Reloading for 7.5x55 Swiss

[NuJudge]

All good advise above. The biggest thing to remember about the K31 chamber is that on a new barrel the rifling comes all the way back to the case mouth, and if the bullet does not have a strong taper forward of the cannelure, you will jam the bullet into the rifling. Some really new barrels have not shot well for me with 168gr bullets. I have not had a Swiss barrel that did not like the Remington 165gr soft point core lokt.

Some more good data:
http://www.swissrifles.com/sr/pierre/loaddata.html
http://www.swissrifles.com/sr/pierre/data.html

[antietamgw]

I may be coming into the possession of a K-31 soon, and I would like to prep and do my homework in advance. Here's what I'm looking for:

I'm no longer able to see iron sights well and have sold a number of rifles that I did not want to scope - my K31 was one of them. I have an as new set of Lee dies, and some once fired brass as well as some brass formed from new Win .284 that I am selling. I'm not well known here, mostly lurking and searching for info. I've listed it on a non milsurp forum. If you have an interest, PM me and I'll get you the link and info.

[Darreld Walton]

All of my loading experience with the 7.5 Swiss included forming the brass from .284 Winchester, loading with Varget and 168 gr. Speer's. Loaded this up with RCBS dies, case forming wax lube, and neck size only after firing, and trimming only as necessary.
My K31's shoot this cobbled up load very well. Since then, the 7.5 ammo and brass costs have come WAY down, especially in my region, and finding .284 brass is almost as hard to find as most of the other "oddball'' rounds I like to use.
Good luck! Just use "standard" components with published data, shoot it, adjust the load, and then go have fun!!!

[psteinmayer]

Ok, new question on the subject: I now have my K31, and 100 rounds of GP-11, and another 80 or so rounds of GP-11 brass. I've work out how to pull the Berdan primers efficiently (using the hydraulic method - messy, but cheaper than spending $70 or so for that RCBS decapper), and I'll be cleaning the cases up and prepping.

The question is where is a good source of Berdan standard rifle primers? I've check Grag and Sons, Cheaper than Dirt, and a few other suppliers, but no one seems to carry them. I plan on this only as a stop-gap until I can build up a good supply of Boxer primed brass.

[barretcreek]

Ok, new question on the subject: I now have my K31, and 100 rounds of GP-11, and another 80 or so rounds of GP-11 brass. I've work out how to pull the Berdan primers efficiently (using the hydraulic method - messy, but cheaper than spending $70 or so for that RCBS decapper), and I'll be cleaning the cases up and prepping.

The question is where is a good source of Berdan standard rifle primers? I've check Grag and Sons, Cheaper than Dirt, and a few other suppliers, but no one seems to carry them. I plan on this only as a stop-gap until I can build up a good supply of Boxer primed brass.

Try Old Western Scrounger, or may Wm Larkin Moore and Son in Scottsdale. WLM sells a lot of expensive double rifles so they may know where to get primers.
If I can't find Prvi brass I'll wait until .284 Winchester is available. It's one of those cases that probably gets made into other stuff more than is shot in its designated chambering so hopefully WW will crank out some soon.

[psteinmayer]

I purchase 500 Berdan primers on Gunbroker, so I'll load enough for a couple matches. Elsewhere, Parashooter has provided me (on another forum) some really great instructions for converting that GP-11 to Boxer... so that is what I'll likely do in the end!

Now to get busy loading...

[NuJudge]

Once it gets warm, if that ever happens, send me your brass and I will hydraulically deprime them with a nifty tool I have.

I will PM you as I am in the neighborhood.

[psteinmayer]

Thanks so very much NuJudge. PM read and responded.

[psteinmayer]

Just to let all know, I secured a small supply of Berdan primers about a month ago... so I reloaded 50 of the GP-11 cases with the Berdan primers. My load consisted of 168 gr Nosler HPBT match bullets over 40.0 grains of H4895. I shot these in a CMP match yesterday (only the second time I've shot this rifle), and wound up just short of a medal - 97-3X Slow, 92-1X Rapid, and 70-1X Offhand, for a total 259-5X. I attribute the low Offhand to my being terribly unsteady. The bottom line is - even though it is a little more trouble to decap, it's really not a big deal to re-prime, and the rest of the loading process is the same... so for now, I'm going to continue loading these as is. I am thrilled with the results!!!

Now to find another good supply of the Berdan Primers...