cast boolits in 6.5 vetterli

[Paul in Oregon]

I was checking out another forum about the Italian Vetterlis in 6.5 cal. Someone posted that cast boolits will not shoot accurately in these because the rifling is too deep. Anybody shooting these with cast and what kind of groups are you getting? Thank you, Paul.

[dubber123]

I haven't any experience with 6.5 Vetterli, but I have never heard of too deep rifling causing problems with cast. Too shallow, yes.

[Freightman]

Not had a 6.5 but have had a Swiss, rifling was deep and it shot wonderful with lead. Now will the 6.5 try it and find out is the best way and you have fun doing it.

[Donor8x56r]

Are you taking about Italian conversion of Vetterli to 6.5x52 ? i made a batch of boolits .269 NOE 145 GR for guy who had one of those.
He loaded them,shot them and afaik he purchased that mold because it worked well enough.I haven't seen targets so it's ,you know,iffy.

It might work for you.

[Ray1946]

Very interesting! I don't think the problem would be "too-deep", but the gain twist in these rifles. At the leade, the rifling twist is about 1 in 17". At the muzzle, the twist is about 1 in 7.8". I was going to buy a rifle to fool with this at one time, but could not find one with a decent barrel...........................

[Paul in Oregon]

Last week I bought a 6.5 Vetterli made by Brescia in 1884. I just shot it for the first time and I am impressed with the accuracy of it. I loaded up some cast loads using the Lee Cruise Missle that I altered the mould for by milling off the base to give me a boolit length of 1.010 . With 6 grains of Trailboss I shot a 3/4 inch group of 4 shots at 50 yards. Now to finish the no drill receiver sight and lighten the trigger pull and I`ll have a tack driver. Yahoo!! Paul in Oregon. It was about 11 F while shooting brr.

[Wdog01]

I used to have this rifle and reloaded with cast bullets too. I used LEE custom 6.5mm "missile" molds, gas-checked .266 bullet had 167grs. But with this rifle I couldn´t achieve higher muzzle speeds, with accuracy. My maximum was about 1450 fps with my load of 15 grs of ACC5744. Very week, but accurate at 55yds. All other higher loads were inaccurate, maybe because of barrel twist (see Ray1946 info). So I continued with .264 FMJ bullets and higher loads.