My Tokarev headaches

[Hankster1962]

Hey fellas, need help badly. I have an Hungarian Tokarev given to me several months ago from the widow of one of our gun club members, deceased about two years ago. I have been casting, loading etc for about 25 years so I am new to the sport, but I am very flustered. I own about 50 sets of molds, 5 presses, the whole kit and kabootle.
I also had an awful pile of 223 Rem brass, and set about converting a bunch of this brass to 7.62 x 25 Tokarev.
I been at this for about a month now. I cut the brass down, lubed it, sized it in the Tok dies, reamed out the neck with a .302 reamer, trimmed them down and then resized them.
I slugged the barrel at .310". At first, I made 10 rounds using Lee's 311-93-1r bullet, lubed with Lee liquid Alox. Bullets were not sized, but lubed as is. I had difficulty getting some of the rounds to chamber, so back at it I went. I thought the necks were maybe to stretched without the bullets sized down. I finally settled using 6 grains of Unique, after working up several loads.
At first after some headbutting, I ended up setting the shoulders back just a hair,
sized the bullets in my Lyman 450 using a 308 die, and found the pistol cycling wonderfully, but counted some key holes. I then decided that maybe 308 was to much and decided to put the unsized bullets in a case that I had set the shoulders back a wee bit, now the rounds won't sit in the chamber properly. I was using the barrel as a guide.
I am knew to this cartridge and am just about ready to place it back in the safe. What should I do, Get a 309 or 310 size die, I know there are a lot of clever reloaders out there who may have gone through what I have, but any advice would be super. Please help.

[9.3X62AL]

I had the same issue with my ChiCom Type 54 Tokarev--chamber at the case neck area was too tight to accept a loaded round with .311" boolits that fit the throat and grooves.

I had to re-run the reformed cases (9mm Win Mag) AFTER SIZING WITHOUT THE EXPANDER BALL IN PLACE with the reamer to get sufficient neck clearance to chamber.

Starline factory cases do not present this issue for me.

[Doble Troble]

You may need to turn down the necks,,,

[BigShot]

Dose anyone know of a good Lyman mold to make boolits for the 7.62x25?

[HangFireW8]

You may need to turn down the necks,,,

That's what I was thinking.

I know he reamed them, but sometimes brass stretches instead of cuts. That's why most benchresters use case neck turning on a pilot, where the pilot supports the case neck and is exactly the size of the projectile to be loaded. The dimensional end result of cutting with that setup is exactly what you get once loaded with a bullet (or boolit).

[9.3X62AL]

Dose anyone know of a good Lyman mold to make boolits for the 7.62x25?

My favored boolit for the 7.62 x 25 Tok isn't Lyman--it's the Lee 100 grain RN. Seat the critter so the case mouth is centered at the mid-point of the center drive band--set a mild/moderate roll crimp--and fire 'em off. 6.0 grains of Unique or 6.5 grains of AA-7 will be a good start.

[Dschuttig]

I have a cz-52 with the same problem, .311 bullets and the neck is to tight. I have never turned or reamed cases but it seems I may have to invest in this now.

[Freightman]

I use to run the loaded cases back through the sizer with the pin removed until I got a LEE factory crimp die problem disappeared. I use the LEE 93gr boolit never resize use LLA and very accurate. If the LLA is tacky I talcum powder the boolits and I have never had any leading up to 1700fps, works for me.

[Dan Cash]

Why all the labor with case conversion? Star Line makes .30 Mauser brass which is available from Buffalo Arms at $20 per hundred; less if you buy more. Perhaps direct from Star Line as well. I am feeding a 96 Mauser and a CZ52 with no problems once I stopped crushing cases with Lee dies. Got some CH or RCBS, forget which but life is good.

[Wayne Smith]

You have a couple of issues. One, I agree that the necks probably need to be thinned. You are getting into the thicker brass when you cut it down that far. Two, by using .223 brass you are using a brass with a much thicker web at the base and thus a smaller powder capacity. You are likely running higher velocities than you think if you are using normal data for the caliber.

[9.3X62AL]

2 very good points made in Posts #9 and #10. I made my own cases initially (1990) because brass was largely non-existent at that time. Instead of using 223 brass, I used 9mm Win Mag--try finding THOSE today. While I applaud the economy of the case-making effort, the Starlines are such good brass at such a reasonable price that there is no practical necessity to go through those gymnastics. Unless, of course, you just enjoy the process--in that case, rock on.

Starline brass has held boolits well, fit the chambers properly, and run like water through my Broomhandle, ChiCom Type 54, and CZ-52.

[Freightman]

I will correct my above post, I have used the 223 brass in the past but as cheap as Starline is not now, and that is when my FTC disappeared. Get some new brass and make a catcher and you are in business.

[Clark]

The brass from S&B factory 7.62x25mm Tokarev ammo will go an extra grain before the primer pocket gets loose, compared to the Starline Tokarev brass, but that is academic.

The recoil gets obnoxious before I reach that point in the work up.

I like 110 gr JSP and Power Pistol to get the most out of the cartridge.

More can be got out of the gun with a 9x23mm conversion, and then use Win brass, not Starline Super Comp. 158 gr and Power Pistol is the most power possible.