Wolf reloads

[PDshooter]

With a ton of empty wolf (Steel) cases laying around the range...And the good old days of 7 cents 7.62X39 long gone... Its been on my mind how can I load this.....
Well first thing is how to I get the old primer out...I used the water method, fill the case with water and a punch that a machinist friend made for me .311 and just give it a whack.......Now come the sticky part, still fooling around with different sealer, but nail polish (Wife) works for now.. Give them about 3 coats, I let them dry first after each coating.....I've shot about 100rds already, about 1/2 the time the primers eject out after each firing......This is by the way a " one time loading" I shoot my reloads in a SKS. with 26grs of IMR-4895...http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/PDshooter/reloading/Wolfreloads002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/PDshooter/reloading/Wolfreloads004.jpg

[mike in co]

epoxy.....

[DLCTEX]

So you are using Boxer rifle primers in Berdan cases?

[Shiloh]

So you are using Boxer rifle primers in Berdan cases?

Boxer primers are a hair smaller. Do you suppose they will stay in the pockets upon firing??

Shiloh

[mike in co]

Boxer primers are a hair smaller. Do you suppose they will stay in the pockets upon firing??

Shiloh

read his post...he says half fall out....

[PDshooter]

Yes, boxer primers......You can push them in with your fingers...But I use a flat punch to tap down that little "Tit" in the center of the case...........Will try epoxy next time.
Range today will give update.....

[Linstrum]

Hi, Pdshooter, if the nail polish works then you have found a good way.

I have reloaded and fired thousands of rounds of Berdan primed 6.5x55 Swede, 7.62x54R, and 8x57JS over the last fifteen or so years using U.S.-size large rifle Boxer primers just fine after doing a little preparation to the primer pocket.

Like you discovered, in a lot of cartridges the Berdan anvil keeps the primer from seating flush and if it does, then it needs to be removed. But if it doesn't then don't worry about it. If it does interfere, then the first thing is to get rid of the anvil tit that is part of the pocket bottom. I do that two ways, one is to buck up the cartridge web with a steel rod from the inside and then peen the tit flat with a drift punch as you have done. The other way is by drilling from the inside of the case using a 3/16" drill in my lathe, which makes a pretty big flash hole but has not caused any problems in hundreds of cartridges I have drilled out.

The next part is to get the smaller primer to stay in the pocket, which I have done two ways.

One way, which I have not had good success with, is by placing a 1-inch hard steel bearing ball over the pocket and then pressing the ball down to force the brass to flow inward into the pocket. I have tried this in my lathe by using the tailstock feed with the cartridge in the headstock chuck turning at slow speed. I didn't get enough “meat” into the pocket to work well in several cartridges and I can't anneal the heads to try to get better flow since that will destroy the strength they need. Steel is a lot more resistant to cold flow than brass and I kind of doubt if steel cases can be done this way.

The other way is pretty easy. I simply place a strip of good quality printer/copier paper over the pocket and push the new Boxer primer through it and seat the primer. If the paper hangs up I just pull it off to finish freeing it. The primer cup punches out a planchet of paper that automatically folds up the side of the primer cup and shims it to make a tight fit in the pocket. The paper that is over the flash hole doesn't interfere.

The walls of primer cups are only about 0.015” (fifteen thousandths of an inch) thick and by themselves totally lack the strength to contain the high gas pressure generated when the cartridge fires but they stay in place and don't blow out because they are contained within the confines of the cartridge primer pocket and are backed up by the bolt face to keep them from blowing out. It is the primer pocket and bolt face that take all the guff from the firing pressure pushing on the primer cup through the flash hole, not the primer cup itself, since the primer cup acts like an inner tube inside a tire. An inner tube would blow up like a balloon and explode when inflated to 35 psi if it were not inside the tire because it is the tire that has the strength to contain the inflation pressure. It is the same with a thin-walled primer cup, it doesn't blow out because the primer pocket and bolt face are what take all the push generated by the gas pressure. The paper shim that gives the primer cup its tight fit in the pocket also acts as a gasket to help seal it. I have had a very slight amount of gas leakage a few times when I used some copier paper that was made with recycled material. I also shim primers I use in some of my .50 BMG cartridges. I got some cartridges that used electric primers that were a few thousandths of an inch larger in diameter than the standard #35 CCI primers normally used so I shimmed them with cotton cloth instead of paper, which works great. The .50 BMG is a 62,000 psi piezo method pressure cartridge and the cloth shimming did not leak.


rl763

[WILCO]

but it's still some good info. Never know when one may need to do such things.

