'09 Argentine Carbine help??

[Uncle Grinch]

I have a 1909 Argentine Mauser Carbine that is all matching and overall is in good to very good condition... except for the bore. It is dark, but not pitted, with very worn and rounded rifling. To give you an idea how bad it is worn... I shot some FMJ factory loads for the brass and I could not hit the target (SR-2) at 50 yards. Well I moved it up to 25 yards and I got 1 out of 5 on the paper. So... at 10 yards I got them all on the paper, but some are starting to key-hole.

Well, my cast did a little better. I got all 5 rounds on the paper at 10 yards in somewhat of a group. However they also failed to keep on the paper at 50 yards. My cast boolits mike out at .313 with a 6 to 1 ww/lino mix. I tried to slug the barrel using a soft egg sinker and have not had much success. They all look like they ride right over the rifling.

I think a barrel is in order. Any other suggestions?

[45 2.1]

Check your fired cases, mike the inside neck diameter to find the largest size you can load. Size down 32 special lead bullets to fit that miked size and try. Several people here have the RCBS 32-170-FN boolit, ask for a sample. Push thru sizers are available from LEE precision or Buckshot.

[Jeffreytooker]

I got a barreled action in 1909 Argie a few years ago. I put in a cheap birch wood stock. I tried to shoot it with Cast Boolits. They keyholed at 50 or so yds. I was thinking about 86ing the barrel for a 7X57 carbine barrel that I got for a 1908 Brazilian carbine. Then the other night some mentioned cleaning the copper and crud out of old barrels. I started thinking that I will have some barrels that I will need to clean out. So the old Argie barrel may be a good place to start. It seems that some times old jbullet barrels clean up and make good boolit shooters. It does look a bit odd with a full length old military barrel in a birch sporter stock. If It will clean up and shoot I may leave as it is. I will save the barrel for some old Turk U Fixm or something.

Jeffrey

[Uncle Grinch]

45 2.1,

I miked my fired cases and both the factory and my cast show .311 to .3115.
My cast boolits mike .313 and should be fairly hard due to my 6 to 1 ww/lino mix.

Do you think a softer alloy or a slower velocity would help?

[Four Fingers of Death]

If it was a mint argie, I'd recommend you keep it original. But since the bbl is r00ted with a capital R, I'd pull the bbl and sell the action and stock and stock furniture separately. If the action numbers all match you should get enough to pay for two nice mausers and what you get for the stock will probably put a few more dollars in your skyrocket. There are some mint Yugo 48s kicking about at the moment.

Mick.