M1917 ideal bullet

[Pyno&dyno]

Actually I am reloading a Winchester M1917 with bullet hpbt of 167-168 grs with good results, have been using Sierra , Lapua and Nosler with practically the same results, since the barrell has a rifling of a turn in 10", I would like to try the 175 grs. Does anybody ever tried such a bullet , and what is the suggested reload charge ?( please only IMR powder since is the only american powder easy to find here in Italy)

Information

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[gunner]

I have used the 170grs Lock Base from Lapua and the much better working 185grs Silver Scenar from Lapua too. This was the much better one out of my M1917 Winchester, accuracy was a five rounf grouping of 34mm at 100m. No advice on the powder because i´m using VV powders.

[Pyno&dyno]

I have been testing with N150 and N160, in the very beginning but found that IMR 4350 seems to give a more constant results. In my opinion N160 is too progressive for this weapon, I never had any good grouping. With N150 I had some good days but somehow wasn't able to beat the IMR. Which powder did you use?

[jmoore]

If you intend on using the iron sights and the factory settings the ideal bullet is a 150gr flat based type. They seem to group well out to 600yds. For reloads, I've found IMR 4064 quite uniform and capable of excellent results even though loads at 2700 fps dont't fill the case anywhere close to capacity.

[gunner]

I have been testing with N150 and N160, in the very beginning but found that IMR 4350 seems to give a more constant results. In my opinion N160 is too progressive for this weapon, I never had any good grouping. With N150 I had some good days but somehow wasn't able to beat the IMR. Which powder did you use?

The N150 isn´t my powder and like you said the N160 is more for the .300wiinmag and such bullets. The barrel is getting hot to soon. I use the N140 and worked out carefully with speed testing and i ended up with 43.2grs which is at the upper end for the.308 Win but more at the lower to to the middle for a .30-06 with the 185grs bullet. With the 167grs bullet it was around 44grs to 45grs and gave good results. The IMR 4064 has a very similar burning rate like the N140. Here´s the burning rate chart from VV.

http://www.lapua.com/upload/reloadin...echart2011.pdf

Here are the reloading data´s from VV.

Products - Lapua

The N140 ended with the 180 grs Lapua Naturalis bullet and if you compare it to the Scenar bullet you will see that the Naturalis for its shape will have more rsistance and higher gas-pressure than the Scenar with its shorter guided surface. So if you´ll stay at max 46 grains with the Scenar ( 48.3grs for the Naturalis) ,which aren´t neccessary, it will be a safe round. And i use it since years. But you know that any rifle is different to a other one, i would say it is safe for my M17 but i don´t know if it is for yours.

Products - Lapua

[TDH]

IMR powder. 4895. In my M1 and my 03A3 I get good results with 47 grains. The book says max is 51 grains.

[Uncle Ray]

I've been using lately 48gns of 4895 in my M'17 dated November 1917 behind the Nosler 155gn hollow point boat tail competition bullet with excellent results. I don't know what velocity I'm getting, but I can say that there are no pressure signs at the primer end.
At 100 yards off the bench-rest, with a 1960's Parker-Hale No.5B rear aperture sight fitted, my best group has been 0.75" for 5 shots, going out to 1.75" 10 shots, with a bit of fish-tail windage. I should also add that my barrel gauges exactly .300", and I have replaced the military-issue front sight blade (about 5 thou. wide) with a blade that measures 8 thou. wide.

[smellie]

Friend, the US M-1917 rifle has ENFIELD rifling: 5 grooves, lands and grooves of equal width, deep grooves.

A friend and myself experimented with near a dozen of them over the years and we found that they ALL responded best to flat-based bullets.

That can be a good thing, flatbase bullets generally being less expensive than boat-tails.

Following the Springfield 1903 disaster (a million near-new rifles declared only marginally safe at best, by their own top experts), the US gave serious consideration to standardising on the M-1917 rifle, of which they had more than 2million in stock. They gave up on this idea because they also wanted to adopt the M-1 cartridge, which used a 173-grain boat-tailed bullet. The new bullet stabilised fine in the Springfields with their Mauser-type rifling and gave vastly better performance. The performance, however, did not improve to nearly as great an extent in the 1917 rifle. The upshot of it all was that the 1917 rifles remained in storage, many were sold off, and new Springfields were made with the new double-heat-treated receivers.

So give flatbase bullets a good try. You just might be surprised.

Hope this helps.
.

[Enfield Enforcer]

Hello,

I'm studying the different types of .30-06 ammo in a barrel with at least 24 inch. Which muzzle-velocities did you reach with all your different cartridges, factory-ammo and handloads ? Especially in 168 grs Match-Ammo and all heavy loads from 168-190 grs ? What is the maximum shooting distance with such ammo ?.. .

Many thanks.

Greetings
Enfield Enforcer

[browningautorifle]

You realize the thread you ask is from 2011?