Loading for the P14

[Duey]

Well got out to the club this weekend, with the new to me P14 Winchester in 7.62x 51, having quickly thrown together a handful of rounds
After a quick discussion with Ovenpaa, he advised keeping the load mild, due to the age and design of the Mauser action, to about 42gr of N140 ( my preferred powder ) and a suggestion of loading to a COAL of 2.800" for the 155gr bullet I was intending to use
So checked chamber seating depth with the stoney point set up and found that my normal 10 thou off maximum seating wasn't going to work as bullet was barely in the case
So after a bit of reading and further measurements I settled on an COAL of 2.775" as recommended by the Sierra manual for the 2155 old style Palma match

A run through quick load got me to a load of 42.3gr of N140 which got me to 53,000psi with an estimated MV of 2772fps which keeps me below the 55,000psi threshold I didn't want to cross and got me close to the MV of 2800 that I was after

The attached photo is my final 100yd test after sorting out the 100yd zero for the scope

It's a 5 shot group, with a pulled shot on the fourth shot (the one to the left of group), of which I'm confident would have been in the main body of the group, so it all looks good and just need to get the round over the chrono to get a true MV to get some charts sorted for bullet drop

Grouping was far better than I was expecting with the level of pitting and bits of rust along the barrel when I had a look with my bore camera.

All in all, very happy with my new purchase, and doing better than expected with the 1/2"to 3/4" groups achieved to date

And many thanks to ovenpaa for your assistance and advise

Duey

[snayperskaya]

Very nice

Just starting down the reloading route in 54r but my first attempts weren't anywhere near as good as your's accuracy-wise.

[Duey]

Thanks snayperskaya
7.62x51 /308 is historically greatly reloaded for and the basic recipes available are very usable in the majority of rifles
That and a bit of luck methinks
Sure you'll get sorted easily enough

Could always dismantle a factory round that works well and then try to replicate it as a starting point and fine tune for consistency

Duey

[ovenpaa]

Nice little group for a rifle action that was probably built over 100 years ago.

[snayperskaya]

Nice little group for a rifle action that was probably built over 100 years ago.

It is indeed, some of these old rifles are very impressive.There was a gentleman at Minsterley the other week that was shooting a Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55 that was over a 100 years old and the accuracy was superb and would put a lot of modern rifles to shame.

[safetyfirst]

Nice shooting!

[ovenpaa]

We have a friend with an 6,5x55 M41B, I remember him putting 10 shots into a 1" patch at 100m one evening just rested on a sand bag. I shoot a P14 chambered in .303 with a few tweaks and it is undoubtedly the most accurate .303 I have ever owned.