Heavy boolits for swiss Vetterli rifle?

[Argentino]

Did anyone try to develop a load for a heavier-than-standard bullet in a Vetterli? (310 gn is what I would call standard weight)

I´m thinking about Lyman 439186 (370 gns), it drops out of my mold at .439"/.440" depending on alloy used.

I know is intended for a larger caliber (.43 spanish) but maybe sizing it down to .432" or so would provide an interesting bullet to test in a Vetterli.

Just wondering if some of you might have been down on that road before.

Of course, no intention of feeding it trough the magazine as the OAL would probably be larger than needed for proper functioning of the tubular magazine and cartridge lifter.

Thanks,

Argie

[Tom Trevor]

Does your rifle have the 1-26 twist? If so you may keyhole with 370 gr. bullets.

[4060MAY]

My Swiss has a .440 groove
I use this bullet, both with black or smokeless
GOEX CTG, or SR4759
with BP I usually wipe between shots with a 1/4" nylon rod and a nylon brush on it.....water and Balistol
or blowtube if I get tired of fighting the rod
it can be shot without cleaning..for me it was only 2 shots and the next round will not chamber fully
this can not be run thru the magazine
I was knocking chickens down at 20M with the rifle and factory sights..surprised me

HTH

[4060MAY]

Just a note
I have worked on 5 different .41 Swiss Rifles....all with the trigger guard used a the frame bottom..all 5 slugged .440 groove dia.

none of the rifles I have or worked on will accept .348 Win brass..the chamber is tight on all of them...I used 8mm Lebel brass to form cases

I picked up a 1881 model with the trigger guard separate from the frame bottom...this one slugs .428 groove dia.

I have also hot PP bullet from a .43 Mauser with good results

[craig61a]

I have a number of Vetterli's that I have worked on over the years, some in better shape than others. I am currently trying to come up with a loading for one that has a .433" groove diameter. Using 348 brass I formed a case with a set of Lee dies. The bullet is a flat base design from an Accurate mold, don't recall the number, but it was created for the Vetterli. I sized the boolit @ .435". The issue I'm having is in order to chamber the round I have had to trim the case back to 1.335". This doesn't leave a lot of room for the neck to grab the bullet when I seat it out at 2.2" OAL.

I'm contemplating my next move...

[craig61a]

OK so I trimmed another one down to 1.645", cleaned it up and checked the thickness of the wall on the mouth. Approximately .014-.015. I chucked it in the lathe and went over the outside of the neck with oiled 400 grit and got it down to about .010-.011. There is still some resistance up at the front, but it does slide much farther into the chamber that it did before.

[aap2]

I shoot my Swiss Vetterli with 330 grain boolits from a custom Accurate mould; they drop at .437 depending on the alloy and I size them to .436 which is a perfect fit in my bore. I form brass from 8mm Lebel with great results trimming to 1.6 which gives a COAL of 2.2 which works great in the Vetterli elevator. I tried using .348 Win brass but had to ream the necks to fit the chamber after seating the boolit so I just used the 8mm Lebel brass instead. Just formed several hundred cases and cast a bunch of boolits from the Accurate Vetterli mould....if you want to try these boolits and cases shoot me a PM and I will send you a handful no charge.

[fgd135]

Old Lyman/Ideal mould 427103 casts a 370 grain rn plain base bullet at about .427-.429, might be a good candidate to patch up to the diameter you need.

[John Boy]

Argie - take a permanent ink marker and blacken the area from the mouth backwards to determine where the case doesn't fit in the chamber

[corbinace]

Ok, I am a total nube with the Vetterli, and I have no place giving advice but...

With the 8mm Lebel case everything up front is getting stretched and with the 348 I thing everything is getting compressed.

My 8MM cases are currently trimmed at 1.7" and they are about 0.006-0.008" thick at the mouth, depending on which case and where you measure. That equates to roughly half of what Craig is talking about with the 348s. If I reach down into the neck it does not seem to get thicker in the area that did not have to stretch as much.

Just one data point from the cheap seats.

Tim.