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219 donaldson wasp loads

I am building a 219 D W-i have info out of old books ect but
any new material on loads and loading would be
welcome Thanks Sydney
 
sydney,
I'm on vacation in Gatlinburg, TN right now so I don't have access to my records. I found this PM that I sent to someone on another forum. Might be of some help.
Originally Posted by 219DW
Quote:
Originally Posted by ray h
I just skimmed read Harvey Donaldson's book, "Yours Truly". He mentions the 219 DW alot but on pages 150-152 he says "his first design held 20-24gr of powder" , then he says "his next design held 26-28gr of 3031. This gave the best accuracy of any case". He then goes on to say he did a Zipper Imp but didn't think it was as good as the second design. It didn't completely burn all the powder It looks like his 2nd design he called the 219 Don. Wasp. I couldn't find any case dimensions though. I know I've read a better description by him some where but this is all I've found. He wrote the above in Feb.1970 but the experiment was in the early 30's on a Winchester which I would guess to be a high wall. I'm thinking now I want the longer case design for it to be a true 219DW. Have a good one, Ray H

Ray H,
My Wasp is the same as shown in Sierra loading manual from the early ninties. From base to neck shoulder junction is 1.497, neck .316 long, .251 dia,
1.813 case length, .406 dia at shoulder, 1.363 to shoulder, 30* shoulder.
My load for a long time was 29.3 N135, 50 NBT, 3562 fps. looking in my notebook, some other loads that I tried, all with 50 NBT.
33.2 H380 3459 fps accurate but slow and dirty
34.0 H414 3458 "
31.0 748 3547
31.3 N140 3580
29.0 H4895 3483
31.5 Varget 3600 good load
After 3-4000 rounds the throat was gone and the 50 NBT was not accurate. Switched to 55 V-max mollied and 31.5 N140 for about 3400 fps and shot about 3/4" groups. Last summer tried 32.0 Varget with 55 V-max and shot little over 1/2 at 3473 fps. This load would be to hot without all the freebore of the worn out throat.
I have noticed in catalogues that Redding now has dies for a short .219 Wasp. If your smith's reamer is the short version (probably is) he can run it in deeper like mine did. When I took a #1 to Penrod a couple of years ago to have a second .219 Wasp built he wouldn't run his short reamer in deep. I had been thinking of designing my own wildcat, so I ordered a reamer for my .219DW PDK.
My .224 BRM has a Hicks accurizer installed as part of the rebarrel package from EABCO. I tried it one time, it moved group up about 2" at 100yds and opened them up a little. Backed it off and haven't messed with it since. It might help with a lighter barrel.
I'm going to try some more pics, try to improve my methods. Did you see the PD shoot pics? lots of fun!
Dave

My .219 Wasp was a Ruger #3, Shilen 14" twist, just had it rebarrelled to .204 Wasp after 6000+ rounds. In this pic it was still a .219 Wasp.
rifle013.jpg


I posted this over on Saubier.com to show how I make brass for my .204 Wasp. If you trimmed #5 to 1.813 it would be ready to load and fireform in a .219 Wasp. Probably wouldn't need to neck turn, I didn't for my .219 #3.




forming brass

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I finished some brass today and fired the first two breakin shots out the back door into a tree in the back yard. Hope to make it to the range Mon or Tues depending on the weather.
I thought I'd post a pic of my forming progression. I know I like reading about wildcats and case forming, so I hope some of you will enjoy seeing mine.
003-1.jpg

1 30-30
2 1st die, .325 dia.
3 2nd die, .284 dia, trim to about 1.820 length
4 3rd die, .260 dia.
5 FL .219 Wasp die, .2223 expander(makes a good fit on my neck turner pilot), neck turn to .245 dia
6 .219 Wasp NK die with .237 and then .228 bushings, trim to 1.770 length, loaded with 31.0gr Varget and 39gr BK
7 fireformed .204 Wasp
I made the form dies almost 20 years ago when I was a tool and die maker and had access to some really nice machinery. The 1st die was a .44 mag seater that I inserted. The 2nd and 3rd were .225WW dies that I opened up the neck dia. and changed the shoulder angle with a wire EDM and ram EDM. The Redding neck die was converted to a bushing by JLC Precision.
Dave
 

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