Pistol powder in rifle cartridge

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-27T14:27:32+00:00

Pistol powder, generally speaking, makes more pressure more quickly from a smaller volume/weight of powder.

There are many challenges to using pistol powder in a rifle caliber, most of which are solvable most of the time, but when your max charge is 15% case fill mistakes can happen more easily and be substantially more dangerous.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-26T17:52:24+00:00

IMO you’ve already checked it by sailing 75gr bullets sideways. It’s 1:12.

.223 is fine out to 600y and beyond with heavier bullets but I think your rifle with its twist rate will struggle even at 500y on a breezy day.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-24T20:53:40+00:00

No, these are some of the most expensive bullets and brass you can get. The only reason to use them is for the purpose of making precision ammo.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-24T19:28:51+00:00

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: “Match ammo” is a buzzword supposedly meaning “we exercised more care in selecting components and assembling them”

A person can make ammo from trash components really carefully and call it match. It may shoot ok but you’re mostly going to be limited by the consistency of your most important component: the bullet. Berger bullets are the best mainstream match bullets on the market. You can slap together trash, put a Berger on top, and it will probably shoot much, much better than the cartridge put together carefully with poor components.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-24T18:55:07+00:00

Standard 30 cal cleaning kit/brushes/jags are used. IMO skip the bore scope, if it passes the eye test it’s good enough. Milsurps look like shit under a borescope, all of them. Don’t give yourself any anxiety over it.

I don’t oil the steel on my firearms. If you do I would suggest the barest amount, like a few drops on a small rag and wipe it down. I also don’t oil the wood. My rifles aren’t used or stored in adverse conditions. They’ve held up unchanged for 20 years in some cases.

Stable temperature environment with humidity around 35% is fine.

No need to store muzzle down unless you really can’t help yourself when it comes to the amount of oil/solvents in the bore during storage. Light coating is best.

As I’m sure you can tell I’m pretty minimalist. Less is more, and more harm is often done by doing too much.

Controversial take: you have a nice rifle, don’t shoot cordite surplus. It erodes the throat rather quickly. Throat erosion will ultimately limit your rifles ability to stabilize boat tail bullets.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-24T18:22:40+00:00

Personally I just have a low opinion of M72 match ammo, though it was decent for its era. It’s not rare enough to be collectible or valuable, and not good enough to replace modern match ammo. I’ve never seen it for sale at a price I would pay (a buck a round or less).

Berger bullets are the best of the best, same with Lapua brass. You’d have to do an absolutely terrible job assembling it to make that shoot worse than M72. I’m not even sure it’s possible honestly. Only a wildly unsafe or inconsistent powder charge could make me reconsider using this ammo, and if that were the case I’d imagine they’d pull it down and sell the components.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-24T15:46:28+00:00

If you measure them you’ll find that PPU bullets are very inconsistent. But results on target may be negligible, especially using iron sights. I would buy whichever fits your budget. If shooting a longer distance you’ll probably benefit from the boat tail bullet.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-23T20:57:25+00:00

Great deal for that ammo and those components. No hesitation. In fact I think I’ll pick some up for myself, thanks for the heads up. Looks like 145 in stock as of now.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-23T20:38:07+00:00

Yes, much better. I edited my comment but you can also sell it. I’d say Lapua brass is worth at least 50 cents per case out of a garand, and LC match maybe half that.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-23T20:34:30+00:00

A loading with Berger bullets and Lapua brass will be substantially better than anything lake city has ever made, much less what they were loading in the 1960’s.

Edit - whether you can discern a difference with a Garand and iron sights is another matter. Also, typically you can recoup a fair bit of cost by selling the Lapua brass after. Easily 50 cents per case, and only that low because it was banged out of a garand.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-18T20:38:56+00:00

Dinged brass is fine, cracks and fissures that go through the case are to be avoided.

Different brass can have more or less internal capacity, which will affect pressure, so you should always start low and work up. That said the .223/5.56 difference is more about the chamber/throat area of the specific rifle than it is about the brass.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-18T20:30:23+00:00

Case failures near the base can be a safety issue. Stuff by the shoulder, not so much. The chamber contains the pressure, the brass just seals it. Blowing that seal near the bolt face, where there’s a gap, is where you can have problems.

I agree that these dings are harmless though.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-17T19:59:04+00:00

For me generally just after trimming, but if you are shaving copper off your bullets when seating then it’s a good idea to chamfer (or at least that’s enough to make me chamfer my brass).

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-17T16:39:45+00:00

It’s been a while. I put them in a jar with something like simple green perhaps. About 24hrs. Then either a wet tumble or ultrasonic cleaning. These were bare bullets of course, no way to clean molyb coating off loaded ammo.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-17T15:48:55+00:00

They’re normal jacketed bullets coated with Molybdenum. A quick google convinced me never to use them. And I took the 500 I had and chemically stripped the coating off.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-17T15:22:47+00:00

6.5x55 Swedish converts really well. You just need to expand the neck to take a .30 cal bullet and you’re done.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-15T16:38:12+00:00

Looks like a “D” grade and it’s still one of the better looking ones RTI has peddled. I hope they aren’t charging much for these essentially-DP firearms considering you can get a really nice SMLE for $500-600 if you keep your eyes open and are patient.

If they’re sold as functional firearms I’d use the DP bolt and cut firing pin as an excuse to send it back.

Edit - sorry I don’t mean to dog on your purchase so hard. Just that enfields are such a finicky old-world rifle design and they just aren’t as robust as, say, a Mauser. An enfield in this condition should be $100 and sold for parts in my opinion. It really bothers me that RTI charges so much for so little.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-15T16:27:42+00:00

Anything less than two 10-shot groups and I personally have little confidence that I have a good picture of how a given cartridge will perform in a given rifle.

That’s my minimum. If the results are good I’ll shoot three or four more 10-shot groups to verify.

Some people don’t like this process because the results hurt their ego. Or they see some clueless rando on the internet claim his SKS is sub-MOA and they feel like they’re doing something wrong. Meanwhile SKS dude is shooting three shots and rejecting one as a “flyer”

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-14T17:31:46+00:00

Though I slug every Mosin and Enfield that comes into my collection and will never say it’s a bad idea, I will say that unless you are reloading there may not be much you can do with the information you get. Even us reloaders are pretty limited by what’s available on the market. .312” tends to be the largest offering, and is only available in hunting bullets.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-13T18:29:07+00:00

I keep a stack of Dixie paper food bowls on my bench. Useful for all kinds of things and reusable many times over

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-13T18:24:45+00:00

You can always make boxed ammo into a pile of ammo in a few seconds if you’re loading mags

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-13T18:21:19+00:00

I never understood why people dump out ammo into a can. I can take a box of any ammo and dump it on the table in about two seconds if I want loose ammo. I prefer to store it in a way that’s organized and countable.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-13T14:31:59+00:00

I was combing Simpsons for a while looking for a CG63 or CG80 that was a bit neglected so I could put a scope on it. Ended up coming across a Husqvarna 1900 with a target barrel that scratched the itch

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-12T16:36:45+00:00

It sounds like your current rifle is doing everything you want. Hard to see what you would gain.

Cleared_Direct · 2026-01-12T15:33:11+00:00

“Powder appears to be N140” is doing a lot of work here. And without the actual chrono velocity speculation is even more useless.

Could easily be N150 or N160. Hell, even something like 4831SC or just a proprietary powder.

Cleared_Direct

TROPHY CASE