9mm Largo for Destroyer Carbine

tokguy

tokguy

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
93   0   0
Location
Buffalo Republic
Look what followed me home... no fool like an old fool.
o9sT8Iul.jpg

Have about 50 rounds of Berdan Primed Tetrinox... and about 200 pieces of 9 x 23 Steyr brass.
Interweb seems like 2 sorts... folks whom adhere strictly to headstamped ammo and the rest of us Barbarians. Kinda like boresnakes and cleaning rod folks, don't play well together... act all silly and stuff. Including myself in the aforementioned two types of trolls of course. Not delusional...:p
Universally acknowledged that 38 super in a Largo chambered handgun in batsh*t crazy.
Lets talk about actual experience with these lil carbines though...please? I do own a couple 9mm Steyr-hahns, so for safeties sake, I want to keep it close to original loading on this brass. Got some Starline and lead pills coming from Rusty Trombone... I'll try a little brisker loads in proper headstamped brass.
Thanks
Have a great Suinday
Tok
 
Well, I pulled load data of interweb...but I think I can do a bit better.
124 FMJ over 5.5 gr 231...whoa, primer flow. My Steyr brass had small pistol primers, I think the carbine bbl elevates pressures on pistol primers, 4.2 gr of 231...just fine as far as primer flow.
If the weather holds, gonna get some small rifle primers in the ( incoming) 9mm Starline brass and get the chrono out... do it proper.
FYI, it handles 9 x 23 Steyr brass no problem...interwebs be darned.
 
Great North Guns is the supplier I was thinking of. They have spare mags at $20 ea, a steal IMHO.

Tokarev pistol mags will work with a bit of fiddling as well.

I converted one of these with a pooched barrel to 7.62x25 for my grandson, so modified a couple of Tok mags. Pretty simple conversion.
 
I went to the Maple Creek gun show at the Armoury. Wandered about, looking at this a that. Found a much older Gentleman with a good array of parts, drug it out...Leonard ( his name) folds back the top on a cabinet and hands me two " I've been packing these around for years, didn't know what they were for..."
Paid 25 each, yeah...I can get them cheaper from Marst*r. They sent me a completely trashed slide for a S-H once, I try to remember that at parts time.
Gotta support the Lil guy now and again.
Hoping for a break in the weather, Hayes ( the neighbors boy) is at the perfect age to graduate from rimfire. He's a wee Lad yet... can't really jump to M43 quite yet.
Love the idea of a kids 1st centerfire rifle, have aspirations of spinning a 45 bbl onto a Peruvian Mauser on of these days...get one in 45 ACP too.
I'll try to get some small rifle primers in a few rounds today, see if that allows a Lil brisker loads without primer flow.
I'll throw a picture up too...do something constructive in these dark days we live in.
 
FLHTCUI said:
Nobody jumping outta the shower yet be dammed.
Looks very interesting and after coffee this morning at work I'll be surfing the interweeb to find out more about this gun.
Interesting Score.
Rob
Click to expand...

There were two batches of these very handy and quite accurate Destroyer Carbines that came into Canada.

The first batch went to the US first, then a couple of hundred trickled into Canada through International Firearms out of Montreal, a subsidiary of Century International in the US.

The first batch was pristine inside and out. The second batch, which was routed through Montreal wasn't nearly as nice.

I bought up a 6 pack of them, and was lucky enough to pick through them. Some of them had Spanish Police stamps on the stock and had their barrels set back for the 9x19 Nato. None of the rifles with the set back barrels had any stamps to indicate this.

Many of them were in NOS stocks, that weren't finished and some of them had offset front sights.

I don't know if it was something done by individual police stations or not.
 
bearhunter said:
There were two batches of these very handy and quite accurate Destroyer Carbines that came into Canada.

The first batch went to the US first, then a couple of hundred trickled into Canada through International Firearms out of Montreal, a subsidiary of Century International in the US.

The first batch was pristine inside and out. The second batch, which was routed through Montreal wasn't nearly as nice.

I bought up a 6 pack of them, and was lucky enough to pick through them. Some of them had Spanish Police stamps on the stock and had their barrels set back for the 9x19 Nato. None of the rifles with the set back barrels had any stamps to indicate this.

Many of them were in NOS stocks, that weren't finished and some of them had offset front sights.

I don't know if it was something done by individual police stations or not.
Click to expand...

