Treasures of the French Society of Munitions

[wmc7]

I was looking for information about my new 1871/1888 Dutch Beaumont and I found this site. I did not see it in search results so I'm posting it.

DOCUMENTS MUNITIONS INDEX

It has a lot of information on old ammunition. In French and metric, of course, but not too complicated to translate.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Patrick Chadwick]

An excellent resource! I was especially interested to see how many of the old bullet designs had an open base. Take a closer look, for instance, at the drawing of the Carcano bullet. The diameter is a gnat's whisker under 0.264". But the special feature is the recessed base. Later bullets have a rolled-over jacket at the base. In both cases, the result will be to allow a tiny bit of obturation, just enough to form a gas-tight driving band. For such rifles, the attempt to get them to shoot better by using thicker bullets with a closed base is the wrong answer to the problem.

[jmoore]

Take a closer look, for instance, at the drawing of the Carcano bullet. The diameter is a gnat's whisker under 0.264".

Max size of the Carcano bullet works out to 0.2677" unless my math is off. Minimum 0.2658". (Rounding up about 0.00005")

These numbers derived from the 1910 drawing. But that's just my natural tendency to check for revisions.

An excellent resource! Even if the fancy and fine lettering is not easy to read in places.

(Might be best placed in the ammo forum.)

[Patrick Chadwick]

Are we looking at the same drawing? This is the bullet with a pronounced recess. From the drawing date it seems to be the earlier version.

Attachment 38734

Top right, bullet diameter:
6,73mm / 25.4mm/inch = 0.2649606"

or, as I wrote, a gnat's whisker under 0.265"

Oops, maybe different drawings !

This is perhaps the one you were looking at:
Attachment 38735

OK, so now I'm confused.
It looks as if the Italians changed their minds - the footnote says that the 6.73mm (0.265") bullet was used after 1912. Note that it has two interesting features 1) the wide crimp groove 2) the open base, with the jacket folded over. I reckon that these two features together permit a small degree of obturation, to give the "driving-band" effect. These are the bullets that I have found in Carcano service cartridges. Much easier on the rifle than a fatter bullet!

[villiers]

Pity they forgot the Werder (both sizes).