11mm Gras mle79/83 Reloading and history
France
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23m
Less known than the Martini-Henry but just as active around the globe at the time was the single shot Gras rifle in all its varients. It was chambered for the 11x59R cartridge, one of the many 11mm-ish cartridges of the era and quite close to the 45-70. In 1878 the French navy adopt a Kopatschek rifle, and the tubular mag forces the use of a flat nosed bullet. This version of the cartridge comes about in 1883. In this vid I do a show and tell about how to reload for this cartridge and also some of the industrial loading tools used back in the day.
For the SFM data sheet on the cartridge:
http://p.lacour.malvaux.free.fr/Histoire_docs/Chassepot-Gras/11Gras_79-83_SFM.jpg
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