Lee Loader

Haven't tried paper patching before. I know it is used for cast, especially the softer bullets, but I read some stuff about using it for jacketed. I thought I would give it a try while I wait to cast some lead pills. These are .311 180 grain Speer Hot Cores that I have wrapped up to .325-6 using tracing paper. They were wrapped wet, allowed to dry and then lubed with Lee sizing lube and run through a .325 sizer. They will be used in a K98 Mauser with an oversized barrel and chamber. I only did 11 and may never try it again but the fun is in the trying the first time.

They sure enough look very cool!

Macd, thanks for starting this thread. Quite some time ago I paper patched some .308 Nosler Partitions up to .318 to try in my 8x57 drilling. At the time I thought the barrel was the smaller of the two 8mm diameters, as it was marked 7.8mm. After they shot horribly, I slugged the bore and discovered it was .3235"! So my paper patching stopped right there; .323 Nosler Partitions were the ticket.
The bore of my 9x80R drilling measures .363", in between .35 caliber jacketed bullets and 9.3mm (.366") pills. Sometimes I think I would benefit from patching .338" or .348 bullets up to that rifle's bore. I've successfully used .358 Partitions, 225 gr., for many elk, muleys, whitetails, and antelope. It would seem that the exposed lead base of the Partition is bumping up to obdurate and seal an otherwise undersized slug. Still, I wonder if I'd get an accuracy improvement from paper patching.
Someday...

Interesting. I'll be following along to see the results.

How does the rifling look in the barrel? I assume it's well-worn? If so, I wonder if the paper will bite or skid?

klr wrote:Interesting. I'll be following along to see the results.

How does the rifling look in the barrel? I assume it's well-worn? If so, I wonder if the paper will bite or skid?

Barrel is pretty bad but rifling is still quite visible. I lapped it out and it shoots .325-6 GC lead rounds okay but I have only tried Trail Boss since lapping at a max velocity of 1534 fps. Before that it wouldn't keep two shots anywhere near each other. This time I will try to get it up around 2000-2200 fps using a reduced load of H4895.

I patched a .312 up to .317 (finish sized) for a .305×.3165 barrel .

I've never done jacketed .

I've done some .259-.266 for a 264 WM with "light" loads of Unique that made me sad .

To the 9×80 .
There are a host of 35 cal moulds from 85-330 gr . Paper patched a 359-360 from one of these would be near perfect in it especially with what I would expect to be a low pressure cartridge .
I would think that you could pretty readily match or surpass the Whelen and 350 Rem .
Depending on how much damage you want or need .

Update

So step two was to load them up. Case mouths were chamfered to prevent peeling/shaving as per recommendations. I chose 38 grains of H4895 which is 2 grains under the starting load. OAL was set at 3.00. Things did not go as hoped.
1. Jacketed bullets are too slick for even the tightly wrapped and shrunk paper to get a proper hold. Even with the waxy coating left by the sizing lube the neck tension caused enough friction on seating to slide the paper forward.
2. The seating pocket in the seating die stem is too wide for the nose of the undersized bullet. The bullet nose enters the stem and stem pocket edge pushes back the paper.

The result of 1. and 2. is a deformed patch.

There are solutions to both issues however. The bullet jackets can be roughened with emery paper and a water soluble glue such as that used for wall paper can be used as a wrapping liquid. A modified seating stem with a shallow pocket can be fabricated. I have done this before for VLD's so it is not a difficult fix. Slightly expanding the necks will help ease the bullets into place. I will probably give it another try just because I am old and stubborn. RD you may want to secure some more popcorn

Its interesting to me as a novice loader that barley loads lead over jacketed rounds. I often thought that paper patching would be complicated to load. I look forward to see more results. I love ingenuity like this.

RBHarter, thanks for your response. The ideal solution is to cast bullets for that 9x80r drilling. I've resisted casting, all these years, as I have too many other irons in the fire to take up yet another captivating hobby. My brother casts for many calibers; I haven't yet talked him into making me some bullets.
You are correct about the low pressure loading for this cartridge. I keep velocities down around 2000 to 2100 fps for the 225 gr Nosler Partitions. This approximates .35 Rem performance, and has been thoroughly adequate for all the big game animals I've shot. I will use the excellent Speer 180 gr flat nose for deer and antelope, too. .357 Rem mag bullets and 9x18 Makarov handgun bullets work well for head shots on grouse, or for finishing shots on deer.

Macd, I recall rolling a metal file with a bit of downward pressure over each bullet to roughen the surface. I had none of the slippage issues you describe after I tried the file trick. It may have been Ross Seyfried who suggested that.