Pawnshop Special: Spanish M1916 in .308

[mookiie]

Professor - I have the same rifle I picked up about 6 months ago and went through the same questions the end result is I load 308 ammo to the below specs functions fine and the pressure should be around 38,000 cup give or take:

I use lake city brass so the below load is -2 grains to account for case thickness.

147 grain pulled m80 bullets - purchased from
Longdayjake at rocky mountain reloading

39 grains of IMR 4064 (if you are nt using military brass use 41 grains)

This load shoots great out of mine m1916 to about 1.5 - 2 moa. Let me know if you need more info.

 

[lonniemike]

So far you've been given 2 loads with 150ish grain bullets. Mookie' is a few grains less than the 308 start loads in my old Hodgdons manual and Whelen's load is the 308 start load in my Hodgdon's. Work up a load with your favorite and suitable powder(s) that are on hand. Here's another using H4350 out of my Hodgdon's. It uses a start of 44grn@33,000 and a max of 47grn@ 37,400. But as a general rule, use the start loads for any 308 as maximum limit for pressures to stay under 50,000psi. A chrono can be a good thing. Do you have one or access to one? And that's the conservative method. I'm not recommending full loads but many have been shot through the Spanish. What is the barrel length from the bolt face to the end of the tube? 26-20"?Best

 

[ProfessrH]

Thanks, Mookie and Lonniemike. And all y'all. Good info. I appreciate all your help. Will keep you posted.

ProfessrH

 

[Ignition Override]

SlamFire1:
That's a very interesting link, both the photos and the descriptions.

Many years ago military pressures seem often to have been described in "cup", which produced numbers much lower than a corresponding pressure in commercial psi. I've often read that the two different types of pressure were measured in different ways.

Sometimes cup was mistakenly reported as psi, which is very misleading.
A guy at Surplusrifle was a technician in a Canadian ammo lab, and a recent "thread" is dated from a few years ago.
Along with some other people, he appeared to clarify that NATO 7.62 "cup" pressures can be 8,000 or more lower than actual commercial psi, even though the cup can be measured in different ways.

Most people seem to instantly assume that "cup" pressure equals psi, which it does not. Please excuse this secondary issue, which might not help the OP or others.

The former ammo technician's thread seemed to be the typical 7.62 NATO versus comm. .308. debate.
When applied to the stronger (than the FR7) Spanish large ring FR8, there are often too many issues involved to easily clear up.

 

[ProfessrH]

I appreciate everybody's input; y'all are great.

Turns out (remember that crime lab case number?) this rifle was used in a homicide.

I traded it for a m1916 in the original 7x57, and am currently working up loads.

Best to all, and thanks again!

ProfessrH

 

[captmoto]

I've got at least 300 rounds through one of these and that was 20 or so years ago. I used PMC 7.62 x 51 nato designated and a Federal Cartridge load in a white box. I think they were 147gr. FMJ's. I never had any problems and still have those cases. They don't show pressure signs. This was obvioulsy before the internet so info about not shooting modern ammo through them was not around. I bought that PMC and Federal because it was cheap back then. I would now reload for it to shoot again and not exceed 45k in presure. I wish I could find the data on that ammo from back then.

 

[ProfessrH]

Ironically, given all the emphasis on pressure here, my replacement m1916--the 7x57 I mentioned above--gave me low pressure problems with factory ammo, and with my first reloads. I had primers backing out, case web stretching . . .

However, when I took it up to .5 grains off the Hodgdon max load, I put three in a tight cloverleaf at 25 yards. Waiting for my mojo rear sight now. Then I'll get it dialed in and see what it can do at range. (That tight little cloverleaf was 3" right and 3.25" high).

Thanks, everyone!

ProfesssrH