43 Mauser cases sticking

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  • Last Post 17 March 2016
EvanGuy posted this 16 March 2016

i have a 1887 71/84 Mauser, i bought ten Bertram cases, and after reading online that they like to split on first firing, i decided to anneal the whole shoulder and half the case before the first firing, i believe that was a big mistake, because after doing that i realized the case will now be soft enough to flow into all the chamber pits the rifle has.

so the chamber has some pitting in it and after firing my hand loads half the cases could come out with the bolt but very hard to get out and the other half i had to beat out with a wooden dowel

at first i thought i may have over charged my cases but after looking at them i see exactly whats going on

the brass is flowing into the chamber pits making it near impossible to remove the case

the load i was using is a hodgdon load for the 45-70 trapdoor

Hodgdon H4895 .458” 2.540" min 40.0gr 1,424 14,900 CUP max 48.0gr 1,645 18,900 CUP

so im using the same data but with .446” bullets and only seating the bullet  .450” deep. im also only using 38gr of H4895, (2 gr below the min)

i emailed Hodgdon about using their reduced H4895 load (max load multiplied by 0.6) for the mauser and the reply was "you gave me a lot of information here but the true issue is that there is no published data for me to go off of to give you a recommendation and therefore I cannot help you with this. H4895 does work very well in reduced load and all of our suggestion for this powder with reduced does not require filler; this powder ignites very easily."

i was hoping to use 30gr of h4895 to try and make the cases not swell to fit the chamber, so really i was looking for a very light load to ease the problem after reading hodgdons response i may still try the 30gr load

also the 45-70 was a 70gr BP case and the 43 mauser was a 77gr BP case so the pressures will be lower to start with when using 45-70 data in the 43 mauser.

 ill post the pics of the cases and you tell me what you think. i know this gun may be a wall hanger but i would love to be able to fire it a few times a year just for the novelty and because its such an old cool gun.

 i do plan on buying another better condition 43 mauser, i do love the gun

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gpidaho posted this 16 March 2016

EvanGuy: too what extent did you “anneal the whole case” Annealing the brass below the shoulder can be very dangerous. Most likely lucky it's a low pressure round. Gp

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EvanGuy posted this 16 March 2016

well not the whole case, as you can see in the photos (the second and last pic shows it the best) its about half way down the body. not the rim or very bottom of the case walls mainly the whole shoulder and neck.

 the first two i didnt anneal but you could see they didnt expand all the way to make me able to head space of the shoulder, i didnt want to load hotter so i annealed it hoping it could take shape and i could head space off the shoulder instead of the rim but it seemed to work to well

but the shoulder of the case moved about 3mm(1/8") ahead of the location on the factory brass, but also the neck swelled 0.018” and the case body 0.012” from the unfired brass size, im guessing that the chamber is a little big lol

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delmarskid1 posted this 17 March 2016

I wonder if after sizing the fired cases you could put a light wrap of tape over the lumpy ares. I've done this with my Snyder to keep the cases from ballooning in those great big chambers. I'll catch hell for this but i'd leave case lube on them at the icky areas. 

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