Pull down powder from 7.65 Argentine

[MarkK]

I've got quite a few rounds of this stuff. I'm in the process of pulling the bullets and have been saving the powder. The powder looks and smells good. It is a square cut flake powder similar to com-bloc stuff. So... I was hoping I could use it in similar size cases. For example, 7.62x54. Since the heads from the Argi ammo are .311 I would use those. My question is how much of the Argi powder might I try? 80% of what was loaded in the Argi?

[Buckshot]

............Hey MarkK, if it was me I'd just dump the powder from the Argie case into the Rooski case, stick in the bullet and shoot it. The real SMART way would probably be to reduce the charge 10%, stick in the bullet and shoot it. Lottsa guys pulled the slugs on the Turk 8mm and salvaged the powder and bullets, tossing the crappy brass and corrosive primers.

................Buckshot

[singleshotbuff]

Mark,

I pulldown 8mm ammo all the time and reuse the powder and boolits. Just to be safe, I started with a 10% reduction in charge weight.

I have also used powder from 7.62X54R ammo in other stuff. Just did some tests to figure a relative burning rate, started low and was very careful about working up.

SSB

[MarkK]

Hey! Had really good luck with the Argie pulldown powder and bullets (187 gr) in 7.62x54 using 35.3 gr. Decent 2-3" group at 50 yrds. BTW, the Argie cases held 40.6 gr of the stuff. I'm hoping I can use this powder in simlar size cases such as: 7.5 Swiss w/ 150 gr FMJ & 8mm Lebel w/ 198 gr FMJ. I also think it should work for 30.06 w/ a 150 gr fmj. Perhaps even 8mm Kropatscheck. I've got starting loads in mind but left those notes at work. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Mark

............Hey MarkK, if it was me I'd just dump the powder from the Argie case into the Rooski case, stick in the bullet and shoot it. The real SMART way would probably be to reduce the charge 10%, stick in the bullet and shoot it. Lottsa guys pulled the slugs on the Turk 8mm and salvaged the powder and bullets, tossing the crappy brass and corrosive primers.

................Buckshot

[sjohnson]

Hey MarkK

Off topic but did you know:

"The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."
--Ghengis Khan

[BerdanIII]

A couple of nights ago, I broke down 100 rounds of this ammo (headstamp "SF") and the average weight was also 40.6 grains. 75 rounds came in between 40.5and 40.7 grains. For military ammo, that's pretty consistent in my book. Based on a muzzle velocity of 2460 fps for the 185-gr. BTFMJ and looking at the data in Lyman's manual, I think that the burning speed is near IMR3031. I intend to try it out in the .308 WCF but not with near-max or maximum loads. I don't have a 7.65mm Argie, either, but the bullets work great in the .303 British and I can make one-shot .308 cases out of the brass.

[MarkK]

I suspected it might be close to 3031. Since I like LEE scoops I came up with a table below. Perhaps better off using a scale considering the sd.

Lee Scoop (cc) / grains* / sd
2.2 / 28.41 / 0.28
2.5 / 31.08 / 0.20
2.8 / 35.27 / 0.14
3.1 / 39.47 / 0.24
3.4 / 43.39 / 0.57

*average of three weighed scoops

As an aside, I have shot some of the Argi ammo and accuracy was not so good which was due to different crimps. While pulling bullets using the Hornady collet device (a must have for dismantling 1000s) I noticed some pulled out easy while others required much force.