Preffered powder and cast bullet weight for 1889 Schmidt - Rubin?

[ukrifleman]

Just took ownership of a very nice 1892 manufactured Mod 1889 Schmidt-Rubin in really good order.

I plan to develop cast loads for it along similar lines as my k31 with Rel 7, but always interested to hear other reloader's powder and bullet choices.

Here are some photos of the new toy!

[ascast]

you really need a boolit in the .301". That is the groove size. Shooting these with factory smokeless loads and jwads will really clear your sinuses. Don't ask how I know this. Don't ever believe the guy at the gun store. I think the early Carcano used a similar sized boolit. NEI used to offer a couple in this size.
Slug your bore!

[bouncer50]

I have one myself. Its hard to slug one because of the 3 groove bore. The 1889 ammo was paper patch size 321. You are safe with a 308 bullet. A hard gun to shoot good because of the chamber size for a larger size bullet. The paper patch bullet taper down to 307 to 309 thru the bore.

[Gewehr-Guy]

Ukrifleman, I've shot mine a little and can offer a few experiences with it, my first loads were some i use in a Swiss 96/11, a 311299 with 23gr of RL 7. They shot ok, but I noticed some blow back of powder residue through the bolt channel so I stopped testing and did a chamber cast. The chambers are large,my neck OD is.352 and the throat dia. is .338 and about .600 long then gradually tapering into the bore. I don't think they produced enough pressure to properly seal the neck and caused the blowby. My next loads I expanded the necks to.324 and paper patched the .311299 bullets to about .324 and loaded some with 28 gr. of 3031, 4895, and 4064. All showed good accuracy at 3-4in. groups at 100yds, BUT I experienced a click-bang type hangfire that I didn't like so quit my tests. I think a bit more neck tension and a faster and easy to ignite powder will help, maybe about 18 gr of 2400. Anyone else have any ideas ?

[runfiverun]

28 grs is too low.
add another half grain and use a Dacron filler.
I bet your groups shrink a bunch.

in the boy's 98/11 I'm using a 299 nose .310 diametered plain base on top of unique.
I think I walked it up to about 13 grains. [using a home made dipper]
it shoots waay under 3/4 of an inch at 50 yds which is about his max distance.

[ascast]

Are we talking the same gun? '89 Swiss? The other posted comments made me second guess myself. I checked Cartridges of the World again and it ain't no .320. He state it was increased in diameter for the 1911 issue. What's the deal? I had one once, shot some factory InterArms ammo, 7.5x55 Swiss ( 0.308 bullet) and it beat the snot out of me. .0308" bullets were way too big. What gives?

[ascast]

http://www.swissrifles.com/ammo/index.html#7.5

This site list the smaller bullet as 0.304" jacketed - NOT patched. You might want to check out that site.

[ascast]

www.gunboards.com

might want to check this out as well, a lot of very knowledgeable folks and good intel

be safe

[Gewehr-Guy]

I looked at the site provided,and saw the .304 reference and I think it means groove dia. and not bullet dia. The site shows the specs of the GP90, and GP90/03 using a .320 paper patched , then the GP90/23 load used a .3075 bullet . Now I'm confused ! Wish I had some old cartridges to disassemble and study.

[ascast]

chamber/bore cast -cerrosafe I'll bet you it ain't .308- smaller

[Ray1946]

I have a 92' 1889. I used a pin gauge to check the actual bore in mine and a .296 pin was just slightly "sloppy" and a .297 would NOT go at all. I then used my B&S 6" dial calipers(which I zeroed on blocks) to check the diameter from one groove to the land straight across from it and got .305 for my efforts. This simply means that the depth of the lands appears to be around .008 or eight thousandths of an inch, which would put the actual groove diameter at about .313/.314 of an inch!
I'm not a mathematician, but it doesn't take a superbrain to realize that this old sweetheart has a FAT groove diameter and probably would shoot well with a .314/.315 diameter bullet perhaps of a Lovereign design which would swage down easily going into the long tapered throat of that chamber. I'm going with .315 when I load for mine in a few months,.................

[ukrifleman]

Thanks for all the replies.
I have picked the brains of a few 1889 shooters this side of the pond and the favoured bullet seems to be a 200gn bullet gas checked to .311.

I tried out some Lee 185gn .311 bullets I had to hand and they worked well with Rel 7 although they were underpowered, so load development is on going.

ukrifleman

[ascast]

I wish you guys well. Report our results please.

[Eddie1971]

Load I developed for my old 1889:
1. PPU Cases trimmed to 7.5x53.5
2. Lyman .314 heads, made from range scrap, powder coated, Gas checked, sized to .314
3. 32 grains if IMR4895, no filler
4. Magnum primers
This load is letting my 1889 string together 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards. No pressure signs, moderate recoil. Point of aim is about right where my other guns hit that start at 300 meters like the 1889. I think this formula is matching the original GP90 rounds. I also do not get blow back when I use the 32 grain load. When working up to it I was getting major blow back from 28-31 grains, but the higher I went the less it was. I also experimented with W748 and 760 because I have awesome luck with those powders in my Gewehr 1888, especially 748. For some reason the 7.5x53.5 does not like those powders. I'll probably tweak the load since I see that 4895 does the trick!

[Tackleberry41]

With new cases you can shoot 308 bullets. Once fired they will not last long sizing them up and down. Mine blows them out where a .324 bullet will drop right in. So I bought an 8mm mauser collet die, shaved a little off the bottom so it sizes the neck. Run the NOE 215gr .324 sized down to .321. 3031 seems to be the powder to use for best velocity. It drills those .321 powder coated bullets. Bit of an ordeal to seat them as .324 wont fit in a 7.5swiss seating die, nor will the fatter body fit in an 8mm mauser seater. Never bother to crimp them.

[Eddie1971]

I had good luck using IMR4350 as well. 36 grains made for a nice load.