6.5x55 mm

[edwin41]

well .303 , i made this tree to give away to a gunclub , its all made of scrapmetal , and costs nearly nothing.
about perfecting that swing , the rods cant overturn , as they fall in position against the v form of the column.
the whole assembly can tilt forward , to hold these rods firmly to the column by their own weight.
the bounce back effect will be countered by the angle of the assembly , and the counterweights , that are the square black parts
on the rods, these can slide over the rods and are held by setscrews.
these counterweights can regulate the swing , as how fast the targets will move when hit [inertia] , if its not working properly i can make these somewhat heavier , or lighter.
the targets themself can rotate and fastened in position for two reasons , first to match the angle of the assembly , and second if needed to deflect the bullets up or downward when they strike.
it seems to me that the device has all of the needed features , and has now to be adjusted properly by using it.
last , the column has a v shape with the point forward for two reasons , first is described above , and the second is delection of the striking bullets sideways , so they wont ricochet straight back.

[303Guy]

Thanks for the description. That is a well thought out device - let us know how it performs.

[moose0011]

[QUOTE=Nobade;1698909]I shoot paper patch boolits in my Swede M96 with very good effect. It has a chamber that should be similar to your cg 63. Several boolits work, but the best so far is the "Cruise Missile" 175gr.

Where can you find this mold? or was this one you had made for yourself?

[Nobade]

[QUOTE=moose0011;2633096]

I shoot paper patch boolits in my Swede M96 with very good effect. It has a chamber that should be similar to your cg 63. Several boolits work, but the best so far is the "Cruise Missile" 175gr.

Where can you find this mold? or was this one you had made for yourself?

If you do a search for it here on cast boolits, you will find probably thousands of comments on it. There were apparently several versions of it made. I have one from Midsouth that is the fat, bad one. But since I paper patch it, I don't care. It gets sized down to .258" anyway and patched back up to .265". It is a funny thing to patch though, being so long and skinny the patches are almost square and are a pain to make sure they are oriented properly when being applied.

-Nobade

[goofyoldfart]

Edwin41: Sir, I have to say that after reading through these pages, you Sir are a most ingenious designer and craftsman. Very well done, Sir. God Bless to you and yours.

Goofy.

[Chakta]

We have a rifle in the safe, that is used as a spare during hunting season. I have shot the Nosler 100 grain bullet (on varmints & coyotes) using Varget powder @ 43.5 grains of powder, velocity is 3100fps. This is a MAX LOAD so start down 4 or 5 grains and work up slowly.

Using a 140 grain Nosler Partiton bullet, I used RL-22 @ 45.3 grains, velocity was 2686fps. This has always been very good and accurate load for deer.

[edwin41]

thanks goofyoldfart ,
also nice to see that this thread is still so much visited.
the shooting tree , or duelling tree turned out to be very good after some adjustments , the targets are locked in place now with some loctite glue as they were coming loose after multiple hits at the upper or lower portions of the target , its under control now.
i have given the device to a shooting club , its being used on a weekly base , and it has had its first competition last week.
the reactions i had from the users were only positive ones , and that good enough for me , i even take some pride in that.

[edwin41]

and after hundreds of hits , its still going strong.

[edwin41]

so , a little update .
ive been trying out some different powder today , its vithavouri n 110 powder and i have used this before.
shot it today with my Husqvarna m38 , and i must say it shot good groups , even with the standard open sight.
the load was 12 gr of powder , and the same paperpatched bullet as described in earlier postings.
recoil was nice , accuraccy seems to be very well , still far better than me.
will test this load some more and will post some results in the near future..

[edwin41]

here some results from the match i shot last week...
the load was the paperpatched bullet , as always, but now with 12.3 gr of vithavouri n 110 powder , primer was a federal as usual. the rifle used was my husqvarna m 38 , build in 1942 , and with the original open sights.
the match is in prone position , off hand and at a distance of 100 meters , that is a little more than 100 yards.
the target is the official match target , the black circle measures 19.5 cm across , thats about 7.5 inches.
one gets three of these targets , one for "practise"and two for the count.
the ones for the count are shot 15 times each , so a total of 30 counting shots makes the max of 300 points.

looks to me there is nothing wrong with the load , i can use some more practise though.

[edwin41]

more than 22000 vieuws of this thread , my first steps in the paperpatching addiction.
for me , i learned a lot about cartridges and how they are build up , far more than by simply buy ammo and shoot it without thinking why and how.
i cannot imagine that i would go back to factory ammo , this step by step cartridge that i use will stay with me for a long time as it is easily made ,
very accurate , economic in use and i take some pride in making things myself .

the only thing i chanced recently is the sizing part.
i altered the sizingdie , 6.50 mm, a little bit , and with a bullets soaking wet with a gear oil 220 i can size the casting down in one stroke.
the bullets come out sharp and straight this way.
the 6.5x55 mm caliber came out as a great caliber for paperpatching , i think one could not go wrong with this round.

got to really work on my own skills , with my husqvarna m38 rifle and the scores will go up in the local matches.
the cartridge is defenitly far better than me !

