My Moment of Reloading Insanity

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Norinco45

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In a moment of what seemed at the time a stroke of genius but of which I am begining to question as I think about it, I converted 4 rounds of 7.62x39 into 4 of .303 British.

I pulled the bullets from 4 rounds of Hungarian 7.62 and poured the powder from each into a primed, empty .303 case. I then took the 7.62 bullets and seated them into the now filled .303 cases. I was very pleased with myself thinking that I had found a way of loading cheap plinker rounds for the .303 as the 7.62 ammo is $3.99 for 20. In just a minute or so I had taken apart the Commie ammo and "Frankensteined" it into good old .303. I was impressed with my own genius!!!

However, after a few moments of reflection I realized I have broken every basic rule of reloading safety. I am now staring at the 4 rounds wondering what to do with them.

Your thoughts please.
 
Norinco45 said:
In a moment of what seemed at the time a stroke of genius but of which I am begining to question as I think about it, I converted 4 rounds of 7.62x39 into 4 of .303 British.

I pulled the bullets from 4 rounds of Hungarian 7.62 and poured the powder from each into a primed, empty .303 case. I then took the 7.62 bullets and seated them into the now filled .303 cases. I was very pleased with myself thinking that I had found a way of loading cheap plinker rounds for the .303 as the 7.62 ammo is $3.99 for 20. In just a minute or so I had taken apart the Commie ammo and "Frankensteined" it into good old .303. I was impressed with my own genius!!!

However, after a few moments of reflection I realized I have broken every basic rule of reloading safety. I am now staring at the 4 rounds wondering what to do with them.

Your thoughts please.
Click to expand...

I believe that posts previous to this may have indicated it was OK to do this, and I believe the post may have been made by CanAm.

Do a search.
 
nah. shoot em, it makes a gorgeous plinking round. Several people including myself have done this with terrific results.
 
Well since those 4 bullets and that bit of powder would have cost you about about $1.20 had you bought components but they actually cost you 80¢, you saved a whooping 40¢ by creating something that makes you want to stare.

"Genius" is not quite the word that springs to mind.........:p :D
 
Norinco45 said:
In a moment of what seemed at the time a stroke of genius but of which I am begining to question as I think about it, I converted 4 rounds of 7.62x39 into 4 of .303 British.

I pulled the bullets from 4 rounds of Hungarian 7.62 and poured the powder from each into a primed, empty .303 case. I then took the 7.62 bullets and seated them into the now filled .303 cases. I was very pleased with myself thinking that I had found a way of loading cheap plinker rounds for the .303 as the 7.62 ammo is $3.99 for 20. In just a minute or so I had taken apart the Commie ammo and "Frankensteined" it into good old .303. I was impressed with my own genius!!!

However, after a few moments of reflection I realized I have broken every basic rule of reloading safety. I am now staring at the 4 rounds wondering what to do with them.

Your thoughts please.
Click to expand...
They would PROBABLY be O K. BUT, the 7.62 x 39 bullets are probably several thou undersize, the burn rate a properties of the powder are unknown.
How much space does the powder charge occupy in the 7.62 x 39 versus the .303 case? If it is close there should be no problem. If there is a large air space in the .303 case with the same charge, I wouldn't shoot them.
OPC X6
 
Pull em, weigh the powder charge, determine the approximate burning rate of the powder used based on published data, and then determine if that load is within safe limits for the .303 Brit. If you do that, then you can be sure that the procedure is safe, and that it is worth continuing if the results are acceptable.
 
how much does the case capacity play in this situation?

Am I wrong to assume that the case capacity of the .303 is much larger than the 7.62x39, and due to that fact the powder will be distributed across the base of the cartridge when chambered, leaving a significant empty space in the upper section of the cartridge?

Can the fact that the primer ignition has this empty space over the powder lead to any annoying conditions?

I am no expert so don't think that I have the answer to every doomsday scenario for a KB ;)
 
Yep. Guess the unknown powder characteristics, seat undersized bullets on top and take your chances. And it will only take you twice as long as building proper ammo in the first place.

For what? I think I need reminder here but 10¢ a round springs to mind.
 
More empty space in a cartridge = lower pressures. Usually means safe.

HOWEVER, too much empty space could cause detonation when using double-based powders. But you're not at that point yet, that typically occurs with extremely light loads of very fast pistol powders. This scenario uses a slow enough powder, and there's not enough empty space to cause concern.

