Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Hi,

In shooting thirty rounds of this stuff, some were normal, some had ruptured primers, others the primers fell out after extracting the case. Accuracy was very poor, even with a new barrel.

Yesterday, I attempted to resize and trim these cases. It seems that no two cases have the same diameter flash hole, nor are any two cases the same length. That would explain the accuracy problem.

Has anyone here had any problems with Igman?

Thanks,

Richard

You can always use a flash hole uniformer & once fired they should form to your chamber & then trim to proper length. I wouldn't think that igman is the standard for quality

_________________

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

Do you know where this Igman ammo was made?? For some reason I thought it was originally made in Greece, but upon looking I see some or all is made in Bosnia Herzegovina. I use Greek GXP ammo as a standard of reference and it is extremely well made if a little hot in 303 Brit, but Igman in my opinion is about two grades below Hxp in quality IMHO.

It was made in Bosnia. Some of the boxes say: Bosnia and Herzegovina, others say: Made in Yugoslavia

I pulled the bullets from thirty rounds and weighed the powder from each. They are all within 1.2 grains of each other. I did not weigh the bullets, but none of them mic the same. They range between 2.675" and 2.684"

I think I can salvage the brass.

RS

Excuse me I meant Greek HXP ammo not GXP. Weigh the brass cases and see how much of a range there is among about 25 cases. You might get a range of about 3-4 grains variation on good cases. IIRC

I weighed ten old Herter's 6.5 x55 powder charges and the range in powder wt. variation was no greater than 0.3-0.4 grain.(brochure said 1/10 grain accuracy) I would think that a 1.2 grain range is too much even with stick powder and would also contribute to inaccuracy. Hand loads can reach 0.1 grain accuracy and 0.3 grain range is ok as long as it is not max, but I don't think it is this critical in a rifle case of this size. Also what kind of accuracy have you gotten with other makes of ammunition?

Hi,

I had not thought about weighing the cases. Will do shortly.

RS

Hi,

The weight spread between the cases is 190.7 to 178.5 in one lot, and 183.7 - 181.0 in another lot.

Bullet weights range from 141.0 - 138.0

Your thoughts?

Richard

I would sort out the brass to that I had a pile that existed of similar wt. cases. This may represent a bell shaped curve that has culls on both sides or may be skewed to one side. You are looking for ones that are within about 5-6 grains range. I would trim them all to the same length first and then weigh them. I would also prime them all to see which ones prime too easily and discard them. When you size the cases set the dies so that the case has just enough clearance to close the bolt on. Too much sizing will cause the primers to back out and the case to stretch. Also check your firing pin to make sure it is properly rounded and the firing pin hole not too large.
Did you check the fired primers to see if they were flattened or extruded into the firing pin hole? A normal fired primer will still be rounded or beveled at the edge. If it is flat or cratered (extruded) this is a sign of excess pressure. I have found that some brass or chambers in 6.5 x55 cause gross headspace problems of 0.015"-0.022". After several resizings that are too loose you will get incipient head separation. This of course is not a good thing for either gun or shooter.

Here is a good test. Get some brass shim stock about 0.010" and 0.015" thick and cut some disk out that will fit the base diameter. place an empty unfired case (no powder, primer, or bullet) in the chamber with the disk on the back. You may have to hold the rifle vertically with the muzzle up or down which ever suits. See if the bolt closes easily. If it closes on the 0.010 inch go to the 0.015 inch disk. If it closes on this you may want to keep on going to find out what the headspace is. It is also best to take the firing pin out when doing this---no spring pressure and safer.

The reason. Just because a rifle passes a smith's gage test does not mean that the brass be too short. I have seen this especially in military rifles and ammo. I have seen it in a Carcano and in a lot of type 99 japanese Both of these using new Norma brass. And I have seen it in Swedes, but all of these examples I did not have a set of headspace gages to see whether it was the rifle, the cases, or both. If you resize to fit the particular rifle you can avoid this provided the brass is not already too stretched.