Reloading metallic cartridges

[jarmann]

sorry was broken off ,would say ,witch dies I can use ,think mauser 71/84 dies will do the job ? my first percussion tests didnt satisfy ,only the .43 spanish cases ignited (thicker rim),I made a extra filler to the omega spring to give more tension ,and it works 45/70 cases ignited ,hammer blow was much stronger ,I think this rifle was kept with the bold closed for more than a 100 years , (its a ex museum one) (werder rifles are always stored with a open bolds !!!!!!! )
will give more explanation after testfiring
greetings from over the pond
jarmann

[villiers]

Think I´ve got the hang of it now. I´ve got a mold for the Werder, but still had problems with chambering the round far enough in so that the trap would close over the cartridge case. Solved the problem by neck sizing the finished product. Yes, there´s not much powder in the smaller, cavalry carbine case, but it does travel fairly accurately up to 100 metres. Suppose it wasn´t meant to do much more from a horse. I put grease behind the bullet and grease the finished round liberally. Don´t have to clean the bore ... even after 20 rounds.

Am still waiting for the Mauser `71 cavalry carbine mold. Suppose now I´ll have to keep both of them. Zimmermann sent me a photostat of a cav. holster for the M `71. Very expensive, but perfect for my motorbike (he also makes an M `71 sling).

PS

My Werder dies are from Lee and the cases are from good old USA (have been waiting for more than a year for Horneber to their left thumb out)

Yes .. the smell is somewhat embarrassing when the next lot come onto the range. I get strange looks at the seat of my pants.

PPS

[villiers]

Think I´ve got the hang of it now. I´ve got a mold for the Werder, but still had problems with chambering the round far enough in so that the trap would close over the cartridge case. Solved the problem by neck sizing the finished product. Yes, there´s not much powder in the smaller, cavalry carbine case, but it does travel fairly accurately up to 100 metres. Suppose it wasn´t meant to do much more from a horse. I put grease behind the bullet and grease the finished round liberally. Don´t have to clean the bore ... even after 20 rounds.

Am still waiting for the Mauser `71 cavalry carbine mold. Suppose now I´ll have to keep both of them. Zimmermann sent me a photostat of a cav. holster for the M `71. Very expensive, but perfect for my motorbike (he also makes an M ?`71 sling).

[jarmann]

herr villiers
thought only CH4D made werder dies ? did you order the lee 's direct in the us ?,
hornheber 11,15 x 50R cases I get via reimer johanssen or stifters gunflints
zimmerman has copy werder slings
greetings from little more to the west
jarmann

[villiers]

herr villiers
thought only CH4D made werder dies ? did you order the lee 's direct in the us ?,
hornheber 11,15 x 50R cases I get via reimer johanssen or stifters gunflints
zimmerman has copy werder slings
greetings from little more to the west
jarmann

... Yes, from Johannsen ... and for the Werder and Mauser M `71 from Triebel.

Think Johannsen is also waiting for Horneber to re-start production.

Buffalo no longer are allowed to export brass cases ... so a round about method is called for.

[jarmann]

johannsen has them in stock ,they send them this week
greetings from flanders
jarmann

[villiers]

I´ve now got a bit more used to re-loading with BP. But I still like to keep my loads as precise as with nitro. I place each empty case on the digital scale and press "zero". Then I throw the charge and weigh the full case again. Anything over or under +/- 0.5 grains is rejected. This leaves a recurring and precise space for the grease and the bullet to be seated. So shooting is now a lot more precise. Think I´ll be able to compete with both the M`71 AND the Werder soon. Think I´ll have to keep both.

AND ... have now got the custom bullet moulds for both the M`71 and the Werder (made from my Cerro castings). They make seating much more satisfactory and the finished product even looks almost professional.

[Johnny Peppers]

When our group was shooting the 71/84 rifles, we were shooting original ammo. Try as we might we never came close to the accuracy of the original paper patch ammo, but we tried to develop a smokeless load.

Tracked down an old friend I hadn't seen in probably 30 years, and in the course of conversation he mentioned that he had gotten off deep into black powder shooting, making regular trips to Raton, New Mexico. He said he never realized the rifle's full potential until he had a paper patch mold made for each rifle, and made his own bullets.

This is some of the original ammo, and in beautiful condition to be almost 125 years old. We shot up something over 1000 rounds, and never had a misfire. We also shot the .43 Spanish, and you could count on at least 50% fail to fire from it.

[villiers]

I would have thought that those original boxes look much too valuable to shoot...
I tried paper wrapping the bullets but without much success.

[Johnny Peppers]

When we were shooting the ammo, it was $10 per 100, and came in both 10 and 20 round boxes. That has been more than a few years ago. The rifles were something like $8.95, and for just a few dollars more you could get a "hand picked" specimen. Most of the hand picked rifles were virtually unissued.