43 spanish RB. Need Advice

[Marvin S]

Bought one of the Argentine guns this weekend, it is in excellent condition with an mint bore that slugs .442. I have done all of the reading I can find short of buying the book that others talk about.I have seen case's for sale at TOW web site but in the pics the head stamp says 348 win. I have read on gunboards that you should not try and make cases from the 348 because you will have excess head space.The rim is .065 instead of .090.I also see some say to get 44-77 basic and size it to fit.Then there is the Bertram brass, is it the correct brass or just something that works half ass? Very perplexing. I would like to use smokeless powder in it, so could someone with knowledge of these share with me. I also need to get everything to load for it, mould, brass, dies. I will most likely buy the lee dies but undecided on the mould. I have read some post on turning the case necks to chamber a larger bullet to fit the bore better so I may be interested in doing this so I may look for a mould to cast somewhere in the .443-.445 if there is a such. Thanks in advance for any help.

[curator]

The .43 Spanish cases sold by Buffalo Arms have the rim/head modified to create a thicker rim and headspace correctly. Before these were available I fireformed .348 Win brass after lathe-turning the base diameter to chamber. The 43 Spanish case has just enough of a shoulder that you can headspace the case on it if you are careful.

Go ahead and buy the lee dies, but you may find that you don't need to resize your brass if you follow this simple procedure:

Start with new brass and pure or nearly pure lead bullets of .439-.441 diameter. Cut a small notch on the case rim as an index mark. Load a "medium" charge of a black-powder replacement type smokeless powder such as SR4959, Reloder7, or IMR4198. Using the index mark on the case rim load all cases the same orientation. I prefer my index mark being straight up. Fire the cartridges.

Most Remington rolling blocks do not lock up perpendicular to the bore resulting in a slightly "bent" case head after firing. By orienting your brass the same each time you eliminate the problems caused by this little defect.

Thereafter simply remove the primer, reload the powder charge, and thumb seat bullets in the unsized cases. If the bullets are a bit too lose, coat them in Lee liquid alox and let it dry. This sticky stuff adds a couple of thousandth to the bullet diameter and also provided a bit more lubrication. Loading couldn't be simpler, and the cases last for years since they aren't worked by resizing. Always index your reloaded cartridges and you will never have a problem getting them to chamber.

[MtGun44]

I bought some of the very pricey Bertram. OK quality, nothing to write home
about, but they fit fine.

I have had a little bit of success so far, but have only tried a few loads. My best was
unsize Lym 439186 at .442", 12 BHN over 12 gr Unique. This went into 3.5" at 100 yds.
10 gr Unique did 1.5" at 50 yds. 20.0 SR4759 went into 3" at 50. 43 Varget
was awful, as was 4198.

Not much experience, but try you should try 12 Unique with a big soft boolit.

Bill

[Marvin S]

Okay sounds like good advice. Is there some mold blocks/bullet numbers that you would recommend. I like the sound of the case's lasting since they are very expensive.

Would you be willing to share some smokeless load data using the powders mentioned above.

[Buckshot]

..............Marvin S, welcome to the board! Here's some 43 Spanish stuff:

http://www.fototime.com/23E5560C8BB6BF7/standard.jpg

Two different boolits and two different powders.

http://www.fototime.com/CFE4FB6484BDAE6/standard.jpg

The upended boolit in the case was to show the freebore or throat. The base just touched the lands at that length.

http://www.fototime.com/4B9EBE131ADC269/standard.jpg

An oversized slug driven in to show the throat and leade features. The 2 lower parallel lines show the length of the leade. The upper shows the angle of the lands.

My cases are Bertram and my dies are Lee. I have no problem with either.

..............Buckshot

[missionary5155]

Good morning I bought my forst 43 Roller 20 years ago. It was just sitting there and no one would touch it it was not 45-70. My I am game for most anything so it still resides on the family.
I Highly recommend slugging your throat area. My first 43 SPAN slugged .442. That finally got my shooting on paper and enjoying the cartrige. I did buy an Oversized mold (Rapine .443 ) and the Lyman .446 (Mauser) for shooting Bare Boolits which is mostly what I do. I load near Pure lead and enough Black 2F to get about a 1/4 " compression. I thinned the case necks on Danny Powels lathe so the FAT boolits will chamber.
I did not at first "Notch" my case heads But a kind feller along the way suggested that as that chamber/ breach block is not perfect.
I would not hessitate to hunt any critter this side of the world with a 400 gr+ 43 Spanish rifle. I liked it enough to buy a carbine which makes a fine POWERFULL hunting rifle. How many millions Buffs were dropped with the 44-77 (another name for the 43 Spanish) we will never know but it is one fine cartrige. It just has a few peculiar things to overcome.
I was fortunate to buy 100 Basic Brass 20 years ago... Still am shooting with 99...
Mike inPeru

[Marvin S]

Im confident with some good pointers I can get it to shoot to some degree of accuracy as to point of aim that may be another challenge. I have plenty of soft lead (several thousand pounds) even got a 14x46 lathe if needed.