Poper
Member
I have finally had a chance to get my budget Mauser M18 to the range for a refinement of previous load testing. Previously, I have noted the quality of the M18. Fit and finish is very good and the quality of the materials appear first rate. The bolt operates smooth without binding and strips rounds from the magazine smoothly with little effort. The trigger is very smooth without any gritty feel and has a clean and predictable break. I mounted a Swarovski 3.5-18x50 scope in Vortex rings and it zeroed quite easily the first range trip out. Sheesh! 
A $1,400 scope on a (when I bought it) less than $400 rifle!!! They are now $600, more or less. Hey, what's not to like?
The first ladder with this bullet showed 37.5 grains of IMR4451 to be promising by firing 5 rounds into slightly less than 1". This round of testing took 10 rounds of that powder charge and 10 rounds of 37.3 grains and another 10 rounds of 37.7 grains. 10 round groups were fired letting the barrel cool between groups. The bore was clean before the range session began and three rounds (one of each powder charge) were fired into the center bull to foul the bore before these groups were shot. Note the center bull of the target only shows two holes. The one at the lower left of center was the first round fired and the other hole is actually both of the other two rounds.
At the extreme high end of the first ladder, at the book maximum load, a pierced primer collapsed both ejector springs and bent both ejectors. The new parts sent by Mauser had springs that were 1/2 the length of the originals, so the gunsmith installed only 1 ejector with the two new springs stacked. The single ejector functions fine this way and is sufficient to spit the fired case clear of the action and not into the next county. I can live with that.
The lesson I learned is apparently this particular rifle is very sensitive to close to maximum loads and can have pressure spikes when in that neighborhood. I will need to either not go there or approach the maximum with the last 1 grain of powder loaded in 0.1 gr increments. I have experienced a .243 Win. rifle do this before. It wasn't a pierced primer that got my attention with that one, but a very sticky bolt. As there was a good load that was midway in the load ladder, that is where I loaded it. This Mauser's load with this case, primer, bullet and powder are at the low-middle end of the powder charges in the book and I can live with it. Not every rifle has to be loaded to maximum any more than every car needs to be driven with the go-pedal stuck to the floor.
The target is one 10 round group of each load. Considering this is with a typical 100 gr. Speer SPBT hunting bullet, I am rather surprised at these results and makes me interested to see if there will be improvement with bullet seating depth. Certainly a different bullet might shoot better. We'll see about that in the future.
ETA: Added target files. I opologize for the blurry photos.
A $1,400 scope on a (when I bought it) less than $400 rifle!!! They are now $600, more or less. Hey, what's not to like? The first ladder with this bullet showed 37.5 grains of IMR4451 to be promising by firing 5 rounds into slightly less than 1". This round of testing took 10 rounds of that powder charge and 10 rounds of 37.3 grains and another 10 rounds of 37.7 grains. 10 round groups were fired letting the barrel cool between groups. The bore was clean before the range session began and three rounds (one of each powder charge) were fired into the center bull to foul the bore before these groups were shot. Note the center bull of the target only shows two holes. The one at the lower left of center was the first round fired and the other hole is actually both of the other two rounds.
At the extreme high end of the first ladder, at the book maximum load, a pierced primer collapsed both ejector springs and bent both ejectors. The new parts sent by Mauser had springs that were 1/2 the length of the originals, so the gunsmith installed only 1 ejector with the two new springs stacked. The single ejector functions fine this way and is sufficient to spit the fired case clear of the action and not into the next county. I can live with that.
The lesson I learned is apparently this particular rifle is very sensitive to close to maximum loads and can have pressure spikes when in that neighborhood. I will need to either not go there or approach the maximum with the last 1 grain of powder loaded in 0.1 gr increments. I have experienced a .243 Win. rifle do this before. It wasn't a pierced primer that got my attention with that one, but a very sticky bolt. As there was a good load that was midway in the load ladder, that is where I loaded it. This Mauser's load with this case, primer, bullet and powder are at the low-middle end of the powder charges in the book and I can live with it. Not every rifle has to be loaded to maximum any more than every car needs to be driven with the go-pedal stuck to the floor.
The target is one 10 round group of each load. Considering this is with a typical 100 gr. Speer SPBT hunting bullet, I am rather surprised at these results and makes me interested to see if there will be improvement with bullet seating depth. Certainly a different bullet might shoot better. We'll see about that in the future.
ETA: Added target files. I opologize for the blurry photos.
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