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Seeking to find accuracy for the 139 Privi Partizan .264, I was hopeful that I might find some old black magic that would work in my Swedes for this one. A fellow on the forum had recommended an accuracy load of 36 gr. of IMR4064 with a Fed Match Privmer. Checking the new Sieerra Manual, sure enough that load was in the lowish range. Since I have a good supply of that powder for 8mm and new Wolf LR primers I thought I would give it a try since IMR4350 and H4831, which usually do the trick with 140 gr bullets, did not make the European 139 grainer sing like they do with Hornady and Sierra 140 gr. bullets.

Having checked the seating depth in those looong throated M96 and M96/38s I felt both rifles would accomodate an COAL of 3.102, a good bit longer than I usually load. But it was closer to the rifling but still far from touching.

As I began shooting with loads ranging from 35.0gr to 36.5gr I immediately noticed that the cases were very sooty! I had occasionally observed this with some factory Serbian ammo do this and concluded from forum input that perhaps these were low pressure loads and I was getting some blow back. Oh, well, dirty cases, but would the load shoot?

I squeezed off a round in my M96 and had a hang fire. It happens. Oh well, paste the target and try again. Reloading I tried another round and got click. Nothing. Thinking that it may be another hang fire I waited a minute to see if it would fire. On extraction out pops the case, but no bullet. Classic answer, "Larry, you idiot, you failed to charge the case and the primer has the bullet stuck in the bore." Sure enough, I had to use a rod to dislodge the bullet just inside the lands.

But on inspecting the case I could see that indeed there was powder...a lot of it...inside the case. This happened with another round even chocked full of powder so I gave up on that lot and switched to another load. The remainder of the shooting session was uneventful, and no, the other loads and COAL I had tried in another 6.5x55 did not prove accurate with the 139 gr. Privi. I know the bullet will shoot as another forum friend gets good results from his Ruger.

Your input and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help in getting me straight on the bench and on target.

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Larry