Vihtavuori powder & 30 Luger

[P. Octo]

Originally Posted by GIFFROY

Hello covert and rhuff,

Maybe I have not explained clearly enough : I have no problem with the setback of the bullets left in the magazine. Without crimp (or with a very light crimp) the lenght of 2 dummy cartridges remained unchanged during more than 20 shots.
I have just the problem to find a powder load giving a reasonable pressure AND strong enough to make the pistol operate. I will try 4,1 or 4,2 grains of N-320 ith my 86 grains bullets.
Anyway thank you very much for the help.

giffroy

This is for a 1906 .30, Swiss, made by DWM in excellent condition:
Bullets: 93 gr Fiocchi
Cases: Fiocchi
Primers: CCI
Powder: V 340: started at 0.29g (4.47gr, call it 4.5gr) but that proved too low in my Luger and caused ejection problems, no locking upon an empty magazine. Went up to 0.31g (4.78gr, call it 4.8gr) and no more problems, good accuracy: most bullets stayed inside the 8 ring on a 25 m target. Very clean burning.
I am going to try lead bullets plated with 100 microns of copper, .309 that can be obtained in Italy at the very reasonable price of € 75 per 1000 ($80.80 at today's rate). I am going there for a competion next week and hopefully will pick them up and report after testing.
Around my club, Luger afficionados favour the V 340 over the 320 for the .30; these old ladies need to be treated gently and with respect if we want to hand them over to the next generation... V 320 would be good for a 9 mm, though.
Please, add the usual disclaimer: proceed with caution, works in my gun etc.