Couldn't pass up the rolling block

[Lethemgo]

Bought a 8x58r swedish from a guy a while back and still working on forming brass and loads for it. Thanks a lot for all the help I got on here...great place. Now the same guy came up with another one 12.7x44r right after I bought the other and I've been drooling on it for months. Finally picked it up so now the work (fun) begins developing a load for it. Will need to get some 50-70 dies and start. Him and his friend bought these years ago they both bought the 8x58r but they only had one 12.7x44r left in Stock but it was listed as a 50-70 from the distributor they bought them from so his buddy got that one and has passed away so now I have it. He had some 348 started to form and I got a box of that but the guy has everything so I asked if he had any 50-70 so I could give them a try to. He did and when I got there he says check it out...bam 50-70 went right in the chamber like it was made for it so guess I'll have to do some more investigation in rifle. Got 4 boxes of track of the Wolf brass he bought years ago now just figure a boolit to cast. Will slug barrel but as you can see in pic the bore is sweet.

[bubba.50]

I had one of those. bought some of the way overpriced Bertram 12.7 brass. first thing I had to file the base of about 2/3rds of them to close the bolt. loaded them to trapdoor level & every case swoll up & very difficult to re-size. bought some 50-70 cases from Buffalo Arms & life was lovely again. I'd run'em through the de-capper, drop in 60gr 2f, mash it down just a bit with two milk carton wads, hand-seat a well lubed bullet and blast away.

[Lethemgo]

Getting ready to order dies anybody have experience with rcbs and lyman or hopefully both as to which might be better for loading 50-70 for this rifle.

[marlinman93]

I had the Lyman before and liked them a lot.

[salpal48]

Many of the rolling Blocks were rechambered to 50/70 By Bannerman. . They purchased a Load Of them when they went surplus. . In order to sell Them he rechambered.
He had an Add in his early Catalogs

[enfield]

I use Lyman 50-70 dies, I don't resize much, just enough to hold the bullet. The Lee 450 sized to .510 ( drops about .515 ) works very well. 50 to 60 Gr 2F is what I use. I started out using some 4759 & trailboss but now I stick to BP (these are old guns remember ). You will like the look of the recovered bullets after that deep rifling gets done with them.

[bubba.50]

[QUOTE=enfield; You will like the look of the recovered bullets after that deep rifling gets done with them.[/QUOTE]


I shot some hardened boolits from mine into a block of oak & they looked like bolt heads when I split the block to get'em out. about plumb hex-shaped.

[Reverend Al]

Those Scandinavian rolling blocks were imported in large numbers up here in Canada too and there are still lots of them around for sale in both the 8x58R's and 12.7's. A lot of the 12.7's were re-chambered into .50-70 by the distributor before he sold them as well. I bought 2 of the 8x58R's for the actions, but they both shoot so darn well that I've left them as is. I've been shooting SR4759 under an old, heavy Lyman / Ideal bullet (about 210 grains as cast?) sized to .325" and it'll put most of 10 shots all into one big hole if I haven't had too much coffee that morning. I've been offered a 3/4 finished project gun by a friend of mine who took one of these RB's and re-barreled and chambered it in .30-30 Ackley Improved. I'm sorely tempted to buy it from him ...

(I didn't bother to buy one of the 12.7's since I already have a really nice New York Militia .50-70 with an excellent bore.)

[17nut]

A pic of the original cartridge:
Dont even try to make scense of the measurements in the drawing! It is in Norvegan imperials and nowhere near US sizes.


I have used the Lee 515-450 bullet for the past 25+ years, but a bad shoulder have forced me to cut back on recoil so i have chopped the mould to the next groove:



The reason they look almost hex in the bore is because the Swedes reused some 30000 frontloaders made in 1860-64 with a .50 cal bore.
With a 90grain load of BP they needed (deep) grooves so the fouling had somewhere to go.

PS: I have found the Swedes to be very forgiving to bullet and charge used and tend to shoot good with most anything.

[Chill Wills]

Getting ready to order dies anybody have experience with rcbs and lyman or hopefully both as to which might be better for loading 50-70 for this rifle.

I've used both. What works best may all depend on your barrel diameter needs.

Maybe ten years ago I found for my re-barreled (Badger,.500-.508") rifle, both Lyman and RCBS dies were too large to be much good. Neither sized the brass down enough and the smaller expander/flair die just breezed in and out with out touching anything. With a three die set, that leaves only the seater, and you don't need a seater die if the bullets fall in the fired cases.

So I just cast, prime the clean fired cases, fill with powder, finger seat the bullets and shoot. No dies needed. Luckily, the lubed, unsized cast bullets are just large enough to stay put in the cases if you don't get too rough handling them.

I load for a Rem roller too.

[Gewehr-Guy]

My dies are Lyman, but to load and chamber a .515 dia. bullet I had to remove the de-capping rod and run the loaded cartridge nearly all the way into the F-L sizing die, until it would fully chamber. It seems odd to load then resize, but it works well for me. I did a chamber cast of my Husqvarna and found a bore dia of .485 and groove dia of.522! So I don't think there is a one size fits all bullet diameter for these rifles , so my only concern is that the cartridge fully chambers.