Ahhhh good thread; I love all the old stuff! Buncha thoughts....
Absolutely! From everything that I have read these made great small game guns without the noise and meat destruction that a 22 mag can cause. I also can't help but think that a long .25 or .32 rimfire would make an interesting middle ground alternative to the .22 / 32 / .38 pocket snub discussions that keep going around lately; rimfire so cheaper than .32 / .38, but bigger, heavier bullets than any of the 22s and less blast that the 22 mag. Load some 75-100 grain flat point bullets around 750- 800 out of a 2" and call it good.
A retired Army officer / military historian friend of mine here in town has played around with one of these quite a lot and experimented with handloading for it. Nice solid feeling, flat compact gun that easily delivers .38 spl +P+ or lower end 9mmP energy. I doubt if most soft things would notice the difference between a round from this and regular 9mmP ball. All the charm of the Colt 1903/1908 but in a little more shootable size with better ballistics. I wish that I would have bought a couple years ago when Sarco had them; one to stay stock, and then send the other one off to get better sights, bigger safety and a bit of frame checkering.
That is actually available again from Steinel ammo. https://www.steinelammo.com/product-...5-french-long/
Again I think that this is an interesting little cartridge that could be modernized. They are loading an 100 FMJRN at 1000 fps, and a little .32 mag intended Gold Dot or XTP might do just fine at that velocity. Could be very interesting in the right platform (I wonder how many you could fit in a Glock 48 or LCP Max mag???)
I tend to agree, but 7.62 Tok has a mixed record with FMJRN if you read accounts from the Korean war. Maybe with a JHP, FMJ flat point or a longer spitzer (maybe with an aluminum weight or an air space in the nose), it would be a entirely different prospect. I played around a little with a PPSH43C SBR and it was really light, fast and handy.
Matt's Bullets makes something just for that; 260 Grain Round Nose Hollow Base Webley (.455) "This bullet is intended for the .455 Webley revolvers. It has been carefully designed to be as close as possible to the original design. As such, it is hollow base, and that fact means that it should work well in guns with undersize chambers or oversize bores. It is cast soft."
https://www.mattsbullets.com/index.p...ro3obd1hsadfh4
Or for the Manstopper option (but may be too small for many of The Old Ones): 240 Grain Hollow Base Wadcutter (.452)
https://www.mattsbullets.com/index.p...ro3obd1hsadfh4
I agree on all points. I have several Krags and they are great old guns. My maternal grandfather's best friend hunted a sporterized one with a fixed 6x Leupold all over African as a thin skinned game gun with cast 220 lead RN with just a little hollow point to it. Sadly the mold was lost, but the rifle still shoots beautifully.
Re heavy bullet .32 and .38 loads you might want to look around the castboolits forum for posts by LouisianaMan. Same gent that was experimenting with the 9mm Browning Long I mentioned above. He experimented with 115 RNFP in .32 long and up to 210 in various profiles in .38 S&W and .38 Special. LOTS of straight line penetration during informal testing with some of those loads with the flat nosed bullets. We have a custom 200 grain (sorta) Keith style LSW by ?NOE? I think and it is a beautiful shooting bullet out of everything that I have tried it in from 2- 16 inch barrels.
Well the French pretty much did that with the 7.65 French long, and maybe there is also the 7x23mm Penna from Italy? Don't know if it every made it into production or not. I think the 7 mm Penna was meant as a competition cartridge and maybe never was actually produced, but it could be interesting in the right platform.