ordnance Revolver by Fiocchi



left to right:

.32 S&W Short
.32 acp - 7.65 Browning
.32 S&W Long
7.5 Swedish Nagant - original Swedish issue

[I'll Make Mine]

I see what's happening here -- the 7.5 Swedish Nagant was apparently similar to the .32 Long Colt: made for an outside lubed heeled bullet. Late/modern factory jacketed rounds were loaded with a jacketed bullet sized to fit inside the case, like late .32 Long Colt rounds; I'd be surprised if there was any accuracy to be had that way.

I found a reference that suggests you can make cases by trimming .32-20 to .890 case length (head and rim differ by only a few thousandths diameter, though the rim on the Swedish looks thinner -- reference doesn't give rim thickness); most likely you could convert 7.62x38R Russian Nagant brass even more easily, since the rims are thinner to begin with. You may have to have a custom mold made if you want to cast and shoot this piece regularly; you'll need the .325 belt on the bullet, but a heel around .314 to fit in the sized case. You can apparently buy dies fairly easily (Midway has 'em, if the link wasn't too old).

[HARRYMPOPE]

try the RCBS 310 Cadet heel bullet.

[Roundsworth]

I did finally slug the bore and came up with a groove diameter of .307" and a bore diameter of .296". A 93 grain cast (Lyman 311227) bullet sized to .309" worked perfectly. I used 32-20 brass and an RCBS trim die.

[Chicken Thief]

I use full length 32-20 brass in mine + a 313-115gr Ranchdog boolit.

The thing that makes the Nagant revolver special is that there is no shoulder/throat in the cylinder. It is bored clean through.
To compensate for that a boolit that fits the cylinder is used in combination with a big forcing cone in the barrel to squeeze the boolit from .325 to .308.

In the full length 32-20 brass i overcame the chamber "wobble" driving the boolit directly into the forcing cone.

I load 15 grains of SW#1 a card wad and then the boolit. To hold the boolit in place i run the front of the case into a .30M1 die.



Todays riddle: Whats the difference between a Swedish 1887 and a Norwegan 1895?
Here's my 1895

[Roundsworth]

The front sights are configured differently.

[Chicken Thief]

Cheater

[Wdog01]

Yes, and some marking, one letter, I think N with crown below producer name and serial number?

[Wdog01]

Nice pictures - cartridges especially.

Size of the bullet: yes, as Chicken-Thief wrote, some sources told us .325 is the size of cast Swedish bullet, barrel is about .308. Its brother, 7.5mm Swiss ordnance cartridge, is about .315 and the barrel of M1882 Swiss revolver is .295/.315.
In case you make cartridge with cast bullet about .315, you can use it in both ones.
In case you want to make a copy of original SWE cartridge, try to find some .325 moulds. But in practise anything between .308 to .325 for the SWE one.

My way is with the .313 bullet from LEE .314 SWC 90g. moulds + from 3.8g. to 4.8g. of CC No.5. Cut 32-20 brass are OK. But I would like to find and test more suitable bullets. Cast and FMJ too.

[tinsmith]

A local gun shop has a Swedish Nagant in very good original condition for $400 + tax. I haven't seen one in many years. Neat little gem of a revolver. I'm intrigued with trying some cast loads in it with 32-20 brass. Is $400 a fair price? Has anyone tried a cast round ball seated into the case mouth with a tiny charge of fast pistol powder?

[Wdog01]

From my point of view reasonable price. But I am European. At gun shop look at producers marking, Swedish Nagants were made by Belgian Nagant bros. company - marked "BREVET NAGANT" (approx.3000pieces), later by Swedish Husqvarna - marked "HUSQVARNA"(approx.14000pieces), and were supplied for Norvegian army too (Nagant, Husqvarna, one other producer) - additional Norvegian markings crown+"N".
Why round ball? That could be difficult to seat to the case. Maybe whole round ball inside? But should not be smaller than .308.