Galena Kid,

As your previous post concerned 22LR power loads in handguns I figured it would be better to post under a new topic.

Concerning the 11mm Mauser, I had let it sit a bit while I developed my loads for the Krag but I've not abandoned either rifle. As a matter of fact I took both to the range this morning. Both are doing well though there is still no other word for the Krag than "Sweet"

A guy who'd seen me at the range some time back asked me about the Mauser and I got going again. Previously I had not been happy with my loads as accuracy had been poor.

I had a jug of RVO-62 powder, a slow burning powder like WC-872 and figured I'd try it in the 11mm Mauser. I settled on a load of 58 grains of RVO-62 topped with Cream of Wheat and a Lyman 446187 bullet weighing at 475 gr. Velocity is at 1250 and accuracy wise will be in the black on a MR-1 target at 100 yards and not too many stray out of the black on the same target at 200 yards. I do get a fair amount of unburned powder in the bore but it does not seem to be any real problem other than causing a dimple on a few of the cases.

I think the load & rifle is capable of even more accurate shooting if I do my part but I may be having problems with the long barrel time of this weapon with it's almost 32" barrel. I'm still working on it and one thing that seems to help is talcum powder on the front bags. I use Gold Bond Medicated Foot Powder, it has a nice manly smell instead of that perfumy smell of most talcum powders.

I tried the Mauser out on some ram silhouettes at 400 yards and it would hit most of the time. I set the sight slide to it's 450 setting. I think the problem here is that the sight slide is loose on the sight ladder and may not always come back "into battery" so to speak. Hopefully I can get another sight ladder with a tight slide from Gun Parts.

I'll try to come out to 3-Points some Monday or Thursday this October. I'll holler at you before I do.

Have Fun, JCherry

Much obliged JC! I'll have to get going again with my ole 11mm Kraut.

If you don't mind, I'll stay upwind of that smelly talcum powder yer usin, no matter how manly it is. Not to worry, them city boys I shoot with will probably just wallow in the stuff.
---Regards, kid jethrow---

I should not have bragged. Took both the Mauser and Krag rifles to the range today and the Mauser did terrible. Not exactly sure what I did but suspect several things.

The number one thing I suspect is that this batch of bullets had been Beagled a bit to open up the diameter of the ogive a bit. I couldn't leave well enough alone.

Perhaps I caused just a bit of leading in the bore from this tiny bit of additional lead in contact with the bore. The load dispersed shots as if sometimes the bore was leaded and sometime like it was not, though I couldn't see any sign of leading in the bore. Any way I'll Un-Beagle the mold as that's the most logical cause.

The Krag did fine considering the poor load I used in it today. I had been tempering some bullets in a new stove and this batch of bullets I was fairly certain had been overheated just a tad. The bullets that noticeably slumped had been discarded but a fair number did not show any major slumping except under magnification. I went ahead and loaded them just to see and found that about 75% shot just fine, the other 25% however were all over the place. Anyway I have the temperature of the stove down pat and won't "scorch" any bullets in the future.

What mold did you settle on for your Mauser. I vaguely recall you mentioning you had a .446 370 gr RCBS? mold on order. That mold should be just about perfect as the original bullet was around 380 grains.

Where you going to stay with Blackpowder or were you going to try smokeless. I haven't tried Blackpowder in mine for a long time but probably will revisit that soon.

Have Fun, JCherry