Reloading For The AG42B

Mumbles Marble Mouth

Mumbles Marble Mouth

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What are you guys loading for your AG42B. My reloading manual has some very wimpy loads that I'm not sure if any of them would cycle its action. The fastest charge is only 33grs of IMR 4064 @ 2300fps from a 24" barrel.
 
The AG42B has been known to fire before the action is closed with sporting soft primers.Not pretty results.
 
FredSKS said:
34.0 grains IMR4064 and a 140 grain spitzer worked great in my AG42B. And the brass didn't end up in the next county !
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This is a pretty decent load and not likely to give you any issues. The Swedes used a Bofors powder that was surplussed under the name #44 by Tom Higginson about 35 years ago for $4/pound. It looked like IMR 3031 and that is what old Tom suggested to use as a reference for hand loading. I did a bunch of testing with this powder using an AG42B and fmj 160 gr cupro/nickel round nose as well as fmj 140 gr Spitzer flat base with exposed lead bases. Tom supplied all of the components to me about six months before he put it on sale.

#44 powder was closer to IMR 3031 than IMR 4064, which is 6% slower. It was suggested to to use IMR 4064 data if the hand loader was worried about higher pressures.

AG42B rifles can be very fussy about powders. There is a very good reason why they were issued with several spare extractors/plungers/springs in their maintenance kits.

My particular rifle was extremely accurate with the 140 grain spitzers with 41 gr of #44 and IMR 3031. It was also very accurate with 38 gr under the 160 gr round nose with #44 and IMR 3031. By accurate I am talking about sub moa out of an excellent bore usinging Norma brass and CCI 200 primers.

I also tested the same bullets with IMR 4064. Slightly less accurate and most groups were lower from point of aim. The 34 grain load mentioned by Keithjohn is a good one. Well within the safety limits of the rifle and it will reliably operate the action. No need to beat these old girls to death is there???
 
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mbogo3 said:
The AG42B has been known to fire before the action is closed with sporting soft primers.Not pretty results.
Click to expand...

That's why I only use CCI 200 primers in all my semi's,had slam fires with Federals.

Also make sure that it has a strong firing spring in it.
 
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From what I've read, it seems people have reported two different issues with the AG-42(and commonly other military self-loaders). 1. Slam Firing and 2. Action opening before pressures are safe.

1. Seems common on many military self-loaders. Seemingly the guns were designed for use with harder primers, however I think this mainly occurs when users incorrectly drop the bolt on a chambered, live round. This is likely a more common mistake with the AG42 as there is no way to "ride" the bolt gently closed. However a slam fire doesn't automatically mean an out of battery firing.

2. Seems to be reported with AG42s, Hakims, FN49s, M1 Garands, etc, and related to pressure curves generated by modern powders with incorrect burn rates. Have seen pictures of cases ripped open at the rear by the bolt, thus dumping high pressure gas back into the action.

These incidents reported mainly on gun forums does give one reason to worry about firing certain milsurps. I do wonder how "common" these incidents are however. If you can find 6 different forum users reporting them, that is just 6 out of thousands or tens of thousands. That being said, how many go unreported? Also how many of the failures are being properly diagnosed? It can be very difficult to determine the cause of a firearms failure through second hand information. Even first hand, picking up the pieces of an exploded gun, and retrieving the spent casing, you may still mis-diagnose the problem. In the particular cases of the AG-42 and FN49, users have reported failures using proper, military issue surplus ammo, so what went wrong in these cases? Bad ammo? Poorly maintained, dirty, or worn out gun? Inherent flaw in the design?

Careful testing with handloads does seem to be the safest approach.

Personally I've only fired several hundred rounds through my AG-42. All of it has been PPU or S&B FMJ ammo. I've experienced no slam fires, and the action functions(with enthusiastic ejection). I examine all of my spent casings, and they don't seem to show signs of excess stress.

S&B and PPU have been a blessing for milsurp shooters who don't reload. However I think it would be great if they went a step further in their common military calibers to replicate not only the rough bullet weight and velocity, but also burn rates of the original military loadings. Federal and PPU do this for M1 Garand 30-06, and it would be great if they did it for 6.5x55, 8mm, etc.
 
AG42B semi auto Swede If you read the referred to accident posted by mbogo3 the slam fire in this care is someone trying to chamber a cartridge which is tight in the chamber, so repeated cycling of the bolt to force the cartridge in WILL cause a SLAM FIRE and should never be done. You have a stuck cartridge in a semi disassemble the bolt and push the round back out with a cleaning rod.
Cartridges should be picked up by the bolt from the magazine as that uses part of the energy of the bolt moving forward.
 
bearhunter said:
This is a pretty decent load and not likely to give you any issues. The Swedes used a Bofors powder that was surplussed under the name #44 by Tom Higginson about 35 years ago for $4/pound. It looked like IMR 3031 and that is what old Tom suggested to use as a reference for hand loading. I did a bunch of testing with this powder using an AG42B and fmj 160 gr cupro/nickel round nose as well as fmj 140 gr Spitzer flat base with exposed lead bases. Tom supplied all of the components to me about six months before he put it on sale.

#44 powder was closer to IMR 3031 than IMR 4064, which is 6% slower. It was suggested to to use IMR 4064 data if the hand loader was worried about higher pressures.

AG42B rifles can be very fussy about powders. There is a very good reason why they were issued with several spare extractors/plungers/springs in their maintenance kits.

My particular rifle was extremely accurate with the 140 grain spitzers with 41 gr of #44 and IMR 3031. It was also very accurate with 38 gr under the 160 gr round nose with #44 and IMR 3031. By accurate I am talking about sub moa out of an excellent bore usinging Norma brass and CCI 200 primers.

I also tested the same bullets with IMR 4064. Slightly less accurate and most groups were lower from point of aim. The 34 grain load mentioned by Keithjohn is a good one. Well within the safety limits of the rifle and it will reliably operate the action. No need to beat these old girls to death is there???
Click to expand...

hum... I may need to look further into loads with 3031 as I've got a bunch of it with no cartridge to load it with.
 
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