French Milsurp Rifles Where to get Ammunition???
- Thread starter bryan.14
- Start date
It's rare, but I've seen 8x50 PRVI stuff at my local shop once. Didn't buy it, now it's not there and I've nothing to feed my Berthier. It exists, but I can't tell you where to find it. Might just have to call/email a bunch of shops. I know this wasn't very helpful, but at least it answered one of your questions: yes, there is commercial French 8mm.
Do you know where I can find components for reloading 8x50mm?
Brass and bullets can be had from trade ex. Dies will be the difficult one. I bought a complete Lee set from a local gun show dealer for $40 but I have seen the same sets sell for $80 on Ebay. The Lee dies, atleast the set I have, are for the Balle D sized bullets as my Lebel was one that was not modified to accepted the later Balle N and that makes reloading a bit easier bullet wise. If you look around, make sure you ask for the 8x50R Lebel rifle round dies as I found a few that were advertised for the Lebel pistol cartridge.
The Lee dies come with the very difficult to find shell holder which is only made for the Lebel round. I tried looking for it on Lee's website individually and they do not sell it separately anymore so it is worth getting the complete die set.
The Lee dies come with the very difficult to find shell holder which is only made for the Lebel round. I tried looking for it on Lee's website individually and they do not sell it separately anymore so it is worth getting the complete die set.
You will want to use the Lebel as a single-loader because the Partizan brass does not have the bullet-catcher groove of original French ammunition.
You can put this groove in quickly and easily with a lathe.
Lee makes the dies in their Limited Production line, about $43 in the current pricing, complete with a shellholder. RCBS makes Lebel shellholders if you need an extra: $9 pop.
I loaded up a tubfull late last Summer, never got a chance to bang 'em off before Global Warming hit us with this lovely tropical -39C weather.
Oh well, long as it doesn't turn into the Fimbulwinter.......
You can put this groove in quickly and easily with a lathe.
Lee makes the dies in their Limited Production line, about $43 in the current pricing, complete with a shellholder. RCBS makes Lebel shellholders if you need an extra: $9 pop.
I loaded up a tubfull late last Summer, never got a chance to bang 'em off before Global Warming hit us with this lovely tropical -39C weather.
Oh well, long as it doesn't turn into the Fimbulwinter.......
Far too hot to go shooting, it is so hot here that the rain is hard. It has taken on a strange crystalline structure that actually makes it give out a crunching noise when you walk on it. Most peculiar- I liked it more before this global warming stuff came along.
Ahh sh!t now I've gotta go push it off the walk, will this never end?
janice
Ahh sh!t now I've gotta go push it off the walk, will this never end?
janice
I guess I'm the lucky one as I shot a handful rounds from the tub mentioned above in Smellie's Lebel last summer!!
As for the bullet catch issue, I recent watched a video on YouTube where a guy showed that he just bought privi brass with the bullet catch on it. He stated that he has some with the bullet catch and some without. He mentioned that it never had it before and showed the last bag of brass that he bought a couple years ago which was filled with normal flat based brass.
I'm not sure if they are putting the catch on now but from that video it seems that they may have started doing so.
Take a look at the HACS shows in the LM - you never know what'll show up. Beyond that I'll take a look locally, being in Victoria means that just because a cartridge is antique and foreign, doesn't mean you won't find it at the local gun shop. Two weeks ago a young guy who's been looking for 9mm Mauser since he was 12 (!) was shocked to find several boxes of factory ammo sitting on the shelf at Pullens. No one else at Pullens was shocked.