I'd think you're probably safe.
 
prosper said:
More empty space in a cartridge = lower pressures. Usually means safe.

HOWEVER, too much empty space could cause detonation when using double-based powders. But you're not at that point yet, that typically occurs with extremely light loads of very fast pistol powders. This scenario uses a slow enough powder, and there's not enough empty space to cause concern.

I'd think you're probably safe.
Click to expand...
I beg to differ. Detonations have occured using very slow powders in reduced loads ie; 4831, 4350, etc., not fast powders. The very fact that the powder is a complete unknown as to its composition is enough to persuade me not to use it. You only have one pair of eyes and hands.
OPC X6
 
Bad idea, potentially very dangerous. Not worth the few extra pennies to do it right.

Reduced loads are wonderful things IF you use the right powder, the right amounts for the cartridge. Winging it with mystery powder can get you in a world of hurt.

Any comparison to our reloading powders may be completely off base as we have no idea what the Chinese have put in the ammo. Burn rate is only one component you need to look at.

Some powders get really dangerous when they are not ignited above a certain case volume or pressure. H110 is one such powder. Is the stuff in that Norc ammo the same?

Jerry
 
The first link you list mentions light charges of slow powders, and the second lists light charges of fast powders.

additionally, in the FBI whitepaper (I'll post a link if I can find it) which indicated that the SEE effect is caused by the nitroglycerin (present in double base powders) detonating, rather than burning.

Therefor the most conservative approach would be to avoid light loads of any powder. That said, light load usually refers to 1/3 load density and lower, which is not the case for 7.62->303
 
I've done a couple hundred of these in my M14 (7.62 NATO) and and a few dozen in my .30-'06, after first making sure that the throat was large nough to properly release the bullet.
These are fun and cheap plinking rounds.
And I was using the Czech rounds rather than the Hungarian of the OP.

And the SEE doesn't apply. This is neither a very slow powder, nor a very fast powder. Think about it, the load density of the original 7.62x39 is around 90%, How much 4831 do you think you'd have to stuff into the little case to get 2000 fps with a 120 grain bullet from a 20" barrel? And the powder obviously isn't in the Bullseye-RedDot-Clays range of speeds either.

And even if we were talking about the equivelent of a 2.5 grain charge of Bullseye in a .38 Special case, it's still something that is so vanishingly rare that it rates near Spontaneous Human Combustion as something to worry about.
 
Splatter said:
I've done a couple hundred of these in my M14 (7.62 NATO) and and a few dozen in my .30-'06, after first making sure that the throat was large nough to properly release the bullet.
These are fun and cheap plinking rounds.
And I was using the Czech rounds rather than the Hungarian of the OP.

And the SEE doesn't apply. This is neither a very slow powder, nor a very fast powder. Think about it, the load density of the original 7.62x39 is around 90%, How much 4831 do you think you'd have to stuff into the little case to get 2000 fps with a 120 grain bullet from a 20" barrel? And the powder obviously isn't in the Bullseye-RedDot-Clays range of speeds either.

And even if we were talking about the equivelent of a 2.5 grain charge of Bullseye in a .38 Special case, it's still something that is so vanishingly rare that it rates near Spontaneous Human Combustion as something to worry about.
Click to expand...

I agree - this is not an area which will get you into trouble. However, if you are going to proceed in this regard weighing and measuring as you go is prudent as it is when working up any handload.

I chose the following data from the Hornady #6 manual because it uses the same powder and bullet for both cartridges.

7.62X39
123 gr. bullet
AA 2015 powder 21.5-28.5 grs
Velocity 1900-2400 FPS

.303 British
123 gr. bullet
AA 2015 powder 35.1-41.7 grs
Velocity 2500-2900 FPS

We can safely assume that military ammo will be loaded near maximum. AA2015 is very similar to IMR 3031. According to my calculations, 25.0 grs of
AA 2015 (or IMR 3031) will produce about 1800 FPS in the 303. This should prove to be a good small game or plinking load for the Brit, and certainly would not be dangerous.

Due to the small case size the number of powders which will produce acceptable results in the 7.62X39 are quite small, and range in burning rates from about IMR 4227 to about BL-C2. The weight of the propellant in the 7.62X39 will tell you where you are as per burn rate, and I am unable to envision how any of these powders from a full powered military loading could cause problems as a reduced load when substituted in the .303.
 
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