Hello all, I have a paper patching question in relation to German Gewehr Model 1871.
Unlike it's updated version Model 71/84, the groove diameter is larger on the 71. My chamber casting (cerrosafe) measures 0.4550" groove diameter. The chamber is pretty tight and 0.4760" at the case mouth and its 0.4665" at beginning of freebore. It's not possible to seat a bullet sized to groove diameter into the case successfully. I think all this is pretty well known. Assuming for the sake of simplicity that my cerrosafe measurements are the unshrunk values, and also assuming brass thickness of 0.015", the largest bullet that fits with 2 thou neck tension is 0.448".
My question is this: I've seen a few people casually mention that paper patching the bullet is one of the solutions for this situation. Is a paper patched bullet that measures 0.448" total better than a grease-grooved bulelt sized to 0.448" for this scenario? If it is, could you help me understand why?
thanks!