95 Palma Chamber

[Dgd6mm]

I have a 95 Palma chambered barrel. I know it's throated for 155's. My question is, can you shoot factory match ammo in it, like Federal Gold Medal Match, Hornaday Match, etc? Whatever information you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Don Dunlap

 

[dannyjbiggs]

I have a 95 Palma chambered barrel. I know it's throated for 155's. My question is, can you shoot factory match ammo in it, like Federal Gold Medal Match, Hornaday Match, etc? Whatever information you can give would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Don Dunlap

Don't know much about Hornady Match, but I've shot a lota stuff out of a Palma 95 chambered Palma rifle. I have shot raw Federal Gold Medal and even LC M852, and also with each of these modified "push-pull" with the 155 grain bullets, in 1 - 12 twist barrels, and in practice. But, for competitions, I only shot my hand loads, or the furnished Palma ammo of the international host country.

Dan

 

[Ned Ludd]

From the reamer prints I found, the Palma 95 reamer cuts 0.050" freebore. I have a couple GAP rifles that were originally made using their "standard" chamber that has .085" freebore. Those rifles shot typical commercial ammunition loads with anything from 155s up to 175s extremely well. In terms of handloads with those rifles, the .085" freebore starts to get a little short with 185 Juggernauts.

Based on the published differences in BTO measurement for various Berger bullets between 155 gr and 185 gr, I think the .050" Palma chamber would likely work just fine. In some cases the bullets in commercial ammo might be might be closer to touching the lands than you'd ordinarily start out with a handload, but I don't believe they should be jammed .010"+ into the lands or anything like that. However, I'd check to be sure. The easiest way to check would be to take a few measurements of commercial ammo with calipers and compare the CBTOs at "touching" to those of your handloads with 155s seated at "touching". Alternatively, you could just close the bolt on a couple rounds and see whether there were any engraving marks.

Edited to add: I just measured a few FGMM175 commercial rounds and the avg. CBTO was 2.222". My CBTO measurement with 185 Juggernauts at "touching" in a brand new .085" fb chamber was 2.237". Obviously there are caveats because those two bullet have a different nose profile, but it seems like the FGMM175s could be seated by as much as .020" into the lands in the 95 Palma (.050" fb) chamber. I'd simply check them first as I mentioned above.


The only other issue that might be worth thinking about is whether the barrel set up for 155s has sufficient twist rate for the heavier bullets. As long as it's a 12-twist or faster, you should be GTG.

 

[Dgd6mm]

Thanks Ned and Danny. This is a 1-10 twist barrel. I looked at the 95 Palma reamer print. I see that it has a little tighter dimensions than a standard. 308 chamber. My concern is if the brass from a variety of factory ammunitions will fit. I'm wanting to sell the rifle and the person that wants it doesn't reload. As far as the throat goes, I can throat it with a unithroater a bit to were a 185 will work. I doubt he will shoot the 155's. I mostly have built loads with 175smk and Winchester brass. Just off the lands at 2.825". The barrel shoots really good, Shilen Select.

Thanks
Don Dunlap

 

[FrankG]

If I remember correctly when I had my palma gun and chambered it with the 95 palma reamer....a 175SMK if you seated it to a 2.800" oal would jam in the rifling about .025". So if you have box ammo and it's loaded to 2.8". I'm going to say you will be jamming the bullet hard into the rifling. If so expect pressures to go up and if you pull a live round out of the gun you could also experience the bullet getting pulled out of the case and being jammed into the barrel.

As has been stated the type of bullet/ogive etc...can all effect your oal seating length.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

 

[USMCDOC]

here is an interesting thread

http://benchrest.com/showthread.php?66956-308-Palma-chamber-reamer

 

[Ned Ludd]

If I remember correctly when I had my palma gun and chambered it with the 95 palma reamer....a 175SMK if you seated it to a 2.800" oal would jam in the rifling about .025". So if you have box ammo and it's loaded to 2.8". I'm going to say you will be jamming the bullet hard into the rifling. If so expect pressures to go up and if you pull a live round out of the gun you could also experience the bullet getting pulled out of the case and being jammed into the barrel.

As has been stated the type of bullet/ogive etc...can all effect your oal seating length.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

Thanks for posting that, Frank. I edited my previous post after measuring some FGMM175 commercial rounds, as it appeared from those measurements as though the 175s might be jammed as much as .020"+ into the lands in the 95 Palma (.050" fb) chamber. Your actual observation matches my estimate pretty well, suggesting that the 95 Palma chamber is not well-suited for factory loads with 175s.