Here's one for you...little back story:
Started loading for the 7.5x55 Swiss this spring when I bought my 1911 long rifle...worked up some loads with IMR4895 and some 168 Nosler CC's and ended up settling on 35gr for my 100yd plinking loads because they gave me the best accuracy out of the bunch with both my 1911 Long and my K11 (1911 short). Fast forward, I decided to try this load in my K31 and it worked just fine! I was getting 2-3" groups with poor lighting and open sights with this relative punani queef load of mine...good enough for me because it was going to be easier on my antique rifles. I take my 25 PPU brass and throw them in the tumbler for about a month waiting for more brass to fill up the tumbler enough to justify running it for a few hours (time to shoot was pretty scarce this summer due to house projects and the likes). I do a FL resize and de prime...reprime and tumble again for a few minutes to get the lube off and then load them up again and put them in my 'range ammo can' so they're there for the next time i take out one of the swiss ladies. Thinking that all would be well and good, I took the 1911 long to the range this past wednesday, but to my surprise not a single one of my rounds would chamber!
I was a little miffed to say the least, but knew there had to be a good reason for it. Got home and compared my home-spun ammo to some GP11 and was really surprised at what i found.
The K31 chamber seems to have destroyed this brass for use in my 1911 Schmidt Rubins! I use Redding dies for this caliber because I had read somewhere that a lot of people were having trouble making the Lee and RCBS dies work for thier K31's. As it turns out, the Redding dies do not size anywhere close to GP11, but rather more so to a K31 chamber spec. The dies did a fine job as long as I was firing the brass out of both my 1911's, but as soon as I put it through the K31 it will not FL resize to fit in the other rifles any more. The difference is so big that it is even visible when looking at the case necks.
Do any of you load for other swiss rifles as well and have experienced similar issues? I'm kind of surprised the 1911's have a tighter chamber than the K31, as I thought it was the other way around. I have 200 PPU brass in bags waiting to get loaded, so it's not at all an issue that I can't use the 'test load' brass in my other rifles anymore (unless another brand of die would work to get them back to GP11 spec or close to it). Looks like I'm going to have to keep my brass for each individual rifle separate and finally start learning to neck size to increase accuracy and ensure that my damn ammo is going to chamber when I get to the range!
Anyway...just thought it was worth mentioning since I'm seeing some good activity in this thread. I'm still waiting for Mountain to post up his 'secret 2520' load though.
Side note...has anyone tried the Nosler 175gr RDF bullets in their Swiss rifles yet? I feel like those might even be a better fit than the 168 HPBT and it looks like a certain online vendor has some 'blemishes' on sale right now that I might just have to try out.
Started loading for the 7.5x55 Swiss this spring when I bought my 1911 long rifle...worked up some loads with IMR4895 and some 168 Nosler CC's and ended up settling on 35gr for my 100yd plinking loads because they gave me the best accuracy out of the bunch with both my 1911 Long and my K11 (1911 short). Fast forward, I decided to try this load in my K31 and it worked just fine! I was getting 2-3" groups with poor lighting and open sights with this relative punani queef load of mine...good enough for me because it was going to be easier on my antique rifles. I take my 25 PPU brass and throw them in the tumbler for about a month waiting for more brass to fill up the tumbler enough to justify running it for a few hours (time to shoot was pretty scarce this summer due to house projects and the likes). I do a FL resize and de prime...reprime and tumble again for a few minutes to get the lube off and then load them up again and put them in my 'range ammo can' so they're there for the next time i take out one of the swiss ladies. Thinking that all would be well and good, I took the 1911 long to the range this past wednesday, but to my surprise not a single one of my rounds would chamber!
I was a little miffed to say the least, but knew there had to be a good reason for it. Got home and compared my home-spun ammo to some GP11 and was really surprised at what i found.
The K31 chamber seems to have destroyed this brass for use in my 1911 Schmidt Rubins! I use Redding dies for this caliber because I had read somewhere that a lot of people were having trouble making the Lee and RCBS dies work for thier K31's. As it turns out, the Redding dies do not size anywhere close to GP11, but rather more so to a K31 chamber spec. The dies did a fine job as long as I was firing the brass out of both my 1911's, but as soon as I put it through the K31 it will not FL resize to fit in the other rifles any more. The difference is so big that it is even visible when looking at the case necks.
Do any of you load for other swiss rifles as well and have experienced similar issues? I'm kind of surprised the 1911's have a tighter chamber than the K31, as I thought it was the other way around. I have 200 PPU brass in bags waiting to get loaded, so it's not at all an issue that I can't use the 'test load' brass in my other rifles anymore (unless another brand of die would work to get them back to GP11 spec or close to it). Looks like I'm going to have to keep my brass for each individual rifle separate and finally start learning to neck size to increase accuracy and ensure that my damn ammo is going to chamber when I get to the range!
Anyway...just thought it was worth mentioning since I'm seeing some good activity in this thread. I'm still waiting for Mountain to post up his 'secret 2520' load though.
Side note...has anyone tried the Nosler 175gr RDF bullets in their Swiss rifles yet? I feel like those might even be a better fit than the 168 HPBT and it looks like a certain online vendor has some 'blemishes' on sale right now that I might just have to try out.