Montevideo, June 7 2004



Gentlemen,

I am a shooter and reloader living in Uruguay. I recently purchased a Swiss Schuetzen Martini rifle made by H. Ryffel (a Lucerne). The rifle is in excellent condition; it has an 85 cmts. tapered octogonal fluted barrel, set trigger,
hooked buttplate.

It is chambered for the obsolete M-90-03 Swiss round, of which I have a few dozen rounds. The bullet is 211 grains, paper patched soft lead (heel type) with a steel nose cap, and was loaded over semi smokeless powder.

There is a very long (+- 30 mm) tapered free bore, and the twist as far as I can tell is +- 1:14¨

I intend to reload for this rifle. I have new Graf cases, a set of Hornady dies for the 75 Swiss (modern) and have a locally made brushing which slightly modifies the shoulder of the brass to conform to the Cerrosafe cast I made
to the chamber, neck sizing at the same time.

I wonder if any your members have any experience with a similar rifle and would be kind enough to furnish some advise on reloading for the same, especially concerning the proper cast bullet, whether to paper patch, etc.

I thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

Philippe Salmona
philsalmona@hotmail.com

Phillipe;
Since you are in South America, it is a little bit more difficult to help you. However, all is not lost.

The 7.5 Swiss (modern) is a high intensity round (compared to typical schuetzen cartridges) pretty much in the class of the .308 Winchester. The 7.5 has somewhat more capacity than the .308, so cast bullet data for the .308 can be cautiously used.

It would be extremely helpful if you had or had access to a chronograph but certainly not absolutely necessary. If you want to load schuetzen level loads, that will be relatively easy. Before I would get caught up in spending a lot of money for a custom mould, etc, I would order a Lee mould for a 150 grain bullet. Lee only makes gas check moulds in this weight/caliber. Unless you are going to compete in ASSRA sanctioned matches, gas check bullets are somewhat easier to get to shoot well than the plain base lead bullets that we are required to use in ASSRA competiton. Lee moulds are quite inexpensive (here in the States) so your first trials should be done without wasting a lot of money. I would suggest using a bullet alloy of 25/1 lead/tin with tin being the smaller amount. Of course, you will need a box of gas checks. Lyman's Cast bullet book will be very helpful in getting you   started.

I would try to load in the Schuetzen category of velocities (1200-1450 fps) as you will find this is much more pleasant to shoot than full loads. Not knowing the strength or condition of your rifle, it will also be safer. If you can locate it, Hodgdon's H4227 should meet your needs for a schuetzen powder. Keep in mind that this powder will only fill a small part of the case with a proper charge. You should find a proper load somewhere from 14.0-17.0 grains behind a 150 grain bullet.

I would load the bullet as far out of the case as I could and still chamber it.

Keep in mind that I take NO responsibility for any of this load data. There is some risk of ANY reloading and I only take responsibility for loads that I have made. You are on your own.

However, we are interested in your results and suggest that you keep us posted.

After you get up and running, with a working load that does well, is plenty of time to go to custom moulds. You might find that the Lee mould provides all that you need.

One thing, Lee moulds are quite inexpensive. They typically need for you to carefully go over the sprue plate and deburr it with gentle use of a file. Then, I also drill thru the metal ferrule on the handles and insert a very small bolt and nut to secure the handles. Do this before you start and you will never have a broken handle. If the handle comes loose, and you continue to use it, it will break. Do NOT tighten the nut too tight as that will compress the wood underneath the handle and damage it. Just "snug" the nut up against the ferrule and use "Loc-Tite" on the nut.

Good luck!
Dale53