Hell of Reloading : Steel cased and Berdan primed

tootall said:
Is it really 3 bills per crate in your area?
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the thing is, there is nothing in my area and even driving to the nearest big city i haven't found no one that sell mil surp.
i have trouble getting them to order powder, and they are out of stock on the primer and wad (shotgun), i bought everything.
so i ordered the ammo online, its free shipping but you still pay for it at the end.

ilike22s said:
$270 for 1440 rounds of Chinese surplus.
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i have two choice:
-driving 4hours to get in a big city and check out if they have anything
-order online, the best place i found is CanadaAmmo 1200 for 300 free shipping (non corrosive).


How much do you guys pay for a crate of surplus? if possible ;where?
 
i save surplus for a day when it may be needed

i reload mostly cast even with the sks i shoot cast brass will last a few loadings with cast (annealing every 5 or so firings)
 
Glueing the primer in with nail polish? That is your face and eyes that are close to that gun when you pull the trigger Don't be foolish here your safty is not worth a few dollars. Also you are not going to save any money, which you will find out soon enought after you start this foolish venture.

Graydog
 
pomelum said:
the thing is, there is nothing in my area and even driving to the nearest big city i haven't found no one that sell mil surp.
i have trouble getting them to order powder, and they are out of stock on the primer and wad (shotgun), i bought everything.
so i ordered the ammo online, its free shipping but you still pay for it at the end.


i have two choice:
-driving 4hours to get in a big city and check out if they have anything
-order online, the best place i found is CanadaAmmo 1200 for 300 free shipping (non corrosive).


How much do you guys pay for a crate of surplus? if possible ;where?
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Where about's in Quebec are you?
 
pomelum said:
i will be shooting surplus ammo and i dont want to buy a crate every couple of weeks.
so i bought a set of dies, mold, sizer and all that was needed to reload my brass ehh... steel.

i am planning on:

-drilling (inside out) a flash hole
-removing the anvil
-installing a new boxer primer
-gluing it in place with nail polish

of course i will resize and the like.

what do you guys think about this, do you have better idea?
i researched quite alot, and its the best i could find.
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I have reloaded hundreds of steel cased 7.62 x 39.

First get yourself some boxer brass, practice on the brass using the normal reloading methods. Once your confident in your reloading skills,,, then try the steel cases.

The steel cases are a mild case and you wouldn't get much more then 5 to 6 reloads out of them,,

First clean in a tumbler, this will remove any varnish,

Drill out the Berdan primer and the anvil,, do not drill into the case,, you want to leave the two flash holes as is.

Next, resize,, use lots of sizing lube, I like the Lee sizing lub as it's water saluable.

Now your ready to replace the primer with a boxer primer,

have a case tray ready and once you get 50 primed in the tray (primer up) use a clear FN polish to glue the primer in,,

The boxer primer is just a little small but once the NP dries it will not come out (without a drill)

Now you can use you the power charge that worked with your brass reloads,

Crimp a bullet into place and your go to go,

I use a cast 155gr bullet gas checked, works good, or a 123gr berry's bullet.

With cast bullets I'm in the 12 to 14 cent a round range.

Advantage it's non corrosive

Disadvantage takes a lot of time.

I'm not advising you to do this, I'm just telling you what I have done.

Pictures,, somewhere,,
 
Billythreefeathers said:
I have reloaded hundreds of steel cased 7.62 x 39.

First get yourself some boxer brass, practice on the brass using the normal reloading methods. Once your confident in your reloading skills,,, then try the steel cases.

The steel cases are a mild case and you wouldn't get much more then 5 to 6 reloads out of them,,

First clean in a tumbler, this will remove any varnish,

Drill out the Berdan primer and the anvil,, do not drill into the case,, you want to leave the two flash holes as is.

Next, resize,, use lots of sizing lube, I like the Lee sizing lub as it's water saluable.

Now your ready to replace the primer with a boxer primer,

have a case tray ready and once you get 50 primed in the tray (primer up) use a clear FN polish to glue the primer in,,

The boxer primer is just a little small but once the NP dries it will not come out (without a drill)

Now you can use you the power charge that worked with your brass reloads,

Crimp a bullet into place and your go to go,

I use a cast 155gr bullet gas checked, works good, or a 123gr berry's bullet.

With cast bullets I'm in the 12 to 14 cent a round range.

Advantage it's non corrosive

Disadvantage takes a lot of time.

I'm not advising you to do this, I'm just telling you what I have done.

Pictures,, somewhere,,
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id think the case will rust after being fired with a crossive primer

like i said before i took some 7.62x54r and drilled it out to use a .209 primer(this is costly) but i cleaned these case with boiling water

i used these cases for round ball a .300"-.303" round ball covered in grease in a unsized case with a light powder charge this makes a good small game load when out hunting for bigger critters
 
most steel cases are harder, 1 in 30 of my 7.62x54R brass are cracked at the neck when fired. From what I've heard on reloading steel cases, don't expect a lot of reloads per case.
 
I think it's still a not bad idea, it doesn't matter if it takes me an hour to reload a single round, or if I spend 50$ per round, or make terribly inaccurate ammo. All that matters is that I enjoy myself. As long as another enthusiast is active in this hobby, it is better for us all. Also, without those that try things outside of the norm, not much innovation would ever happen, and we would all be using 30-06 FMJ surplus for everything.

I would never bother doing this, but I also do many things that are unnecessary just because I like doing it.
 
Drilling out the berdan primer and using boxer primers is quite do-able. There is a sticky somewhere on Cast Boolts website that describes the process very well - including exactly what size drill bit to use (two steps required) and how to swage the remaining bit of the bredan primer so that it will stay in place and allow you to seat the boxer primer inside it. It is perfectly feasable but it will be a good bit of work to do a large batch of cases.

I would be concerned about the steel cases. I don't doubt that they are reloadable to some degree but they might work harden and require heat treating often. Would be a shame to use all that time and effort to convert them to boxer priming and then find out they are only good for one reload before they split. Personally I would just bite the bullet and buy a hundred boxer primed brass cases and use that for reloading.

Interesting project, though. You should try a few cases and see what happens.
 
interested to hear the results. I thought I was a dedicated reloader - I wouldn't do this myself, but good on ya if it floats your boat.
best!, heavy
 
pomelum said:
-drilling (inside out) a flash hole
-removing the anvil
-installing a new boxer primer
-gluing it in place with nail polish


what do you guys think about this, do you have better idea?
i researched quite alot, and its the best i could find.
Click to expand...

I am assuming you are gluing the boxer primer instead of swaging the pocket smaller?

I have tried this with brass 7.62 cases and although its possible its not really worth the time and effort.

GC
 
Freyr_255 said:
Why would go through all this effort(scratching dies, gumming them up with lacquer, drilling out primer holes, gluing in boxer primers...) when you can buy the loaded ammunition cheaper than just the bullet alone will cost you?
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Winner.
 
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