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Transplanted from the old YW site:
gschwertley
saddle soap
Posts: 1513
(12/11/05 1:53 pm)
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Have I found a good bullet for reloading the 8x50R?
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When I was at the gun show yesterday, I spotted a box of 100 Hornady .338 bullets, 250 grains, jacketed round nose. They were only $5 (Midway lists them for over $22) so after looking them over bought them.
This bullet has a long, fat profile similar to the one used in the original loadings of 8x50R. Resized down to .329 using a Lee sizing die, it should be a good candidate for reloading 8x50R. Of course, it does not have the obturating base like the original. See some of my previous posts on reloading this caliber as to why this is an issue.
At first I thought this bullet would be a tough one to resize because of its long, fat profile. After lubing them, I started off with the resizing process and they went through quite easily. This bullet has a rounded heel design on the base of the bullet, which allows for the bullet to resize uniformly along its full length. I have found that some designs with a sharp edge on the heel (like Speer) tend to spring back to about .3295 after resizing. What you wind up with is a bullet which has a slightly greater size at the heel than along the rest of is length of bearing surface (which you want to be .329). When you seat bullets like this, the brass case mouth gets expanded out to .3295 along its full length and you don't get quite the tension on the bullet that you want.
Now that I have these resized to .329, I will go ahead and resize a portion of them down further to .323, which is the original bullet diameter used in 8x50R (albiet with an obturating base). This way I can experiment with both sizes and see what how the chrono data differs. Again, I refer to my earlier posts on the subject as to why I will do this (bore diameter versus land diameter).
Added later: I went ahead and sized 10 pieces down further to .323. This step involved much more force than that first step from .338 to .329. I also noticed that a bit of deformity took place with the lead nose seperating slightly from the jacket. It remains to be seen if this shows up in performance as to accuracy and velocity spread.
I have previously referred to possible problems with using resized jacketed bullets (accuracy, velocity spreads). Since the proper bullets for this cartridge are not available, I guess I will have to live with this possibility. Also, when you are presented with low-priced .338 bullets, the negative aspects of resizing tend to fade.
Another positive about using this long, round nose bullet is that there should be no problems with feeding from the magazine as sometimes happens when spitzer bullets are used in 8x50R loadings.
"Sehr schwer, mein Herr"
Edited by: gschwertley at: 12/13/05 12:26 am
yockey5
Coffee Pot
Posts: 9912
(12/11/05 9:43 pm)
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Re: Have I found a good bullet for reloading the 8x50R?
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Gary, it will be interesting to know if there is a big difference in .329 vs .323. Please keep us up to date.
coffee pot
When your firearms are taken, your democracy no longer exists.
gschwertley
saddle soap
Posts: 1517
(12/11/05 10:47 pm)
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Re: Have I found a good bullet for reloading the 8x50R?
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Don:
From my chrono tests, I already know there is a significant loss of velocity using a .323 bullet without an obturating base to seal the gas properly.
I loaded 20 rounds of 8x50R tonight using the new-resized 250 gr. round nose bullets in two batches. One used the .329 bullet and the other the .323. Today was clear and cold and would have been a good day to go to the range, but just couldn't get it all together to do so. I will have to wait for another clear day, and what with the Christmas workload, will probably be after the holidays.
It never surprises me to encounter new problems with loading the 8x50R and tonight was not different. For these loads, I decided to use some "new" brass that I ordered from Buffalo Arms. Actually what it is, is re-worked RP .45-70 brass. It has been shortened, reformed, and a grove cut just ahead of the rim which also has been trimmed a little.
I have learned to load only one or two with reformed cases, just to see how they work before you load a bunch that won't work. Sure enough, I put the newly loaded round in the rifle and it wouldn't fully seat and allow the bolt to lock. I checked the diameter of the case where the bullet seats and it was under (both .329 and .323 bullet versions were checked), plus the neck had no marks on it so that wasn't the problem. The rim was engaging the bolt face okay, so that wasn't it either. I looked closely at the case and could see some marks on the shoulder, and sure enough, determined that the new case wasn't sized properly. The shoulder had not been set back far enough. So, I had to go back and resize all of these "new" cases. After sizing, I annealed the necks as this had not been done by Buffalo Arms. After that things went a bit better. Now I just have to take them out and test them.
I don't think I will be buying Buffalo Arms 8x50R cases in the future. After using theirs and my own made from 7.62x54R, I think I prefer mine and they cost a lot less.
These loads with the long, round nose bullet sure look a lot more like the original loadings than any other that I have loaded. They cycle better through the action too.
"Sehr schwer, mein Herr"
Edited by: gschwertley at: 12/13/05 12:24 am
yockey5
Coffee Pot
Posts: 9921
(12/12/05 12:20 am)
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Re: Have I found a good bullet for reloading the 8x50R?
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I have 200 rounds of the 250 gr. RN bullets that I resized to .329, but as of yet have not used any of them.
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yockey5
Coffee Pot
Posts: 9960
(12/13/05 9:57 pm)
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Re: Have I found a good bullet for reloading the 8x50R?
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Gary, just an after thought here. All of the resized bullets measure out at .330, which I do not think will be a problem with the jacketed bullets.
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