Showing off my berthier

[Eaglelord17]

PPU is safe for any Berthiers or Lebels provided they are in good working order. It is set up to duplicate the Balle 'D' ammo, which was a 198grn .323dia bullet at 2400ft/sec.

The only time you might have a issue is if you have a non 'N' marked rifle and are trying to shoot surplus ammo through it. The 'N' marking allowed the rifles to use Balle 'N' which was a larger diameter bullet and a slightly longer case neck. The update basically just reamed the neck of the chamber slightly larger so it could chamber the round without overpressure issues. It isn't so much of a issue today as now most of the Balle 'N' surplus has been shot off.

If the bore is good you can expect some pretty good results. The best I have done was about a inch and a quarter at 100m, however the bore on my rifle is just about new.

Information

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[burb1989]

That's a very nice berthier you have. I've been hesitant to shoot both of mine as both still have some damage from Vietnam that can't be fixed easy. The top is a first generation carbine that has a severe field repair on the wrist of the stock. I've only been able to secure in place with two-ton apoxy. The bottom is an indochinois variant that has a rather nasty crack in the stock behind the receiver. I would try and fix it but the problem is that it's the matching stock and it's a rarer variant so spare stocks aren't so plentiful.

[vintage hunter]

the Balle 'D' ammo, which was a 198grn .323dia

Balle 'N' which was a larger diameter bullet

This is a popular misconception. The 1932N cartridge has a heavier bullet(232gr vs 198), powder charge and produces higher chamber pressures than the Balle D but maximum bullet diameters are the same, .328''. Besides weight and construction the biggest differenct between the two bullets is the location of their maximum diameters, The solid copper lathe turned Balle D bullet has it's max diameter located above the crimp groove and the lead core cupro-nickel jacketed 1932N bullet has it's below the crimp groove. This location causes the 1932N cartridge to have a larger neck diameter than the Balle D.
This is what makes it dangerous to fire 1932N cartridges in unconverted rifles. The neck portion of an unconverted rifles chamber isn't large enough to allow the N cartridges case neck to expand sufficiently enough to release the bullet and will produce chamber pressures higher than normal.
Since we're showing off our Berthier's here's my unconverted M1916 St. Etienne carbine made in 1918. It's all matching and appears to have escaped all of the post WWI mods/upgrades.

[bob q]

This is a popular misconception. The 1932N cartridge has a heavier bullet(232gr vs 198), powder charge and produces higher chamber pressures than the Balle D but maximum bullet diameters are the same, .328''. Besides weight and construction the biggest differenct between the two bullets is the location of their maximum diameters, The solid copper lathe turned Balle D bullet has it's max diameter located above the crimp groove and the lead core cupro-nickel jacketed 1932N bullet has it's below the crimp groove. This location causes the 1932N cartridge to have a larger neck diameter than the Balle D.
This is what makes it dangerous to fire 1932N cartridges in unconverted rifles. The neck portion of an unconverted rifles chamber isn't large enough to allow the N cartridges case neck to expand sufficiently enough to release the bullet and will produce chamber pressures higher than normal.
Since we're showing off our Berthier's here's my unconverted M1916 St. Etienne carbine made in 1918. It's all matching and appears to have escaped all of the post WWI mods/upgrades.

Another popular misconception is that the case neck needs to expand to release the bullet . Just use common sense , if you pull the bullet out with pliers or a plastic bullet puller , the case does not magically expand . There is no force to make it expand and the bullet is the same size . It does not take much force to pull the bullet by hand , around 50 to 100 fp's , which is nothing compared to the 40,000 + psi made by firing . So why would another 50 or so make a difference ? All the N stamp means is the rifle was checked to make sure it would chamber the new round .