8.15x46R loads for a schuetzen rifle?

[cotis]

I am helping a really close friend get his old schuetzen rifle going again. It is an "Original System Aydt" in very good condition, complete with the rear peep sight with multiple inserts. His father brought it back from WWII and it has been stored and unfired for over seventy years! I have done a chamber cast on it with cerrosafe metal, it is definitely a 8.15x46R with a "tight" bore, 0.316". I found some brand new RWS brass in stock at Huntington Die Specialities which I received last week.

What I really need is some advice to get me across the finish line on this:
1. I need ring stop cast bullets. I assume 0.318" are what I should go with?
2. Need powder recommendation and details on how EXACTLY to load some rounds. I have read about using poly-fill or some other material to keep powder against primer flash hole as the charge will not fill up the case, but not sure if I need it. Info like this is GREATLY needed!

He is not looking for match-grade accuracy or blazing speed here, just some bullets that go "bang" and offer decent accuracy for plinking fun.

Thank you!

[mike ford]

cotis,
I load 8.15x46R, but there are a couple other "regulars" on this forum that do also with better results than I. If we wait awhile, they will likely weigh in. In the meantime, I believe you can obtain stopring bullets from Buffalo Arms. The 8.15x46R is often found with groove diameters larger than .316", however they are also often found with diameters smaller than .316", I have one with .312" diameter and know of others. Therefore, .316" isn't tight enough to cause special concern. Generally, if you can easily slip a bullet into a fired case, you can use that diameter bullet, even if larger than the barrel's groove diameter. This is especially so for cast bullets. The most important dimension is diameter of the group fired with that bullet.
Mike

[yamoon]

NEI stop ring cast 25 to 1, comes out 173 gr, .318 dia., large rifle primer, & 14.3 gr IMR4227 powder. I have shot this load for years in several 8.15x46 schuetzen rifles. Depending on how experienced a reloader you are & how much time you want to put into it, I have several other recommendations that will improve accuracy. Glad you & your friend are joining the fun, but a word of warning schuetzen is addictive!!!
Thanks Mike

[cotis]

That NEI bullet sounds like the ticket, but my friend will never get into casting bullets (way above his skill level) and I don't have that much interest in starting just to help him out! So that limits us to purchasing bullets. Are they available anywhere? Buffalo Arms has a 180 grain round nose bullet for sale on their site.

[Peter K]

NEI grief

That NEI bullet sounds like the ticket, but my friend will never get into casting bullets (way above his skill level) and I don't have that much interest in starting just to help him out! So that limits us to purchasing bullets. Are they available anywhere? Buffalo Arms has a 180 grain round nose bullet for sale on their site.

I have ordered e stop ring mould for a .32 Colt from them over two years ago but I have yet to see the mold. I sent them the money and a Joel acknowledged over the phone that they received it. He always put me off saying that the mould will be shipped in a couple of weeks. That was over a year ago. Now, my email correspondence gets no reply.
Peter

[DreyseM65]

Given what you have stated, I would recommend buying some .316 180 gr stop ring bullets from Buffalo Arms, a box of RWS brass, IMR4227 powder, and go from there.

I am an amateur when it comes to these rifles and loads. But, I was lucky to have been mentored by 2 very skilled Schützen rifle shooters; one of them being Bill Loos.

I bought an Aydt with a bullet mould that served my 2nd mentor rather well. The Aydt had a .318" bore, and the mould was casting .321" 160 gr stop ring bullets. As with every new endeavor I do my own "best practice" research, both online and from people I know. Then I do my own experimenting. I tried the .316 180 gr bullet and was surprised at how well it shot. I used a load of 12 grs of 4227.

I then bought 2 more rifles: a Martini and a Jung. I found that all 3 rifles were particular about the brass. I had a number of modified 30-30 and 32-40 pieces of brass from various sources. Each rifle only functioned (extraction) with some of the brass, so I had to sort all of the brass to find which worked with each rifle. Rim thickness and width differed. I bought 100 pieces of RWS brass, and they functioned in all 3.

After using a neck expander to open up the brass to seat a .321 bullet, I can seat the bullet by hand. The stop ring is .335. When I used a .316 bullet I did not have to open up the neck. I use large pistol primers, as the Jung would not reliably fire with a rifle primer. I use 20 to 1 lead.

Both my mentors used 12 gr load of 4227, so even though I tried other loads, I went back to their recommendation.

Here is the target the first time I used the Martini at our Schützenfest. The center 6 shots are less then a 1" group. The 4 outside that group are caused by me, not the rifle or the load. 100 yards from a rest, and with iron sights.

[cotis]

DreyseM65, thanks for the info! Nice shooting BTW! Your charges were obviously very consistent, there is almost zero vertical stringing on that target. I have read about the brass issues with these rifles that is why I decided not to mess around with forming some from 30-30 and just purchased 3 boxes of virgin RWS brass. Buy once, cry once especially since it is for a friend who doesn't do technical stuff. My end goal is to provide him with a box of 50 loaded shells, bullets, primers, powder, a vial pre-set to the charge weight needed (so he only needs to fill up and scrape off), a hand depriming tool and a hand priming tool. I will write him a VERY detailed PDF document with color pictures of all steps so he can pass this on to his children some day and no work will need to be done.

Please keep the helpful advice coming! Also, do these bullets need gas checks? I would rather not mess with that if not needed, just another step which would complicate things for my friend.

[yamoon]

Same experience with Joel at NEI, ordered a mold in June of 16 he acknowledged the receipt of money, kept putting me off, now won’t answer emails,won’t refund the money.
Mike

[DreyseM65]

Cotis, you don't need to use a has check, nor do you need to use any filler. 4227 powder takes up very little space in the casing, which was disconcerting to me when I started. Some folks breech seat the bullet and then insert the casing. With one rifle a breech seat mould was included but I haven't tried that process.

I do hand weigh every charge. Just a practice I follow with my precision rifle loading.