Swiss Vetterli rifles...

[Catfish]

Anyone have first hand experience with one? I have an M78/81 chambered in 41RF I acquired from Houdini on the old forum - I don't see him here yet. I've sent my bolt off to have it converted, acquired brass and dies, and I'm ready to start loading for it. Needless to say I'm working off the books here because AFAIK there are no published data for these guns. I hope to find something that doesn't come from a google search.

Thanks,

Catfish

 

[dalek]

I've seen a lot of reloading info in the swissrifles, but never tried something. Did you get your brass from buffaloarms? I do wonder if it would be more interesting to use black powder or smokeless loads. If it was for me to decide I would gravitate towards door #1.

BTW, that rifle reminds me of my pet peeves with the cowboy shooting crowd: it and the Martini Henry are too modern for those competitions. Just like the Mauser C96.

 

[Catfish]

I found myself loading some 44spl today and started to compare cases - the 41 swiss case has 50% more volume and the same diameter bullet... pull the Cast bullet handbook and double check pressure and sure enough the load I am running is down around 13 KSI. So it should work just fine as a plinker in the Vetterli.

7.5 gn Power pistol under a 245 gn lucky 13 coated .429 SWC and the old girl spat them out at about 975 fps. It shot ~8" high at 25 yards and made a fist sized group with me paying more attention to missing the chrono than hitting the target. A 134 yr old gun comes back to life
Obligatory pix to follow...

 

[mckenziedrums]

Whew, glad you didn't blow yourself up! (I'd have been stuck with this powder...)

 

[Catfish]

Here's the gun, a M78/81 Vetterli made in 1883. The one on top is my experiment, the wood chopped up by someone long ago. The one below is another unmolested example. At least they left the barrel and sights alone when they "improved" it. I'm going to improve it some more.

 

[Catfish]

Here's the bolt assembly before conversion. The process involves throwing the two-pin rimfire striker in the parts bin and drilling out the bolt face to allow passage of a centerfire firing pin. And making something to act like a firing pin. I tried to do this myself based on a few web searches. Needless to say the nylon gizmo in the lower left failed. The next plan was to drill a hole in the end of the striker and solder in a firing pin but the Swiss made this thing from tool steel and it ate everything I threw at it barely leaving a scratch. I was stuck with a partially converted gun that still wouldn't fire.

 

[Catfish]

So after about a year sitting in my safe I found a guy on Facebook who can do this. He makes a silver-solder butt connection to attach a pin to the end of the striker like so:




His name is Norm Sutton - contact info below:
http://olderthendirt.proboards.com/thread/2223/brass-front-sights-vetterli-center

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[Inglis]

I remember being told there was a extra firing pin under the butt plate on these rifles.

 

[Catfish]

There was not on either of mine but that's where my old one is going.

 

[Catfish]

Another range trip to work on load development and smiles:

Improved a few things. Upped the charge to 8.0 gn PP under the same 245gn Z13 44 cal SWC and applied a light crimp using a 44 cal sizing die to just kiss the case mouth. This resulted in a 1080 avg V with ES of only 22 fps in a 10-shot string. Groups were about 3" at 50 yds but still offset from point of aim quite a bit. Sights aren't adjustable so I'm going to try re-crowning the barrel to remove some dings and see what happens.

 

[Catfish]

Bailey Boat thanks for the offer here is the info I promised. A slug 1"down from the muzzle has grooves ~0.430 and lands 0.410x0.408. Yes a bit sloppy but now I see where they get 41 RF from. Pic of the muzzle:

 

[Bailey Boat]

I'll get the pilot ordered today... I'll holler when it arrives....