[edwin41]

this is the result of my testings :
the brass is cleaned and primed , necksized with an rcbs necksizer , the expander ball is highly polished up for smooth operation.
the neck is then opened up with a lyman "M"die , also polished up for smooth operation , believe me , it really works !
the bullet itself is casted of a soft alloy , pure lead with some tin added and sized to 6.50 mm . [ soaking wet with gear oil , sized in one stroke.]
wrapped twice in chain bar printer paper , wrapped wet , i lay them on a soaking wet sponge and tab with my finger until wet spots are showing.
the paperdiscs from the perforator i stick to the bulletsbase with water prior to wrapping...... very important step in my opinion.
the wrapped and dried bullet go through my lyman lubrisizer , .264 , and the lube is a 50/50 mix of beeswax/vaseline.
i weigh every charge on my scale , 19.5 gr off lovex d060 powder... that would be called AA 5477 in the usa.
i set the bullet at an overall lenght of 75 mm , and there it is : a great cartridge for plinking and matches , a real allrounder .

[Nobade]

Edwin41, it is great to read your writeups over time and the steps you have gone through to make this work for you. You have discovered the real secret to paper patching and smokeless powder - keep at it! Too many people try it, find that it doesn't work right off or is too much work, and give it up. It takes a special type of person, who is really a craftsman, to keep at it until really good results are obtained. Congratulations to you, and enjoy making it better and better over time as you learn to master all those little details that added together really make this process shine.

-Nobade

[edwin41]

bump up for thirty-thirty

[edwin41]

i am currently searching for the parts to make my rifle the way i like it to be.
it would become a time correct replica of the M41B sniper rifle , and since i cannot see the original sights of the M38 rifle clearly no more i will be shooting with the jena zielvier reproductionscope from now on.
i have hunted down an original FALDT diopter on egun.de and installed it on my rifle first , but the sightpicture isn t enough
for me , since i had an accident were i had a piece of metal in my eye .
when i look through a small peephole at a little distance , like a diopter mounted on a rifle , the scar in my vision would block
the field of vieuw by about a quarter... ah well , it is what it is.

i found the missing pieces for my rifle in England , at moore leather . uk and just mailed him if he could make me a correct type cheekweld and the leather lenscaps .

if my set up is complete i will post some pictures of it .

i have tried to coat my bullets with hi tek coating last week , just to experiment , but this was no success .
gonna stick to paperpathing in this caliber.... its way easier.

[David2011]

Edwin,

How has your dueling tree held up? We use them in Hunter Education just as reactive targets but at 25 yards. Many of the students have not fired a gun before the field day we have for them. At that distance the .22 rifles hit hard enough that the targets sometimes break off the swing arms. They're welded together.

Thanks,
David

[edwin41]

Hi David , the duelling tree holde up Just fine.
It is used with .22 pistol way more than rifles.
It sometimes neede some readjustments but
Other than that its very robust.
Oh ... the targets need to be repainted from time
To time ....
But now you Mention It , I havent seen the device
For some time now....

[edwin41]

strange things happen...

I was reading some very old threads in this paperpatching thread , someone was patching for the . 308 caliber.
he mentioned that he first sizes his casts to .308 , then patch and then sizes them again at .309 diameter.

this I found very interesting , so I took my castings , ran them through my lyman sizer with the .264 sizingdie ,
wrapped them with my paperpatch as usual and let them dry completely.
as one might recall , my castings come out of a lyman mould , the same as I started out with.
the bullets that come out of this mold are somewhat undersized , when ran through the .264 sizer they barely tough the
die , but enough to see the drivingbands more shiny.
the alloy I use still remains the same , so the bullets are soft.

when the patches were fully dried I ran them through the same sizer again , and now the funny part...
the patches get ironed out very smooth ... they are superthight fitting and very slick .
the lube I have in the lubrisizer is still the same 50/50 mix of beeswax and Vaseline.

like doing so , the castings have a really smooth , very slick and very thight paperjacket .
tried to peel one of , but I had to use a pocketknife to do so .
I really think that this patching is tough enough even for the autoloaders !

the process of sizing the castings down before patching , with all of the drawbacks that come along with it , is now skipped
in the batch of 24 cartridges I made for testing this idee.

in this case the core diametre went from 6.5 mm [0.255"] to 6.7 mm [0.263"] .
so looking at this projectile you will see that the jacked AND the core have to be cut by the rifling in the barrel , instead of the core just slightly engraved .
as these castings are very soft and apparently very ductile I think this could work .
the lyman molds are known to produce an undersized projectile , and in this case that's a very good thing !

after testing I will post the results here..

[edwin41]

so , just came back from the range.

the projectiles shot just fine pushed by 19.0 gr of AA 5477 , and most of all... more accurate then the ones with the 6.45 mm core !

as always I cleaned my rifle after every rangetrip , the bore was the same as ever , a few patches and its bright again .

after shooting I collected some paperresidue from the patches , most was shred into pulp but a few flakes could be found , and on one I defintly saw the imprint of the rifling . this imprint would suggest that the projectile AND the patch are cut by the rifling ,
but the patch did not shear... just an imprint .

I have to do some more shooting with this new information , afterall , these were only 24 shots.

for now i haven't reached the full acurassy potential of this Husqvarna rifle with my reloads yet , but i am getting there in small steps.

leaving the core unsized could very well be one of these steps , time will tell.

[edwin41]

after some thinking I am going to try a " in between " core size.
I worked up from 6.45 mm to 6.50 mm [0.255"] , and tried the full 6.7 mm [0.263"] , and all of them worked.

the full 6.7 mm coresize leaves no room for the patch , I am going to try to give the patch a little room and size the cores
at 6.6 mm [0.259"] , so its right in between the 6.5 and 6.7 mm.

looks like a nice compromise to me .. I will post results after testing .

glad I made different sizers !