Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Bottleneck Bullet Battle With A Paddle In A Bottle

From the original 7.65x25mm Borchardt did spring many cartridges...

Among these cartridges were 7.65x21 Parabellum, the original Luger chambering, and 7.63x25mm Mauser, which was the chambering of the C96 Mauser "Broomhandle". Many Broomhandles were sold to the Czar's officers. Many more were sold to Bolshevik rebels after the war, what with the Versailles treaty being kind of snippy about the Jerries making 9mm pistols. The 7.63 Mauser round was so popular with the Bolshies that when they designed their first native pistol, the TT-30 Tokarev, they basically ripped off the original Mauser cartridge wholesale.

And so here are a pair of pistols: A Czechoslovakian Cold Warrior CZ-52 in 7.62x25mm Tokarev and a Weimar-era 1920 DWM Commercial Luger in 7.65x21mm Parabellum. Both are firing modern commercial ammo. The weather was 73°, 39% humidity, as best I can tell from the internets. Call it about 740 ft above sea level.

Fiocchi .30 Luger 93gr SJSP
  • LO: 1102
  • HI: 1145
  • AV: 1125
  • ES: 42.57
  • SD: 13.89
Mild-shooting (as the numbers should show) and extremely consistent velocities. The Luger has not malfunctioned with it yet, although fifty rounds is a tiny sample.

Sellier & Bellot 85gr FMJ
  • LO: 1497
  • HI: 1573
  • AV: 1533
  • ES: 76.07
  • SD: 25.61
Noisy, with muzzle flash noticeable in daylight, the S&B lived up to the Tok mystique.

Somewhere around here I still have a blister pack of MagSafe 52gr 7.62 Tok. I should burn it up in the name of science. It's not like I'd use it for anything else...
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