Due to the fact that I've turned into a Rifle Looney with a fondness for obscure cartridges, I've recently bought a german stalking rifle in 8.15x46R and am having a hard time finding reloading components and load data for this cartridge. Any info or personal experience you have with this round would be appreciated. I'm aware that it is primarily used for low power schuetzen type target shooting, but I'd like to load it to 30-30 type energy to use as an iron sited, under 100 meter, deer rifle. Is this possible?

Thanks

Elmo

Your rifle case is very close to the Winchester 32/40 and I think Hornady 170gn .321 bullets would work.

The 8.15 x 46R in the AYDT that I have has a groove dia of .3185". I use cast bullets sized to that diameter and 30-30 brass FL sized for the case.

I would slug the bore first.

My rifle is still in transit and I haven't recieved it yet so I'm not sure of it's groove diameter



Savage99

What weight cast bullet and what kind of velocity are you loading up to? Are you casting your own bullets or are they commercially available. I've seen some 127 grn .316 cast bullets for sale but would hope to load bullets of at least 150 grn or heavier. What size bullet are you using,and have you shot game with it?



Is the brass rim diameter close enough (32-40 or 30-30) or does it have to be turned down? It looks like 32-40 and 30-30 rim diam. is about .020 bigger that 8.15x46R



Any body shoot jacketed bullets in this cartridge?



And what the heck is breech seating all about? Seems kind of bizarre to me!



Elmo

I will have to look up what that Lyman mould produces and what the GHI die sizes to. My 8.15 is only a target rifle so I have not shot game with it.

A friend found a cape gun chambered for that cartridge and of all things it had his family name on it. So he bought it of course.

Breech seating is for Schuetzen rifles to start the bullet into the rifling and then load a shell with a card wad over the powder. One theory is that the careful breech seating gives the bullet a better start.

The 30-30 rim fits fine in my rifle.

I will look for that stuff tommorrow and hope to post more about it.

The thing to do is to slug your bore. Don't get something stuck in there. While I am not sure of the best way to make a slug I turn a lead bullet down at each end to less than bore diameter and only have a larger portion that is maybe only 3/32 long so as to have minimal resistance.

I don't intend to fire jacketed bullets in a Schuetzen as they are not allowed in matches.

Look at http://groups.msn.com/Schuetzen