[hcpookie]

Interesting stuff!

I've found these references for conversion:

http://parallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums.yuku.com/topic/25275/t/Berdan-to-Boxer-Conversion-Method.html

http://users.ameritech.net/mchandler/primer.html

I've done some up as per the last link, but have not been to the range yet to test. I did not use a ball bearing, I used a steel rod chucked in the vise to support the inside and swaged it by hand on the top with another punch. My primer pocket reamer seems to grab at least half of the depth, usually about 2/3 of the depth. Again, I haven't tested yet but it seems to seat the primers fairly well. I'll let you know how they work out.

[jonk]

More trouble than it's worth by half.

I've done something similar with some real odd balls but never would bother with wolf brass when I can pick up boxer 7.62X39 free at the range all day long, or even if I had to order it, fairly cheap.

But.....on the 'just because' side of things, it's quite neat.

[Jon]

More trouble than it's worth by half.

I've done something similar with some real odd balls but never would bother with wolf brass when I can pick up boxer 7.62X39 free at the range all day long, or even if I had to order it, fairly cheap.

But.....on the 'just because' side of things, it's quite neat.

If you can get free brass, I'm sure there are plenty of people here that would be happy to purchase some from you. I don't even see the steel cases laying around. I get some pistol brass, but that is usually about it.

[PDshooter]

If you can get free brass, I'm sure there are plenty of people here that would be happy to purchase some from you. I don't even see the steel cases laying around. I get some pistol brass, but that is usually about it.


OH, man.........Thats all I see on the range....:(

[Linstrum]

Hi, hcpookie, the two articles you posted URLs for are great, they show methods that work pretty slick.

I'll be darned, it just shows that different regions have different calibers people use around there, like when I lived in Alaska 18 years ago most of the brass lying around was 7mm Rem Mag, .300 H&H Mag, .300 Win Mag, or .338 Win Mag. Around here I've never seen one single brass 7.62x39 cartridge laying on the ground, except for the one that I lost and then found the next day when I went back. Some places brass just isn't around anymore like it used to be. Where I am now in downtown Middle Of Nowhere, New Mexico, until two years ago I always came home from the public range with a 5-quart ice cream bucket full of 9mm, .40, 10mm, .45 ACP, .38/.357, .308 Win, and .30-06. I haven't had to buy any brass in those sizes for probably ten years. No matter which gun I took in those particular calibers I always seemed to pick up three times as much brass as I shot! But as soon as the ammo started getting hard to get around here about 18 months back, the range started getting scoured clean of everything reloadable.

Three weeks ago I started using my H&R fluted barrel .223 Rem Ultra Varmint again and I only had 40 reloadable cartridges until one particular visit to the range. There were five young guys from the Air Force Base doing some target work with their personally owned AR15s and when they were ready to leave I asked what they were going to do with the brass, so they gave it to me. I got 500 once-fired .223 Rem cartridges.
:drinks:


rl764

[Freightman]

I did some brass Albanian 7.62x54 before I got rid of my Mosin, there is a indention in the middle of the two holes a sharp thin punch will take the old Berdan primer out and leave you a center hole. Turn over and flatten out the hole and most of the time the primers stayed in with no further work, but if you want the polish will be better. You can use them again if you want as they can be re-sized with the regular dies then. If yo take it easy you can (on the brass) use your de-priming pin on your die instead of a punch.

[lv2tinker]

Here is another link related to "Reloading Steel Cases" He uses Locktite 609 or Permatex High Temp Sleeve Retainer of which I bought a small tube at NAPA.

http://www.sksboards.com/smf/index.php?topic=57300.0