Paper Patching 303 bullets for 8x57

[Reverend Recoil]

Has anyone tried paper patching cast 303 bullets for a 8x57 Mauser?

[JeffinNZ]

They would need to be fairly 'fat' .303 bullets for a .323 bore. If you patch with 9lb paper you will need a bare bullet of at least .316 but it should work.

[pdawg_shooter]

If your cast bullet is around .313/.314 it would work fine. Give them 2 wraps of 16# paper, let dry, lube and run them through a .324 die and load. I prefer 16# printer paper that has the feed holes down each side. It seem to be a little stronger than regular paper.

[bcp477]

I concur with pdawg. I size my bullets down to .314......then wrap twice with lined notebook paper for a dry size of .3235........ then size to .323. Very accurate in my M48.

[Zeek]

Following up on the Reverend's proposed trick, other likely patch-it-on-up options might include:

• 258 CBoos patched-up for 6.5mm chambeirngs
• 6.5 CBoos patched-up for the 270
• 270 (0.277" diameter) CBoos patched up for 7mm
• 348 CBoos patched-up for 35 caliber chambeirngs
• heavyish 452 revolver CBoos for 45 caliber rifle chamberings

Something interesting about pdawg's & bcp477's approach, as described above, is that, although a 2X patch-up using 16# paper (on a 0.314" diameter CBoo) gives ~0.324" (the desired finish diameter), half of that added 10 thousandths of diameter is air (trapped within the paper). Thus, in order to work, the CBoo core must obturate at least 0.005" in order to crush the PPatch so that the patch is strong enough to transfer the rifling torque to the CBoo core and seal against excess gas leakage. That this has worked well for these two gentlemen means that we can count on that much core obturation to work, even though the PPatch is being dragged along for the first of ~2" before the rifle-type charge reaches full pressure ~~~> at some point in that drag-along, probably near the end of it, the CBoo core obturates, thereby eliminating the drag-along effect.

pdawg & bcp477, would you please clarify what alloy hardness you were using for this patch-it-up trick? That is a very important aspect of any PPCBoo load and really should be included in everyone's "it worked!" write-up. Also, gentlemen, do you happen to recall the bullet weight, powder, and charge weight involved? Thanks for your help. Such details really help a person to duplicate your experiment.
Regards, Zeek

[Reverend Recoil]

38.5gr. Alliant Reloader No.7 with the paper patched bullet at 1816 fps is what killed the boar.

[303Guy]

Zeek
The cores bump up alright. Even at very low muzzle velocity and very low peak chamber pressure. I patched a 120gr 25 boolit that had the bore ride section small enough for the rifling to touch but not leave a visible impression on the patch but when fired and recovered, the rifling impression on the bore-ride section was plain to see. Alloy was WW and lead pipe - more lead pipe than WW. And the patch shreaded.

Reverend
Might I ask what alloy killed the boar?
I am planning on a pig gun that will fire 240gr PP's at around 1800fps. (Maybe a bit lighter and maybe a bit slower, depending on what the rust damaged bore will handle. It's an old MkI Lee Enfield and the bore at the throat end will take an 8mm PPCBoo!)

[bcp477]

The specifics of my bullet and load are as folows:

174-175 grain flat nose/ plain base bullet.....BHN 12-15 (the old Lyman #2 alloy, from what I understand).....the mould is the RCBS 08-170 FN.

Bullet sized to 0.314"...... wrapped twice with 16# lined notebook paper, lubed with Lee Liquid Alox, cut 50/50 with turpentine...... the dry wrapped/ lubed bullet dia. is just about 0.3235". I twist a tail on the patch, which, when dry, I cut off and flatten against a hard flat surface. As a final step, I size the wrapped bullet to 0.323", with a Lee push-through die.

The load : 32.5 grains of Hodgdon Benchmark (very close in burn rate to IMR-3031 and RL-7)..... with approx. 0.5 grain of cotton wool added as a filler. As chrono'd, just over 2000 fps through my rifle.

I get 1.5" or better groups at 100 yards, with complete consistency....often 1" or better groups (though I can't shoot that well with any consistency).

The rifle, by the way, is an old Yugoslav M48, with an unused surplus Yugo miltary barrel (I re-barreled the rifle myself)..... cut and crowned at 18". The rifle is fitted with a 4 x 32 scope, placed forward of the receiver ("scout rifle style").

[Reverend Recoil]

My .358" bullets were cast from wheel weights and patched unsized to .367".