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Getting ready to load for my Martini and will be starting with paperpatched slugs. I have heard of good results and less monkey business with a traditional lubed cast bullet. However the diameters used vary pretty wildly and with the oddness of Henry rifleing i can't just slug it and get a good starting number.
Can I please try some of what works for you? Happy to pay your postage or send some lead.
Looking for 480gr to 510 gr weight and 462 to 472 diameter.
Thanks for your time.
.455
Try www.xringservices. Spokane WA
Martini's are a law unto themselves. The barrels are made with an 8" freebore ahead of the chamber (to accept black powder fouling) of 0.364" then constricts to 0.362" for the remainder. All this ozersizing to 0.372" etc. is utter rubbish. The bullet needs to be super soft (mine are 2% tin) so that upon firing the boolit will 'upset' into the freebore section, then squeze down to the main barrel. With over 40 years of playing with these rifles, I have found most commercial caster use an alloy that is just too hard to reform.
I have several of these rifles and ALL shoot the 0.462" boolit very well. Slugging the barrel is impossible on 7 groove rifling without a special anvil micrometer.
https://i.imgur.com/X53xURLm.jpg
200yard target (5 bulls) and barrel profile
https://i.imgur.com/r6q7fa4l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/80hZCOdl.jpg
This trick may not be 100% accurate, but it'll probably get you in the ballpark:Attachment 294490Quote:
Originally Posted by Bad Ass Wallace
This trick may not be 100% accurate, but it'll probably get you in the ballpark:
what the sam are you saying? these guns are all .458 and up .462. ,464. What does o.472 mean? Wrong thread?
OP first two guys gave sound advice. good luck
Paper patching has worked well for me. Took second in my clubs 100 year old rifle match with it. Thanks in large part to the help I received here.
I had two of these rifles and shot the accurate molds 470-465 with great accuracy. Sized the bullets to .470
Out of the gate, a .450" bullet wrapped in paper is the best bet. There's plenty of information on the web showing how the original ammunition was constructed. Make your shells like this, and it'll usually work, all else being equal.
It's a novel concept, feeding a rifle what it was originally designed to use, but it does work.
I have swaged 451 480 grain slugs and patched them. Results have been inconsistent, but did include a hit on a 12" plate at 600. What is your patched diameter/paper thickness?