Shiloh Rifle Forums

Shot some of the 371345E PP bullets in my 38-55 yesterday with some 'interesting' results. This is with the Starline 2.125" cases. All cases have been anneled. One case blew out completely and all the rest ended up with strange distortions at the cases mouth. The load was 50gr of 2F Swiss, a single 0.060" poly wad, LP primer with an inside the case primer wad below the powder of a single piece of 55w PP paper. I've shot this load with the Baco 360gr GG Money bullet without any case problems. I'm wondering the case is stretching a bit on firing and the mouth is being trapped by the bullet base, creating the problem?

when you say annealed, what was the process used?
bruce.

Guessing the cases may not have particularly cared for the annealing.

The white stuff in two of those cases, is that paper sticking to the inside the case mouth? Could be from paper being to thick, or inside of the case mouths not cleaned. What about crimp after seating the bullet.
Might want to dump the poly wad and go with a fiber wad.

try flaring the case mouths so they drag in the chamber that will help seal in the chamber art

I increased the photo trying to get a closer look at the case mouths but it's to bleary but case 2 and 3 looks like it was pulled past the chamber end into the throat because of being to long. This will crimp the case mouth tight to the bullet and it will stretch the case.
I seen this happen when my cases are to tight to the 45º chamber end.
This gets amplified if the case gets to hot when annealing them.

Glenn,

The only time I've had that happen was when I breach seated with zero compression and a full case of powder. Annealed or not, the cases would universally stretch when fired. Once I figured out how to compress a overfilled case of powder, the stretching stopped.

Woody

These cases were all annealed in the same batch & same method as those being used with the 360gr GG load and as have done for many years. The difference between the two loads is the amount of compression, with the PP having less. Woody, you may be on to something. How did you 'overload' your cases in order to get some compression?

One thing I'll say is that the Baco bore-pigs work great. I'm going to try them with GG loads to see how they work for that. Much prefer them to running patches. Easy, fast & most of all, very consistent, which is a good thing.

Glenn,

I made a short funnel or case extension that fit over the case. I could then overfill the case with powder. Then I placed the case with the funnel still in place into the press and compressed the powder into the case through the funnel. The funnel internal diameter was the same as the internal diameter of the case and is only around .350 inch long. Even .050 inch compression was enough to stop the stretching.

Woody

Glenn,

As for using the Baco wipes with grease groove, I've been watching Aviator use them for the past year at Friendship. His results speak well for them and I, (A dyed in wool blow tuber.), decided to give them a try. The first thing I found was that I needed to use moist following patches instead of dry ones. The moist following patch prevented leading whereas a dry following patch caused leading with grease bullets. Also using Mpro7 cleaner on both the felts and the following patch seems to be the ticket for consistent bore condition. I'm still in a learning curve using them, so I'm not a total convert yet.

Woody

Thanks, Woody. I'll have to find a piece of brass or Al and try something similar. My next test will be the shorter (2.09") WW cases.

For the bore-pigs, I'm simply soaking the felts in a 7-1 mix of water soluble cutting oil & water and they do an excellent job of cleaning the bore and have detected no leading after the shooting 28 shots using only the bore-pigs. The one thing I noticed is the barrel got fairly hot after shooting 14-shots (4 sighters & 10 shots for record) in about 15 minutes, which was a bit of surprise to me with a 38-55 and an overcast day. But, could have been the fact I have not shot a BPTR match in a while and have forgotten just how hot the barrel can get. Due to the residual heat after running the last pig at each distance, I did run a fresh pig before shooting at the next distance to insure the barrel was not dry.

I clean between strings. The bore-pigs are making me think this is not necessary. I got so little carbon fouling and lead out of the barrel and same when I got home and did the 'into the safe' cleaning of the entire rifle that I'm thinking "between string" cleaning may not be a requirement.

Glenn here is a quick and easy way to make an extension. Take 2 cases and cut a 1/2" piece off of each. Split one of them down the side. Stick the other one up into the one you split down the side, half way. Now you can slide that over the mouth of the case you want to fill with powder.

That looks to be a lot easier than turning one on the lathe. Thanks Smoke.

Woody

Gerald - thanks for the tip. Saves lots of effort.

Glenn,

Using LDPE (poly) wads when the inside case necks are not cleaned of all fouling will tend to stretch cases, sometime a good bit, even enough to separate the neck from the rest of the case body. Any crimping will even make it worse. So I have the same suggestion as Don. The 1st thing I would try is switching to fiber wads.

Wayne

but that case has blown a hole out the side.
i have never seen or heard of that before.
necks going down the barrel is not unheard of.
it almost suggests one spot on the case being over annealed.
bruce.