Anyone shooting .41 swiss?

[Mike Regli]

I have a Swiss Vetterli I load for with smokeless. It was originally used with BP cartridges. But they went to smokeless in the 1890s. It is much cleaner to shoot for sure. The safest powder to use is IMR4759, but that has been discontinued. So i will buy any excess i can find.
Thanks
Mike

 

[BP_HideHunter]

I actually have one of those guns that my dad bought me back in the early 70s for $5. Most of them had welded shut barrels, this one did not.

Would love to shoot it, but I only have 1 original bullet for it...

 

[Mike Regli]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. If you are wanting to shoot the Vetterli, there is some things you would need to do to make ammo and convert the gun to centerfire. Pretty easy to do with basic tools. Have you checked the gun carefully? The barrel is decent and undamaged? Bolt functions? Its unmodified, or sporterised? There is a group that has all that info. SwissRifles.
We use .348 or 8mm label brass and convert to the .41 Swiss. You can shoot this case with black powder, but it is messy and can foul pretty quickly. So I prefer to use smokeless. BUT the gun is rated for about 13000 psi. So you need a mild bulky powder like imr4759. There are others too. But my biggest hurdle is loading the bullet and getting a crimp to hold it. The slug is about 330 gr. cast. but any heavy .44 call lead bullet will work. Going by original spec size allows for use of the magazine. So the bullets have to be crimped and correct length to funcion. It has been a blast to shoot and i am at the point of getting loads dieled in for accurate shooting. Formed brass is available sometimes. Old Western Scrounger LLC | Home. Lee dies are $45ish. So give it a try.
Mike

 

[Mike Regli]

Sorry Old western scrounger dose not have ammo. And 10.4X38R (41 Swiss) Swiss Vetterli Centerfire Cases* is out of stock. But 8x50R French Lebel Rifle - Rifle Brass - Metallic Reloading - Graf & Sons Grafts has 8mm brass that is easily fire formed to .41 swiss. Just do a google search for .41 swiss. After fire forming and trimming you can load with black powder and shoot. You also need to convert the bolt to center fire. Also much online info to do that.
Mike