Yesterday's Weapons Forums

I see that some of you guys are active reloaders for the 8x56r in the M95 Styer rifles. Thought you might be interested in the results I am getting with cast bullets. I tried the Lee .329" mold and got little better than pattern results. Did some research on the castboolit site and found out that most of these rifles like a fatter bullet, more like .334". the opinion on the castboolit site is that Lee got it wrong with their 8x56-.329" mold, and my rifle seems to bare this out. I was lucky to get some cast bullets along with this M95 carbine when I bought it, and the previous owner had done his homework, as these bullets are sized to .334". My first attempt was a load of 36gr, IMR4350 with compressed Cream of Wheat fill. This load was estimated from experience with other medium bore military loads. Here is the very first target I fired with this new rifle and load:

These targets are shot with the Lee 338", 220gr bullet sized to .334":

Same bullet a little hotter load:

Here is a picture of the loaded rounds with the bullets:

I apologise for the size of this picture. The edit function in photobucket wants to cut the picture in half when I try to make it smaller. The left bullet is the Lee .338-220. The middle bullet is a 232gr FN from a custom mold, and the right one is a 253gr FN also from a custom mold. I got a good supply with the rifle, but don't have a lot left. These custom molds were made by Mountain Mold Co. I emailed the company to see about getting some duplicate molds made, but they don't save old designs. Very wierd concept there. I haven't tried other powders yet, only IMR4350, which is my favorite cast bullet powder for hotter loads. My goal is to get an accurate 2000fps cast load in this rifle, but the twist rate may not let me. I do have big fun with this little carbine. I can whack the 100 yard plates with every shot, and they jump real well. I need to save some of the FN bullets till hunting season. Might need em for squirrels and such.....

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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."

Very impressive! Did you have chambering issues with the larger diameter bullets? I see it's time to order a .334 sizer from Lee. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

No chambering or feeding problems. The Lee .338-220 mold I have is actually a bore rider in my M95. Bullet nose shows marks from the rifling way down the side if extracted from chamber. Gotta love these little carbines. Here is a link to some pictures of mine: http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n24/ ... 5%20Styer/
Notice the rear sight. Williams intended for a Model 70....

_________________
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."

very immpressive , thats some great shooting

Very Nice Shooting! And great information.

THANKS!

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

I just got my Lee resizing die for bullets. I brought a batch of .338 bullets and i've resized 50 to .334 and 50 to .337 (OK, that's not what I wanted but with these old rifles who can tell.) I might get a chance to shot one or two of them Thursday.
pat

Wilkomen pakmcc!

Let us know the results

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

I've been working with cast bullet loads of .334 size in 8x56R myself. I've got two M95's, one with a .330 bore and the other with .333. I don't have a lot of data to offer with the .334's as I haven't done much range time with them yet.

My first experiments were with H-4198 powder, and I probably shouldn't have engaged in experiments containing two variables, but I did learn a few things.

I'd seen data for using 4198 (IMR or H) in loads in 8x56R. When I used .330 bullets, the results were not good. These recommendations were charges of 4198 in the 20.0 to 23.0 grain range. I could never get close to the supposedly obtained velocities in this range. You'd think that this would work in in the 8x56R, as similar bore size/case capacity milsurp calibers have 4198 propellant recommendations in this range or a bit higher.

My next experiments with 4198 involved the .334 bullets. What I found was that 22.0 grains of H-4198 wouldn't properly seal the case, resulting in gas leakage and low velocities. I'm talking about 1,268 fps, which is way under what similar charge weight recommendations claim to achieve.

So I've been wondering why the 8x56R is so underperforming in a charge range of 4198 that otherwise works quite well in other "large centerfire milsurp" calibers. As a result, I've been poring over my cast bullet reloading manuals, looking at all kinds of data for comparison. What I found was interesting. The .348 Winchester has a case profile very similar to the 8x56R. Data for the .348 Win. shows a suggested range of 4198 (using cast lead bullets comparable to the 200 gr. in 8x56R) from 25.0 to 38.5 grains. This is considerably more propellant than recommendations in, say, 8mm Mauser or .30-06.

My next step was to try 32.0 grains of H-4198 with a 200 grain cast bullet in 8x56R. Results: 1,791 fps and no smoking on the case. Now that's more like it.

All I can say is, comparing case capacity and bore size doesn't always tell the whole story. I believe in this matter, case shape is an important element.