Yesterday's Weapons Forums

CB,
I have heard that hpbt bullets match bullets may not kill very well, but then I have never hunted with them . Anybody else know?

Is that 4831 IMR or Hodgdon powder? What kind of Smidt are you hunting with? And, do you have any other powder you would like to try while you are at it?

Greg

One must be sure of the gun being used as I have seen people shooting
the full power Norma in model 1889 Schmidts when they warn on the box not to shoot it in the model 1889.

Lee lists the load for a 168 grain bullet as 49 grains max for H4831.
The starting load is 45 grains. Good luck.

THE LOAD BELOW MAY DANGEROUS. I WOULD NOT SUGGEST IT UNLESS YOU ARE VERY CONFIDENT IN RELOADING AND KNOW HIGH PRESSURE SIGNS. I HAVE NOT TRIED IT. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

One reference I came across was for 52 grains of H4831 as a starting load for 168 grain hpbt Sierra bullets. I would start even lower like 49 grains. Look for flattened primers, hard extractions, blown up actions, dead people etc.

The maximum load was listed at 55 grains H4831. Vel. = 2700f/s.

This may work on thin skinned animals such as deer, but as I said it is outside of my area of knowledge. Hunting hollow points may have a thicker jacket at the nose than target.??????????????????????????????
VE don't know.

If you're planning on using Sierra Match Kings, I would discourage you from doing so. They don't expand. Twenty years ago, we used to take great pains to avoid using SMK's for combat loads because "everybody knows that the Geneva Convention prohibits the use of hollow points." Actually, it's the Hague Convention, and it doesn't prohibit hollow points per se; it prohibits bullets that are designed to expand on impact with flesh. Some sharp lawyer picked up on this ... according to Sierra, the SMK's were not designed to expand, the hollow point is there to move the longitudinal center of gravity aft, closer to the center of pressure. Test on animal cadavers show that they really don't expand in animal flesh. So the latest specialized sniper ammo uses the unmodified 175 grain SMK.

Sierra makes a 165 grain hunting hollow-point boat tail bullet that DOES expand, and also a a 165 grain spitzer (soft point) boat tail. Either of these will be as accurate as the 168 grain SMK in a typical hunting rifle out to 300 yards, and will perform reliabley on game.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

_________________
USN Distinguished Marksman No. O-067

Like the other guys said, the Match hollow point is not the same kind of HP as a varmit bullet. The point doesn't open up on impact.

The three powders you refer too are probably not in the optimum range for the Swiss 7.5. 4198 and 4227 are too fast, and 4831 is a bit too slow, although a better choice than the two fast numbers you have for normal purposes. 4198 and 4227 would be more appropriate for reduced velocity loads in this cartridge.

Better propellants for the 7.5x55 Swiss in the bullet weight you mention would be in the range from about IMR 3031 to IMR 4350, or any of the other manufacturer's products within that range. Get yourself a "powder burn rate chart" by Googling those words and compare. One of my favorites has been Hodgdon H414, a ball powder. I've had success with IMR 4895 and IMR 4350 also.

There's no reason you can't use the H-4831 for loading the 7.5x55, it's just not the most efficient powder available. With the slower powders like this, you use more of it and get less muzzle velocity.

One important thing to remember with loading the 7.5x55 Swiss is that of bullet seating depth. The K31 has a very short leade in the rifling, consequently the bullet needs to be seated deeply. Those Sierra 168 HPBT Match King bullets have a fairly long ogive, so when properly seated they sit deep in the case.

My notes show that the last time I fired the Sierra 168 gr. HPBT bullet in one of my Swiss rifles, I used a cartridge overall length (COL) of 2.89 inches, but be sure to check it for your own rifle just to make sure it is correct for it. On that occasion, I used 46.0 of IMR 4350 which gave me a speed of very close to 2300 fps.

CountryBoy,

For what its worth department. I was looking for case dimensions for the 7.5 Swiss and ran across a Wikepedia article on it. According to the author, the GP11 ammunition and rifles they are use in are tested at 68,000 PSI.

I am trying to get the proper SAAMI base dimensions and have seen everything from 0.491 inch to 0.498 inch. This is getting to be pretty much a paper chase. I think some of these were actual measurements of the cartridge not the specified dimensions.