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reloading data for 8mm french revolver

7K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  mandrakke 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi,
can you suggest a safe load of powder Vihtavuori N135 for cal. 8mm French Revolver (Modele 1892)? My revolver is a Velodog, made in Spain around 1930, in very good condition. The weight of the bullets I have is 112,5 grains and the powder I want to use is VIHTAVUORI N135. On the internet I found some suggested loads for powders Alliant Bullseye or Vectan, but unfortunately these powders are not available where I live (Rome, Italy): that's why I’d like to use Vihtavuori N135, of which I already have a box.
Thank you very much for your help
Umberto
 
#2 ·
Can you provide more information about the caliber you're loading? An 8mm is going to be a .32 caliber round here in the US, but there are several of them, and most are too small to push a 112.5 gr bullet. A link to a caliber description, with dimensions, would be very helpful; there might be something fairly close in our manuals.
 
#4 ·
As you may read in the page of "Cartridges of the World" I attached to my previous post, there is the suggested load of Alliant Bullseye. I'm now attaching file "8_mm_M-1892.pdf", that indicates the suggested loads of Vectan (see page 3 for the 115 grains bullet). Now, since I can't get these brands of powders here in Italy, the question is: how can I convert the suggested loads of Bullseye and/or Vectan into Vihtavuori N135 ??
 

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#5 ·
I don't think it's a simple matter of converting from one powder to another - it doesn't work that way. If Vihtavuori is all you can get, your safest option is to contact the powder manufacturer and ask them for assistance.

We commonly see powders compared by burn rate, but there's more to the chemistry than that; selecting a charge based on similar burn rate can go very wrong. Different shapes, different formulas can result in differing amounts of hot gas released from the same weight of powder, so the pressures within the case might be very different, perhaps dangerously so.
 
#6 ·
VV N135 is W-A-Y too slow for what you want to do. You could probably get
it to work with anything from N320 to maybe N350 or 3N37. N320 or N330
would probably be best.

You must have some other powders available to you besides N135. What are
your other choices?
 
#7 ·
Some 10 days ago I sent an email to Vihtavuori, asking them for the right (prudential) load for that caliber, but unfortunaterly got no answer. Here in Italy the only brand of powder avilable on the market is Vihtavuori (various types), but I don't want to risk a barrel/cylinder explosion for excessive load: what I need is an official recharging data table for that caliber. If I can't get it, looks like the only alternative I have left is buying a box of loaded cartridges (by Fiocchi, an italian brand), even though they are quite expensive.
 
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