Boolits and sizers for .43 Spanish?

[ohland]

Now that my 43 Spanish brass came in from BACO, I now turn to the very significant issue of what boolit to try. With the generous throat, what is the largest size used?

Yes, I know cerrosafe is my friend. I see references to .442 - .443 as a size-to that fills the throat.

Many posts tell of the ability of the Lyman 439186 to bump up if made with a soft alloy.

What moulds are working?

[curator]

The Lyman .439 boolit is usually too small for many .43 Spanish Rolling block rifles. Also, it doesn't hold enough lube to be good with black powder. I have gotten tolerable accuracy with it by casting from 1 in 40 lead/tin alloy and using a "lube-wad" under the boolit. Duplexing the load helps a lot with keeping the fouling down. My most accurate load with this slug is 5 grains of SR4759 then 55 grains of Olde Eynsford 1.5Fg, cream of wheat filler to the case neck, thin card wad, lube wad, then thin card. Seating boolits out to just touch the rifling leade when chambered. This is no way as punishing as a full case (80+ grains) of powder and the duplexing keeps the barrel clean enough so I can shot 20 or more shots accurately without cleaning the bore. Loading smokeless, boolit fit becomes critical and #439186 doesn't make the grade in my rifles.

[Nobade]

In my own rifles, I am getting good results with a Rapine bullet designed for the 43 Spanish, and very similar to the lyman one. I size them to .430" with a Lee push through sizer, and paper patch up to .441" with 15# printer paper. Load is 7gr. AA #5744 + enough FFg black powder to fill to the base of the neck, about 60gr. A 7/16" card wad, 1/8" grease cookie, another card, and hand seat the bullet on top. Patch just touches the rifling when the action is closed. Shoots very well and tracks to the sights. Oh, I am using long brass - formed out of 44-90 BN and trimmed to match the chamber length. I found much better accuracy that way than using normal 43 length brass. (Hint: heavyweight tumble lube type 44 mag bullets would work for this also if you already have a mold.)

-Nobade

[ascast]

yup to what has been said and cerrosafe is a great tool to have in the arsenal. Lyman has one I think its #446110, bigger around but lighter. I think it's made again. Or Lyman 448187 ( i think) made for 44 cal rifles, sharps etc. Its bigger and heavy and hard to find. RCBS makes the 44-370 which drop about 0.448" ish and still in production I think; it a flat nose.

Try the cerrosafe, and maybe I get friendly and send you some samples to fit.

[W.R.Buchanan]

OK guys I have a friend who has a M71 Mauser, and a 71/84 Mauser. Both are in .43 Mauser but apparently one has a much larger bore than the other. One shoot PP boolits great the other sprays them.

He has made cases out of .45-90 cases as recommended on the Case Forming forum but they only fit in one of the guns.

He wants me to ream out the chamber so that these cases will fit both guns. I am not going to do this, but instead find out exactly what is going on that is different between the guns.

Can anyone give me some idea of changes in bore/groove sizes made between these 2 models. There is @.020 difference in the slugs of his guns. I need to know if this normal or if his guns have bad barrels. both are pretty nice looking guns and the bores look nice and shiny.

He wants to be able to use the same loaded rounds for both guns, but I don't think that is going to happen. I certainly don't want to alter the chamber on one of these guns which would be a one way trip, and ruin the value of the gun and make it difficult for the next owner to deal with.

Just need to know a little more about any differences these two models might have.

All info appreciated.

Randy