Cliff Roberts
Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2021
- Messages
- 59
I have 2 6.5mm swedish mausers: a Carl Gustav m96 and a Husqvarna m38. Both are rebuilds and came from different collection buyouts/estates. The m38 came to me as a barreled action (new barrel) with a timney trigger, and a scope - my brother (gunsmith) and I set back the barrel to fix a headspace issue, finished reamed it, and fit a stock and hardware to it. The Carl Gustav was one of those rifles you see here and there that had been chopped down behind the front sight post and had a pic rail mounted to the rear sight base (yes... I cried a little when I found it amongst the collection) - we just cleaned up the muzzle and re-crowned it. After a year or so I threaded the muzzle and turned a flash hider for it - good clearances.
Both barrels slug out to about .266-267 (even the new barrel... I thought that was weird) and the bore cam doesn't show super excessive wear outside the usual (I don't think the m38 had been shot before the old boy passed and the 96 was within tolerance, even if it is getting to the end of headspace)
I've tried to turn them into shooters but, no matter what I do, they just don't seem to want to play nice. Both of them are scoped (both vortex) have levels mouted to the scopes/rings, and are fairly consistent to each other (flinging lead pretty similarly when shot back to back) which makes me believe I'm doing something wrong. I hear guys, especially collectors (mausers are pretty popular in my neck of the woods), tell me that they're getting 1.5-2 moa fairly consistently out of a 96 with the odd lemon. I'm getting about 3-4moa between the two depending on the day and the load.
Neither rifle is particularly fond of the S&B or the PPU I've fed them. I've tried working up loads for them but no dice. I've tried different loads of imr4064, aa4064, imr3030, rl19, big game, hunter, h4350, aa4350, and aa2460 under a 160 interlock, 140 gr Speer Grand Slam, 140 gr Sierra hpbt, 120 gr SST, and even a ppu 139 gr fmj bt (.268 dia - measures at .2663 - modal average). I think I even tried some 120 gr speers in there at one point - they made me nervous... Best group I got was 3" with the Gustav using 36gr of hunter under the ppu.268 but it wasn't consistent over 3 10-shot groups across 2 days and the m38 flung those suckers about 4 inches to the left with about a 5.5 inch group.
I'm a pretty good reloader and a decent enough shot. My brother is a significantly better shot than I am. Neither of us are getting particularly good groups.
So... to the title of the post... is it me? Am I using bad load data? Is something out of spec with the rifle(s)? Did I just happen to get 2 lemons? Or is it anecdotal? Should I be calling BS on "consistently under 2moa" being the norm? In which case, what should I reasonably expect?
I don't think I've ever been so frustrated with a rifle/caliber. I would love some input.
Both barrels slug out to about .266-267 (even the new barrel... I thought that was weird) and the bore cam doesn't show super excessive wear outside the usual (I don't think the m38 had been shot before the old boy passed and the 96 was within tolerance, even if it is getting to the end of headspace)
I've tried to turn them into shooters but, no matter what I do, they just don't seem to want to play nice. Both of them are scoped (both vortex) have levels mouted to the scopes/rings, and are fairly consistent to each other (flinging lead pretty similarly when shot back to back) which makes me believe I'm doing something wrong. I hear guys, especially collectors (mausers are pretty popular in my neck of the woods), tell me that they're getting 1.5-2 moa fairly consistently out of a 96 with the odd lemon. I'm getting about 3-4moa between the two depending on the day and the load.
Neither rifle is particularly fond of the S&B or the PPU I've fed them. I've tried working up loads for them but no dice. I've tried different loads of imr4064, aa4064, imr3030, rl19, big game, hunter, h4350, aa4350, and aa2460 under a 160 interlock, 140 gr Speer Grand Slam, 140 gr Sierra hpbt, 120 gr SST, and even a ppu 139 gr fmj bt (.268 dia - measures at .2663 - modal average). I think I even tried some 120 gr speers in there at one point - they made me nervous... Best group I got was 3" with the Gustav using 36gr of hunter under the ppu.268 but it wasn't consistent over 3 10-shot groups across 2 days and the m38 flung those suckers about 4 inches to the left with about a 5.5 inch group.
I'm a pretty good reloader and a decent enough shot. My brother is a significantly better shot than I am. Neither of us are getting particularly good groups.
So... to the title of the post... is it me? Am I using bad load data? Is something out of spec with the rifle(s)? Did I just happen to get 2 lemons? Or is it anecdotal? Should I be calling BS on "consistently under 2moa" being the norm? In which case, what should I reasonably expect?
I don't think I've ever been so frustrated with a rifle/caliber. I would love some input.