Little cases and bullets .

RBHarter

West Central AR
For some time I had fussed around with the idea of a direct replacement for 22 LR . I got serious about it with an NOE discount about 2 yr ago .
For what it's worth 225-37 PB isn't the answer in 222 or 223 . Well maybe if you felt like 1 gr of Red Dot would light reliably .
I instead went with the 225-55@62gr . I didn't shoot paper groups but it was satisfying to ding 4" steel gongs on demand with a 1180 fps load that makes about the same noise as the hammer fall .
I ended with with SPP and 3.0 Unique in the 223 .
Very quiet , no ear gear , and most certainly would wreck anything you might want to shoot with a 22 rf . It was still subsonic at 4,000 I expect it'll be super down here and need to back it down to about 2.7 .

I have also a 7×6.8SPC a straight neck up a whopping .007.
There was a surge subsonic everything and the 6.8 was not an exception to that . The 9.5 twist in the 7mm barrel allowed much heavier bullets than the 10 or 11 twists . The RCBS 7mm-168 SIL or at least my example is far too small on the nose . The NOE 285-150 FP (Hunter) worked much better .
I chose RP brass and WLRP for this combo because I have both this and a 6.8SPCII the LRP helps separate brass using FC SRP in the 6.8 .
I was surprised when I started down from 5.0 gr of Unique that the 154 gr bullet would be over 1500 fps . I was also surprised that half grain steps o slowed it by 100 fps . At 3.0 it dropped from 1150 at 3.5 to just 980 fps . 75 yd golf balls are fun .
Also quiet from a 21" target crown barreled Carcano .

Keep in mind that I don't shoot much off the bench and nearly everything is field positions and general body support posses .

This would be a lot more satisfying if I had an 80 gr 22 and a 175+ 7mm bullet , but it works , the loads are quiet , and nearly recoil free .
 

Ian

Notorious member
I use 75 -grain bullets in the .223 with 2.7 grains of Titegroup. 3.4 grains for the 60s. Lotsa drop at 75 and 100. Fun though and better than a .22lr. Use garage/estate sale primers or old stuff, odds and ends, and unknown type primers to keep cost down.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
The Carcano has a Montana Rifleman barrel on it . It was chambered with a 6.8 SPCII reamer and throated with a 7-30 waters . Later the freebore was extended to match the ARP 6.8 length with a 7mm throat reamer intended for the shorter 154s . I've shot a paper patched RCBS 27-130 FP that tips in at 141 gr to 2400 fps with typically 1" groups . I made a few changes , I found a stock bump , polished the sear faces shortened the 1stage take up ........ and really haven't gotten back to shoot it any more .

They say building a hot rod is more fun than driving it ...... I think that's what happened here . I was given a rifle that was hacked and chopped at and about .1 out of head space for a 6.5 with a final twist of about 1-14 or so and no means of attachment for sights . It had been well polished and a proper bolt turn down done with polished contact points in the trigger , but not the trigger itself . I hunted around until I found a selection of cartridges that would fit the bolt face close enough and be reasonably close to long enough for the action . Then I hunted a barrel that would be big enough for the action , the Carcano barrel threads are larger than a LR Mauser so it had to be a fat blank . In hindsight I should have gone with a "bulge buster" and chambered it in 7-30 or AI and used 35 Rem brass or even just 30 Rem . The 6.8 brass is readily available and under 25¢ 1x so ....... The 9.5 twist is great with heavies it's just no man's land so I fall back on a full case that will barely make clean up and it's been all good .
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Gotcha, I missed the .8 part after the 6. Wouldn't even know what one looks like, too new for me.