Dan, I'm not sure if you are asking me but I dip my CMs in Lee Liquid Alox. I don't have a size die big enough to lube the .272 boolits.
Try some really slow loads and see what that does for your stability and group size.
Bob
Dan, I'm not sure if you are asking me but I dip my CMs in Lee Liquid Alox. I don't have a size die big enough to lube the .272 boolits.
Try some really slow loads and see what that does for your stability and group size.
Bob
GUNFIRE! The sound of Freedom!
Boz....Naaa, don't want to mess with loads that slow. Kinda a waste of boolits IMHO. I am just starting with the Carcano, and realize these little rifles require a lot of 'special attention' to get good cast accuracy. Frustration level is still low. Just tried my very first loads Monday, so I am sure that the development period will continue for a while longer. My cast loads are 1800+ for every rifle I shoot. I am sure the Carcano will require more experimentation than the No.4Mk.2 Enfield or the M48 Mauser did to get to that mid-range performance level, and that is part of the fun for me.
Last edited by DanM; 07-15-2010 at 03:39 PM.
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The 30 cals are a lot easier to work up loads for with cast, but I still think that the gain twist is the buggaboo with this rifle. JMHO and I have been wrong many times before.
Bob
GUNFIRE! The sound of Freedom!
You might be right, and the CM bullet is soo long it may really get distorted in that gain twist bore. I am going to try having the bottom band milled off the extra mold I just ordered. That makes a shorter 150gr bullet that might work better. If it doesn't work in the carcano, I am sure it will be great in the M96 Swede.
Ten Bears; "You are the Grey Rider. You would not make peace with the bluecoats. You may go in peace."
Josey Wales; "I reccon not."
Charlie Waite; "Men are gonna die here today, Sue, and I'm gonna kill them."
Noob question: Is there anyway to mill/cut the CM boolit to get rid of the rear Driving band, without milling the mold, so that the shorter boolit could be tested in a rifle without first doing a permanent change to the mold?
Not doing a Cacarno, but I just cast up some CM's out of the Mid-South mold for a couple of Swedes I have. As cast, I seated a couple of dummy rounds so that there is rifling impressions on the nose, but that leaves the gc'd base extending down nearly to the beginning of the case shoulder. Doesn't seem like that's probably going to work well......
The Lee Cruise Missile does pose some interesting scenarios. Mine casts WW at .271". My Lyman boolit sizing die is .264", my M-38 Swede groove dia is .2685". What to do?
I seated and crimped the gas check first in .264" LS die using the old #45 lube/sizer. Have a .257" sizing die, so did the nose first thing to take the .263" nose down to just shy of the first band. But with the short leade of the M-38, the boolit would still have to be seated well below the shoulder. So ran the boolit nose first into the .264" die, first and second band to .264", third band at .267" as it entered the taper and left last two bands at .271". Lo and behold and by gosh, can now seat the GC right at base of neck, dummy rounds chamber and fuction fine through the action and all is now well for the CM test drive.
Interesting alternative, Hang Fire. Let me know how that testing goes. It would mean another size die, for me, but hey, if it works......... Still thinking about how to take the back end off without altering the mold. Maybe all this needs to go to a separte Swede thread?
I nose-size my cut-down Cruise Missiles for my M96 Swedes, with the Lyman .266" H&I die, I run them in nose-first to size the first band to .266 and the second tapered .267" to .2675", this, with .2713" driving bands fits both of my Swedes like a glove seated to engrave with the gas check at the base of the cast neck, leaving .001" chamber neck clearance the way I form and trim my case necks.
But..............no matter what I've tried, it makes elliptical holes at 25 yards and full keyholes at 50-75. I think the boolit is cursed. It keyholes for everyone that tries it.
Gear
I recently bought a swedish mauser 150gr. Lee mold and a double cavity Lyman 170gr. and was wondering how much Unique powder I could load with each. any help would be welcome.
Thank you.
where can i find a lee mold cruise missile? cant finde it in lee catalogue
That mold can be found here:
http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.co...u=000066.5SWED
Doing a follow up on this with you. I just started on my Carcano and found this thread. I went forward and bought the CM mold from Midsouth but have a couple questions on your lapping exercise...Can you provide a little more detail on exactly what you did here? got to break it down so a simple minded retired artilleryman could understand
also, what size are folks using for gas checks?
Great post by the way.
Thanks
Eric
I make my own checks and the die throws them at .270(ish).
Lately I have done a lot of testing with the illustrious CM. I have been trying to create round bullets to no avail I might add.
First experiment was to cut the bullet down to 1 inch. I chopped off the GC shank, rear band an bottom lube groove then squared up the new base by running a file over the bullet which was held in my sizing die. Perfectly square bullets, fantastic accuracy in the 2 MOA realm..........OVAL holes.
The next experiment was to more the centre of gravity of the bullet backwards by hollow pointing the bullet. I ran a 2.5mm hole 11mm deep into the bullet. Great accuracy......you guessed it.....OVAL holes. Next I ran a 3mm 18mm or half way into the bullet. OVAL holes. All the holes were perfectly centered.
Bottom line is there is something fundamentally wrong with the CM in a Carcano. My Carcano has a static twist and not gain. My friend, "Tertle" has a Carcano identical to mine and my CM load does exactly the same in his rifle. GREAT accuacy at 100m but oval holes. I have given up now. The rifle is accuarte at 100m which is as far as I want to shoot those sights on wallabies and the recipient is none the wiser of the wobbly bottom bullet.
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Jeff.
Can you talk me through how you make your gas checks? Some sort of press? they are pretty much the only variable in my reloading habit besides powder and primers that seems to drive up costs. I have a bunch of brass for all my cals and getting great life on them, i cast for everything and get free lead locally, but the damn gas checks...if i could figure out how to make them it would stretch my shooting budget.
thanks
Eric
Thermal underwear style guru.
"Exclusive international distributor of Jeff Brown Hunt Club clothing."
Supplier to the rich(?) and infamous.
Cheers from New Zealand
Jeff.
Its not a 1-2-3 set of instructions. You have to learn how to use the filler correctly. That involves learning how much compression to use on the buffer and powder that goes in a particular cartridge. In other words you have to be more than a component assembler as this isn't as simple as it sounds. Buffer does need some compression, too little and it doesn't work and the same with too much. That amount differs per case shape and capacity along with boolit weight. Starmetal took two months to learn how and used a bag of buffer and a couple pounds of powder before he caught on. Now he won't use anything else.
Last edited by 45 2.1; 10-22-2010 at 09:40 AM.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |