Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Sooty Necks

I'm playing around with a Swedish Mauser sporter. A M96/38 made in 1944. The scope it came with is a K4 60B , early 60s?. The early days of do it yourself drill and tap have some odd spacing and mounting, certainly on sporters.This one was done in Sweden. So I loaded up a bunch of 100gr Hornadys with a starting load of IMR 4064 to sort out the scope mounting. I'm noticing some rather sooty necks. These rifles were cut for a 140 or even a 160 on the early ones with a generous free bore.Am I right in thinking I'm not getting enough pressure for a clean burn?

Why stop at the starting load unless you are getting great accuracy and are at pressure? Why load a bunch of rounds out of the gate?

Find pressure then search for accuracy there or below that.

Might also anneal the necks.

The load is just BANG , to half azz center the scope. Holes in paper is all that's needed. The universal load for 6.5x55 is 43gr of IMR4350 and 140gr bullet .That copies the military load and keeps the pressure down. The Swedes gave up using the M96 when a soldier got a bolt in the forehead . Most of the rifles were from the turn of the century age..

Low pressure loads where the neck doesn't expand adequately will cause sooty case necks.

Thanks, that makes sense. I'll run patch down her, a clean bore is much easier to bore sight.

Yep

I find it hard to believe that a Swedish Mauser in good condition would shear both locking lugs and drive the bolt back into the shooter's head. If the pressure was so high that the two primary locking lugs were sheared off, I doubt that the small auxiliary locking lug found on the post-1898 SR and LR actions would keep the bolt in the rifle. The Sweds reworked around 60,000 1896 rifles into the M38 format and Husqvarna made another 80,000 or so M38 between 1942 and 1944.

While I wouldn't recommend using over the max recommended loads in those Swedish Mausers that are over 100 years old, the M38s made by Husqvarna in the early 1940's are very strong actions. IMO the only glaring weakness of the small ring Mausers is the lack of a robust gas shield on the bolt shroud. I have rebarreled Husqvarna built Swedish military Mausers for cartridges loaded at higher pressures for my Norwegian bachelor farmer friend who has used them extensively without any pressure or gas issues. My small ring Sweds, 4 Carl Gustavs and 3 Husqvarnas are chambered in 257 Roberts, 6.5x55, and 8x57.

Someone needed a story to cover their azzes!!

I have read a lot about the history of rifles, including a considerable amount about the 6.5x55 and the military rifles it was chambered in. Cannot remember a reference to that, so would appreciate if you could provide a quote with the information.

If you don't want the sooty necks... try 4198 or use the top end 260 data with 4064 and a 100 grain bullet...

A lot of my loads are low pressure, so when I go to the range with them, i always have a piece of steel wool with me in my shooting box..

I single shoot at targets or for zeroing a scope, so after the shot, I clean the neck off with the steel wool, before I pull another bullet out and put that in the chamber...

yeah, I'm anal retentive about such things...but my brass sure looks in good shape all the time..

I probably spend more time on brass than most., but It gives me a lot of miles out of a piece of brass...

I've found a little dab of Simichrome polish on a cloth makes sooty necks bright and shiny without much work.