I just received some 530 gr. cast/gas checked bullets for my Jeffery. I have been toying with 95 gr. Varget for that round in a 535 gr. Woodleigh. should I go back to 100 gr. Varget and start again. The maker said that he can make them harder by tempering them. Should I run them at 2200 f/s ???

I have had my best luck, even with heat treated bullets (Brinell 21) at about 2,000 fps. Having said that, if the bullet fits, is heat treated and gas checked, you should be able to run them up to 2,400 fps without problems.

The heat treating (tempering) is essential.

LD

If you got those bullets from customcastbullets.com, I have run them at 2350... 2250 seems to give me more shots between cleanings

jeffe

I got them from Waynd Doudna. He said that they should run at 2200-2300 just fine and he is heat treating some others for me now that should do for higher, but unnecessary, speeds. Are there any considerations in their reloading? He also said that I should use a jacketed bullet to strip out the lead fouling. How often should I do that? At ten cents a bullet there is a lot of shooting to be done for not much money.

Yep, those are the same bullets. I use surplus powder, that's more or less 760 in weight to results... and ALOT of it... runnng at 2350, I go about 8 or 10 shots, and pop off a jacketed bullet.. this works good enough that I usually don't have to stop and clean during a range session, which if my son and I go to the range with his 458 winmag, that's generally about 25-30 rounds each GUN (not 50 rounds of 500 jeffe)

if you got his FP bullet, it's really not the best feeding bullet in the world.. the 600gr spgc, however, feeds VERY well

jeffe

I ordered the FP 530 gr. bullet for practice as it has a similar shape to the GS Custom FN solid that I want to fire in this rifle. It may need some fiddeling with to get the flat nose bullets to feed the way a DGR should feed them but then that is just geometry. None of the standard Orberndorf 98 Mausers were really made to shoot the 500 Jeffery. Any tips on reloading? How far off the lands, should the lubed grooves all be inside the case neck/body? etc.? If I need some tweaking of the action who would you recommend?

lb404,
It seems that the FN's feed better when seated deeper, if you have any leeway to play with.

It seems they are almost always better feeders when seated as deeply as you can and crimp on the first groove/cannelure/interband.

That would also allow less need for filler with the fast powder loads.

However, we do know, that if you can use some filler to eliminate air space and powder shifting, it does give the most uniform velocity and the most velocity out of each grain of powder, for the lower recoil loads.

I hope you can chronograph those 95 grain Varget loads with filler and let us know how they work.

Jeffe,

can you post some pictures of those bullets?

thanks,

Rich

yeah, sure.. if it's not raining this second, i'll go over and get one of each

jeffe

as soon as I got over to the shop, the bottom fell out of the sky....

it's RAINING in TEXAS in AUGUST ... do what?

anyway, here ya go

Wow! Great photography, even labeled. The marvels of technology. Thanks.

Nice stuff,

Guess I better stop playing with my .416 pop guns and get a real rifle.....