7.62x39 surplus components to make 30-30

YoungGunz67

YoungGunz67

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Ok long story short I have ALOT of milsurp 7.62x39 and the cases are ####tered dented and such now me being the cheap a$$ I am I want to pull the bullets(there fine) and the powder(fine too) and salvage those components to make 30-30 rounds on the cheap for shooting in my savage 99(they can take pointed rounds)
I'm going to size these bullets to 308 but I'm wondering what should I be loading the powder at? What is the powder? I don't want low loads ether I want standard velocity rounds so how many grains of the milsurp powder should I load in the 30-30 case. In the 7.62x39 stuff there's 25.6 ish grains of powder.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Younggunz
 
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Your going to size a copper washed steel jacketed bullet filled with lead? Interesting...

Myself I just don't think it would be worth it just to try to remove .003" worth of plating.


As for the charge weight your least dangerous way would be to start by looking up pressure value of 30-30 and x39 and working up with a crony very carefully watching for pressure sign or erratic velocity...

Of course someone here has probably done it already so maybe they'll AT&T there .02?

Oh and you really want to make sure you sort your pull down powder by date stamp, manufacturers don't always use the same powder and charge weight from batch to batch or even year to year necessarily.
 
Sizing down won't be an issue, light coat of lanolin or Lee's white sizing paste mixed with isopropyl.

If I'm correct the case sizes are roughly the same size so if there is 26gr or powder I would start at 200gr and work up.
 
Small, boxy cartridges like the 7.62 x 39 are usually loaded with fairly fast powders, like IMR 4198, Accurate 1680 (AKA Win 680), Lil Gun or IMR 4227. I would take a look at the starter loads suggested for these types of powders in the .30-30, then cut back generously and start working up. The higher of (published starting loads -20%) or (50% loading density) should be adequately cautious.
 
If I was going to do this, I would not bother sizing the bullets. I shoot 7.62x39 bullets all the time in a tight 308 match barrel, without issue.

It is important that the neck of the case still be clear of the chamber wall with the fatter bullet in place. Measure the neck diameter of the fired case and then the neck diameter with a bullet installed. If the diameter is smaller with the bullet installed, you are good to go.

I would expect that the full military charge would be fine in the 30-30 - but I would start at 22 gr and work up in 0.5 increments.
 
If you really want to size them you could give a Lee .309" sizer meant for cast bullets a try. They are hard tool-steel so are more durable than a bolt or piece of all-thread. And you wont need to machine it yourself (or find a friend with a lathe if you don't have one).
Personally, like Ganderite said, I'd just shoot them as-is unless they wont chamber.

You probably can't get top velocities with the powder in the cases since it'll be, like people already said, somewhat close to 4198. That powder works in a 30-30 but isn't usually a top performer. The powder itself will be some bulk Soviet or Chinese powder from a Communist factory and isn't a powder available to reloaders. Kind of like the powder in most US made factory ammo; a bulk powder held to rough burn rate tolerances and loads were adjusted at the factory to produce the desired pressure.

I figure it might be worth mentioning that steel jacketed ammo does appear to wear out barrels faster based on this interesting article:
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/brass-vs-steel-cased-ammo/
Of course I'm talking about taking 6000 rounds to kill your barrel instead of 12,000 rounds of copper jacketed. That's more ammo than most people put through a single rifle in their lifetime anyway so it's kind of moot.
 
Ganderite nailed it . I have done some plinking loads with romanian surplus 7.62x39 powder and 200 gr cast bullets in my .303 savage 1899 . Works quite well more accurate than the hornady factory ammo I have. If the 7.62x39 bullets are hard to pull seat them a little bit deeper first this will break the bond of the sealant and make it easier to pull.
 
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