RB gallery loads

[singleshotbuff]

Gentlemen,

I shot some round ball gallery loads out of my M48 Yugo Mauser today.

WLR primer, 5.0grs Bullseye, Hornady 00 Buckshot.

At 20 yards, offhand, 10 shots went into one large ragged hole, about 1". Should make a great small game and plinking load, low cost, low noise, no recoil.

The primers were slightly backed out of the cases due to low pressure. If I enlarge the flash holes a little bit with a drill bit will this help? Is that safe to do when using Bullseye powder? I realize if I do enlarge the flash holes that I'll have to mark these cases to ensure that they are never used with full powder loads. I have already done that, all my reduced loads for 8X57mm are loaded in cases formed from R-P 30/06 brass. All full powder loads go into W-W 8mm cases.

BTW shooting these gallery loads will really point out flaws in your offhand follow through that you don't normally see with full recoil LOL.

Thanks for any input.

SSB

[madcaster]

That's a good shooting tip,and useful for small game as well!

[woody1]

Enlarging the flashholes should at least reduce the primer protrusion. I routinely drill flashholes for mini-loads such as you describe. Drill 'em with 1/8" fractional and be happy. For such mini-loads as these you should use brass fired with moderate to full loads and not full length resized. With drilled out flashholes it will help keep from setting up a excessive headspace situation. And I'm not going to get into the "headspace" definition debate! Regards, Woody

[singleshotbuff]

Gentlemen,

I loaded another box of this load tonight for testing tomorrow. I enlarged the flash holes with a 7/64" drill bit (just under 1/8" for those of us without machinist skills LOL). I'll see what kind of difference this will make.

SSB

[Larry Gibson]

singleshotbuff

I use a #28 drill (.140") to drill the flash holes in well fire formed cases as Woody1 mentioned. I get no primer back out after that with these light gallery loads. I also use cases that have just about run their course with regular loads (jacketed bullets) and are showing signs of incipient head seperation (the bright yellow speckled ring but not yet seperated). This gets a lot more life out of the cases and I've yet to lose one to head seperation. I sometimes anneal the necks also but most often not. The RB loads are fun but you might want to check out Catshooters .323 PB 6 cavity GB going on now. It will be a great plinking/small game bullet over 5.5- 6.5 gr of Bullseye and should run 1100+ fps or so. However the RBs do well withing their limitations, I have and do use them in 6.5, .30, .375 and of course .45 calibers.

Larry Gibson