Pulled down Pakistani 30-06 -- I wonder what the powder is?

[ZigZagMarquis]

Well, I just pulled down an en bloc's worth of 1969 Pakistani production 30-06 that I bought awhile back for... well, I don't know what for.

What ever the powder is (was) the charge was pretty consistently 53.4 grains. If it was IMR 4895 (who knows) that seems kind of stiff to me? Anyone want to hazard a guess what kind of powder they used? Could be a fun discussion.

Anyway, I think I use the cases for some light loads with cast -- maybe during a SASS BAM Match. I'll save the pulled projectiles too for some yet to be determined project, but I doubt it that I'll reuse the powder except for fertilizer.

The brass is Berdan primed, so, if it goes bang once, I'll be happy and doubt too I'll mess with trying to deprime and reload it.

[Frank46]

If 4895 as you think that powder charge is over the book maximum. 46-47 grains of 4895 is pretty much where you should be at maximum powder for the '06. Sometimes it doesn't pay to try the guessing game when it comes to foreign powders unless you have a lot of it. Frank

[jcren]

Sounds like a charge for 4350.

[ZigZagMarquis]

Sometimes it doesn't pay to try the guessing game when it comes to foreign powders unless you have a lot of it. Frank

On no worries, the reclaimed powder will likely become lawn fertilizer or go out with the trash and not be used for reloads.

[Mica_Hiebert]

Why pull it down? Probly would have went bang as is.

[leebuilder]

Are you sure it's Pakistani? Could be machine gun ammo. Yes, beware they did things much differently and late 60s and early 70s time period I hazard to guess what you have exactly.
I had some POF headstamped 303 they all had a consistent 5 second hang fire and very accurate in the No1 and spray and pray in the No4. They had a Odd sized primer too made of copper and berdan primed with the modern 4895 type powder.
Be safe

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I bought a couple of ammo cans full of the Pak .30-06 in M1 clips from Midway last year. A sampling of mine went "bang" at the range, and was about average for accuracy in an M1 rifle, no duds or hang fires. It is said to be non-corrosive, and the rifle cleaned up fine with Hoppe's and RemOil. The en-bloc clips came packaged two per small cardboard box, and the surface of the cardboard was starting to deteriorate into a fine brown dust. I spent a couple of winter evenings disassembling the ammo out of the clips, wiping off the individual rounds, and cleaning the clips with a toothbrush and a bit of solvent. Then I put it all back together and feel like it was a pretty good investment. Trashed the little cardboard boxed, except a couple I kept as curiosities because of their odd markings, and packed it all back in the ammo cans with some no-rust paper. Now I see that they appear to have the same ammo, but individual rounds in 20 round boxes, again in ammo cans.

[Eddie2002]

I picked up a ammo can full of 30-06 tracer rounds that were berdan primed from Sportsman Guide some years ago. Pulled them down for the brass and powder and found that they were loaded with about 54 grains of BLC2. Since they were tracers I'm thinking the ammo was for machine guns and the load was a little "hot"so I dropped the load by 10% and it was fun range ammo. Been reloading them with berdan primers with no problems, have up to six reloads on some cases and still have plenty of primers left.
I'll be happy to buy the once fired berdan brass if you want to get rid of it, alway looking for 30-06 berdan brass and hate to see any get wasted, it works well resized for my 7.7 Arisakas also. Shoot me a PM, Thanks Ed