41 rimfire smokeless load?

[smkummer]

This is a interesting post started by myself. So an update is due. I did buy that 41 short colt mold at 160 grains. It works in my colt but not in my new to me late model Remington over/under. Also in the Remington, the cases that use a crimped blank, only fire in the bottom barrel of the Remington. The Remington has to have the top bearing of the 160 grain bullet trimmed back in order to chamber. Again, the crimped blank and 1 grain of trail boss works for me but I have not chronographed.

[ndnchf]

Why does it only fire in the bottom barrel? Does the firing pin not reach the .22 blank in the top barrel? From what I've read, the typical bullet weight of the .41 short rimfire was 125 - 135gr. I cut down some .41 long colt bullets to just have a .100" long heel and they weigh 126gr - just right.

[smkummer]

The firing pin doesn’t come high enough to hit the upper rim of the 22 blank seated in the reloadable case.

[ndnchf]

That's too bad. Are your cases from HLbooks outfit in France? I've ordered some cases and bullets from them, still waiting for them to arrive. So right now I'm just using my single shop made case.

[smkummer]

That's too bad. Are your cases from HLbooks outfit in France? I've ordered some cases and bullets from them, still waiting for them to arrive. So right now I'm just using my single shop made case.

Yes.

[Traffer]

I've ordered some reloadable .41 rimfire cases from Europe. But in the meantime I machined a single case from bar stock so I could try it out. It worked very well. Loaded with 8gr of 3F black powder and a 126gr bullet, it has a pretty stout kick

Steve... your video's are great...thought I would share:

[ndnchf]

Thanks Traffer. Glad you like them

[ndnchf]

The .41 rimfire short collet crimp die and bullets came in last night from Bernie Rowles at Old West Bullet Molds. If you are going to load heel bullets, these are the only way to properly crimp them. I highly recommend these. Bernie makes them to your spec and they are a work of art. His prices and turnaround time are really good. I have 5 of them

The heel on his bullets is around .388"-.391". The cut down .41 long colt bullets I've been using had a .382"- 383" heel. So first I had to make a simple expander plug to open the case mouth. Previously I'd made a .383" plug. Last night I made a .387" plug, but it wasn't quite big enough to get the heel started. So another was made, this time tapering from .387" to .391". This allowed the bullet to seat nicely.

Next I really wanted to see if I could get more powder in the case. Original cartridges were loaded with 11 to 13gr of powder. With my solid head case, I knew 13gr was out of the question. Using a snipped off and emptied noise blank allowed a little more powder space because the powder can go into the empty blank as well as around it. I carefully weighed 11.0gr of Old Eynesford 3F and slowly drop tubed it into the case. It just barely fit! I then compressed it .125" (the bullet heel's depth).

With the powder compresssed, the bullet was seated with thumb pressure. Then run into the collet crimp die.

I now have one cartridge that duplicates a factory loading.

[ndnchf]

I had an extra surprise from Bernie Rowles that came along with the .41 rimfire short collet crimp die. He included a dummy round made from a Navy Arms .41 rimfire short! The Navy arms ammunition was made about 20-25 years ago. This is one that had been shot. So he made an inert dummy round to set up the die.

Flash back about 3 months. You may recall the video I made about repriming an original .38 rimfire case using the Prime-All kit. To my surprise, it worked well.

I think you know where this is going More to follow...

https://youtu.be/lfL_5qMey2o