7.65 argentine loads - 1891 rifle

[Tokugawa]

Question- has anyone actually had a 1891 argentine blow up from using norma commercial ammo?

US 7x57 is held to 46,000 psi due to the the old 93 and 95 mauser actions still being used.

Swedish 6.5 x 55 is held to the same 46,000 psi for the 96 swede action.

The norma 7.65 arg. ammo is apparently loaded to 52,000 psi, as tested by accurate powder co.

This seems to be pushing it for the old 91 mauser action. Some say it should only be used in a 1909 argentine action. Some say it is fine.

Comments please?

 

[browningguy]

Answer - not that I know of.

But I don't shoot any in my 1891 sporter, I load a nice mild 180 grain load at 2300 FPS and it works fine as far as my old eyes can see. About 100 yards is the most I shoot at anything with it.

 

[Cosmoline]

I never tried it, and I'd ask Norma to be sure. Norma in general tends to crank up the power on old military rounds because they assume the users won't take undo risks.

On another point, I found with my '91's that no modern ammo worked very well with it. Instead I handloaded .312" Woodleigh 215 grain RN bullets and custom .313" 220 grainers with a high ogive using load data from the .30-40 Krag. The '91 was designed to shoot a much larger, slower bullet than the '09. My accuracy went from 4 MOA or worse to near MOA when I made the switch.

 

[Tokugawa]

cosmo, what sort of velocity were you getting? And were you using cast lead or jacketed bullets? I would not mind a nice light coyote/plinking load. Any shot I get around here is going to be 60 yards max.

Also, on a side note, I wonder if this 1891 could use a chamber adapter to run 7.62x39.- is it not a .311 slug? Of course, the bullet weight would be far from optimum...?

 

[Cosmoline]

I was using jacketed bullets and IIRC I was under 2,000 fps IIRC. But I no longer have my data. Moderate Krag data should work OK, as it's a moderate pressure cartridge with very large bullets.

The argie is a .313" I'm not sure how accurate an adapter would be, but it might be fun.

 

[Gordon]

In my 91 carbinesI shoot .32 acp in a couple adapters I had Alex make. I feed up sedcond one for realism.