Wolf Ammo Keyholes in my 43 LB

[Dalebert]

I shot my 43 LB with some 174 gr Wolf ammo yesterday and 7 of 7 rounds keyholed. Shooting was at 50 yards. The rifle is in as new condition save a few dings in the stock. Mint bore. 150 gr Herters (Cabela's) brand ammo shot fine. Just curious if the Wolf ammo is inappropriate for the rifling or twist in the LB.

I'll try the Wolf ammo in my P14 and other No4 Mk1 when I get a chance to see how it performs.

Information

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[Patrick Chadwick]

Please follow this simple procedure to find out whether there is a serious ammo/chamber mismatch:

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....head+clearance

and let us all know the result.

[browningautorifle]

The whole things sounds very strange. The bullets will keyhole if they don't stabilize, so they either don't engage rifling or they're too long for the twist. If you have the right ammo and your barrel is truly mint then there's something out of whack. Usually, and because we can't actually see...there's something omitted during the description that would tell us what's happening.

That is to say, there's some detail missing here...

[P246]

Pull a bullet and measure if, I bet it's .308. One or two years ago when ammo was hard to find I bought 3 boxes of wolf from my LGS. The first box key holed out of a well used No 1 so I tried it in a good No 4, still key holed. Pulled bullet and it was a .308 diameter....whole box, well what was left was. Other two boxes were .311 when I pulled one or two of each. Only time this has happened and I've shot plenty of wolf. Yes I'm a scavenger and loaded the 308 bullets in a 30-06.

[browningautorifle]

Pull a bullet and measure if, I bet it's .308.

That would make sense. It's not engaging the rifling...

[Littlejohn]

This is what my '42 LB No. 4MK1* does with 150 grain gun show reloads.



With my own loads, using .312 diameter, 174 grain, round nose, flat base, Hornady bullets, it's fine. Not the best group, I admit, but the bullets are being stabilized.

[browningautorifle]

150 grain gun show reloads.

That could easily be .30 cal bullets.

[Dalebert]

Update

I pulled one of the Wolf bullets that keyholed.
It measured .310 to .3105 and is a boattail design

I also pulled a Herters bullet that shot well.
It measures .311 and is a flat base design

Maybe the combination of slight undersize and boattail design does not agree with my LB.

I'll save the remaining 70 rounds for the zombie apocolypse or see if they shoot in P14 or other Mk 4

Thanks for feekback

[browningautorifle]

There we go then, a minor undersize and a lack of bearing surface combine to make a keyhole. That one's good for all of us to know.

[Patrick Chadwick]

There we go then, a minor undersize and a lack of bearing surface combine to make a keyhole. That one's good for all of us to know.

Well if anyone took the trouble to follow the link I posted, they would have found this effect described in detail. I get that "lone prophet in the wilderness" feeling when I repeat that boattails are a modern fad that do not give the best accuracy in just about every pre-WWII milsurp I have tried, with the exception of Swiss rifles and USA-built 30-06s. Who cares if the boattail has a slightly flatter trajectory at ranges that you are never going to use if it means that the accuracy goes to pot?