Kropatschek revisited then...
https://i.postimg.cc/4NwdS8rp/20230912-234300.jpg
I guess all of us that use our Kropas struggle with one thing mainly, pills for it.
I guess mine is about average as far as dimensions, i see a full 0,330" diameter on the grooves and although i guess many claim success using 323 pills.. It really has become sorts of a pet peeve to me. Sure, due this have even designed a slider too... but that´s lead and out of the scope of THIS post.
Uhu. Many in turn advice against using spitzers, and for a good reason i guess. But truth be told i for one at least believe that tale to be slightly on the rich side seeing the VERY acute angle of the cartridge as it "comes to a rest". No matter, to play it safe i will most certainly single load.
Anyways.
We´ve thus far developed a few greaser molds and a slider for it, that works reasonably well that i cast 1:20 and are pushed through a 329" eye before loading up.
As i guess most are aware the original black powder load is referenced at just a scooch above 1700fps and be that as it may what i´ve read up FURTHER is that as the cartridge went smokeless in 8*56 guise, soon enough Lebel levels of performance was arrived on and realized. Ie; a tad over 2000fps.
The original boolit, if such could be reasoned i guess as there were quite a few of them, came all in around the 250 grain mark, which for an 8mm pill i guess is ample, 1700 or 2200fps no matter.
Due that, i guess, i see that many that actually USE their Kropas end up using jacketed pills on approx 200+ instead, for various reasons i guess.
Well.
Old friend just bought himself a Sako in 338LM and with it an absolute TON of pills to boot. Seeing they were there in front of me, Ulf handed me quite a bunch.. me having in mind to shove them through my LEE sizer to see where that takes me.,
Hm. Pills sure came out .329" and.. that coupled with me using resized/formed 348Win brass... well this brought i now had to move to neck turning to make the thing work in MY chamber.
To note here is that i basically run the piece on duplex only. 55-70 grains of holy ( all depending) and then 7 grains of Norma 200. Difference in need for patching and clean up is nothing short of mindblowing, making for a rifle i tend to USE as it craves attention about on par/nil with a "regular" smokeless gun.
In short all the bells n whistles of blackpowder, just sans any of the time consuming drawbacks.
Get enough of that with my just as original old muzzle loaders.
Anyways.
No doubt resizing 338 pills to work in "our" guns is not only doable but feasible. Often talked about spring back, well what i´ve seen this far if ANY... very very minute.
However.
That there diameter increase of the actual bottle neck due the slightly larger pill.. another matter. What i´ve seen so far what needs to come off is approx 1/10mm leaving me with approx 25/100s worth of wall vs previous 35/100s. Should as far as i recon still be both safe and doable on every count there is but.. none the less..
Yes i do anneal and do so on given intervals.
These 338 pills come all in on very "stock" numbers being at 250 grains. So i guess my first trials here will be using around 45-55 of black and 6-7 of Norma 200. If we calculate on a 2.8 "bump factor" that brings load total (regarded as black powder) at approx just shy of 65 and up.
Of course pressure will go up, i appreciate that hence why i debate on it, and will be happy to report any findings right back.
I guess part of the "issue" here being the sizing of the pill seeing the rather deep rifling on these units. So yep.. will be cautious no doubt.
This being said, who of us HAVE pulled this stunt prior? What were your findings?
Cause, for all the obvious reasons i guess i expect to sooner or later see a load that´ll hand improved accuracy (which is the name of the game to me)
Out of us that shoot the Kropatschek how many of us like me use the 348Win as parent brass? In my case Winchester made only, which has been a bit of hit n miss.
Although annealed i´ve had a few ruptures.. Or cracks more like it. Need to investigate that too, why that is.
