96 Mauser blows

I think that likely in pistol calibers, but P.O. Ackley had some pretty convincing evidence that a greatly reduced load of slow burning rifle powder could generate excessive pressures in a sharply bottlenecked case.

So maybe it was one of Paul B's alphabet soup. Or maybe it was a 4831 load of 3031 or some such.

I think the rifle should be considered a total loss. To say that all it needs for repair is a new receiver and stock is not logical.
 
Iwakefie, I hope your friend was willing to pay for the rifle and will try to determine what happened. There are many possibilities, and I won't even try to make suggestions, but instances like this should be followed up to keep the same thing from happening again. Even if the shooter determines not to use someone else's reloads, the reloader will use his own, and it is very much in his interest to find out where he goofed.

ZeroJunk, I am inclined to agree, but the story has been around, so I thought I would at least mention it.

Jim
 
All it needs is a new reciever, stock, barrel, bolt, etc.

FYI, if you replace the reciever, you are replacing the rifle, not rebuilding it.

The most likely explanation given the info is an underload with a slow powder, which resulted in an explosion (detonation, pressure excursion, etc.). While this has to date not been able to be reproduced under controlled conditions, it has happened, and will happen at unpredictable intervals.

The one rule here, and the only one we can say for certain is that you don't know what was in the last round. You only know what your friend the loader believes.

Unless you watch it being loaded, and know what you are looking at, shooting someone else's reloads is a poor idea.
 
Folks have been asking so here is the load.
N-160 Powder/ 39.5 Grains/ Rem 9 1/2 Primer/ 130 Swift Scirocco II/ Col 3.10".
Larry
 
I have never used N-160, but it seems to be a pretty slow powder, a lot like 4831, and a 40 grain load in a 6.5 case should be too much to allow the kind of flashover that supposedly creates the detonation condition. But it is also too large for a double charge to be possible. So, this may be one of those mysteries that will never be solved.

Jim
 
So how slow is N-160? I have used IMR 4320 for reloading mine with 140 grains. Have not gone with lighter bullets as I wanted to duplicate the original later load, not the long RN bullet loads. Would think real slow powders not ideal for this smaller cartr?
 
Milsurp calibers and powder burn rate

All the classic military calibers were designed around medium burning rate powder. And that is where you should make your ammo. IMR powders like 4064, 4320, and the classic 4895. Or their approximate burn rate equivalent from other makers.

Slow powders can get you high peformance, but are not a real good idea in original milsurp rifles. Better to use slow powders in milsurp caliber modern bolt and single shot rifles if you are going for max performance. When shooting original milsurp rifles keeping the ammo close to GI specs can be an important consideration.
 
Well I dont know about ALL of the cartridges...my research indicated that RL22, which is a child/deriviative of Norma MR, was the closest thing to the original powder used in Swedish M41 ball...and RL 22 is very slow

WildswedieAlaska
 
your friends name isn’t "stumpy" "scoops" or "lefty" is it?

I am not really buying into the idea of too little powder causing a blow up...making thread.
 
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