Bear, the setback units likely had a magazine spacer, no?
 
tokguy said:
Getting a good carbon show down the side...suspect the chamber is generous. Haven't run anything hot enough to FFyet though.
Click to expand...

That's likely from both the ammo and the chamber.

A lot of the Bergman ammo was purposely downloaded for different pistols that weren't nearly as robust as the Astra 400 and the Destroyer carbines.

Tolerances on the Destroyers are pretty loose, and that goes for every part on the rifles.

Bore diameters vary greatly, so you may have to use cast bullets. I load my 9x23 Winchester cases with 125 grain, powder coated .359 cast lead bullets.

Jacketed bullets are OK accuracy wise but the powder coated cast lead or the Berry's electroplated jacketed bullets work much better and extend the effective range quite a bit.

The Destroyer isn't a 100 yard rifle. However it is pure hell on Coyotes and smaller game 50yds and under.

When I bought my first batch of rifles, I kept one original, one was converted to 7.62x25 several years later (I believe it's a superior cartridge for this rifle) and another with a set back barrel. I sold the other off.

If the present rifle I own didn't work as well as it does, I would definitely rebarrel it to the 7.62x25
 
bearhunter said:
That's likely from both the ammo and the chamber.

A lot of the Bergman ammo was purposely downloaded for different pistols that weren't nearly as robust as the Astra 400 and the Destroyer carbines.

Tolerances on the Destroyers are pretty loose, and that goes for every part on the rifles.

Bore diameters vary greatly, so you may have to use cast bullets. I load my 9x23 Winchester cases with 125 grain, powder coated .359 cast lead bullets.

Jacketed bullets are OK accuracy wise but the powder coated cast lead or the Berry's electroplated jacketed bullets work much better and extend the effective range quite a bit.

The Destroyer isn't a 100 yard rifle. However it is pure hell on Coyotes and smaller game 50yds and under.

When I bought my first batch of rifles, I kept one original, one was converted to 7.62x25 several years later (I believe it's a superior cartridge for this rifle) and another with a set back barrel. I sold the other off.

If the present rifle I own didn't work as well as it does, I would definitely rebarrel it to the 7.62x25
Click to expand...

I'm reloading for it already...but the Steyr brass has pistol primers, as I have a couple S-H's. Pulled a decent loading off interweb... crazy primer flow on the 1st couple at 5.5 gr of 231, better at 5.0 & nonexistent at 4.3.
Ran a few through at 4.3, although I'm thinking rifle primers might fix it. Purolater will have my Largo brass and cast bullets in this morning.... bump that power level up to normal again.
Just going kick up the furnace. I'll put pic's up today. A bit for the Chrono I suspect though
 
I had a Destroyer back in the '90's when Century was bringing them in. I shot it with reloads made from 135gr cast lead using .38 Super brass with no modifications to the rifle. Seemed to work for me, maybe it was the semi-rim? Your results may be different.
 
Quiet said:
I had a Destroyer back in the '90's when Century was bringing them in. I shot it with reloads made from 135gr cast lead using .38 Super brass with no modifications to the rifle. Seemed to work for me, maybe it was the semi-rim? Your results may be different.
Click to expand...

I'm not going to make any declarations on these lovely little rifles that were mass produced and the quality sometimes lacks, but IMHO, they were purpose built to handle the different rounds that are mentioned in this thread.

Luckily, the 9mm Bergmann round is so close to several others that it readily allows such mixings to occur.

I've taken four different rounds, from the 380acp, to the 9x23 and put them in the same magazine, inserted it into the rifle and shot all of them without a hiccup.
 
Parts are not always interchangeable as the Basques turned this into a cottage industry were the whole area made different parts and then they had to be hand fitted to function.There is supposed to be two different types ,one along the lines of a 93 mauser and the other like a cheap BA 410 .
 
bearhunter said:
I'm not going to make any declarations on these lovely little rifles that were mass produced and the quality sometimes lacks, but IMHO, they were purpose built to handle the different rounds that are mentioned in this thread.

Luckily, the 9mm Bergmann round is so close to several others that it readily allows such mixings to occur.

I've taken four different rounds, from the 380acp, to the 9x23 and put them in the same magazine, inserted it into the rifle and shot all of them without a hiccup.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input Bear... it is hard to find folks whom have actually handled these unit's. It is appreciated very much
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom