7.62x39 steel cases to boxer success

[rbuck351]

+1 on the shotgun primer. I haven't tried full house loads but normal cast boolit loads work well. Once drilled and counter sunk for the primer flange they reload over and over rather easily. Made a couple of punches for depriming and priming the whack-a-mole style. I drilled out a piece of pipe that just fits over the case and up against the rim, set a primer on something hard and drive the case onto the primer.

[Hueyville]

Have friend who works at indoor range and gives me all his steel 7.62x39 cases. I built a hydraulic air over water device using a sizing die with plumbing system that allows me to fill case with cooling fluid use in machining equipment, insert into die then press a foot switch to send 180 psi at as many cfm can get through top of sizing die. Have five gallon bucket to catch most fluid to recycle. Of course this is an in the shop, not u ouse type operation. Cheapest press could find along with a cheap sizing die and investment is not much if you have a shop compressor.

Once decapping is complete dry cases quickly but using machinists milk instead of water really helps mitigate rusting issues. Buy Milwaukee Hawg Wash and mix with water at local machine supply. Once decapping have two options. Luckily for me purchased Berdan primers in bulk for years. When issues first showed up due to trade embargo with Russia supplier told me he would not be able to get the shorter x39 primers for some time so purchased his last 25,000. Suggest if can find Berdan primers, buy them and use proper size.

The best work around I have found is to carefully remove anvil from large rifle primers and seat as normal. Then turn cases neck down and go down the line putting a drop of thin superglue at edge of primer pocket and it will wick down and around the primer and hold it firm. Saves a bunch of case modifying. If rather modify, use a power case prep center with large rifle primer pocket uniforming tool to remove anvil and I made a tool using a drill bit set into a pilot to drill my boxer conversion hole then back to superglue and large rifle primers without removing anvil. Hopefully my short Berdan stock will hold out till find more. Just way too easy to use the correct primer.

Load all of mine using 160 grain Lee bullet with home brew gas checks and sized to .312. Load either Reloader 7 or AA2230 behind the boolit and at 75 yards my cast loads group better than milsurp, are darn close to free as have less than a dime each into each loaded round. They hold up and group well as far as shoot any of my x39 combloc rifles. The AA2230 goes farther than Reloader 7 and groups as well. Have run several thousand through my tuned SKS range rifle and run perfectly. If use boxer primers without modifying case remember to remove anvil from primer or if it lines up with flash holes may have a dud.

[destrux]

For the effort involved wouldn't repriming with Tulammo KV24-N primers be a lot more effective? I understand the cost savings of reloading the steel cases but adding $20 to each thousand rounds is worth the time saved not having to do the boxer conversion I would think. DAG ammo sells them, among others.

[GONRA]

GONRA is impressed with all the novel techniques / methods
dreamed up for "primer pocket modification".
Just make sure you guys wear robust safety glasses!

Remember some firearms REALLY don't like primer leaks.
WW I era 9mm Steyr pistols can then have the extractor blow off
releasing the firing pin to shoot out into your eye.

[A pause for the COZ]

Couple things I have tried.
I hate the water method to deprime so I came up with an alternative.
I took an allen wrench and ground a point onto it. Mainly on one side so you can leaver it in the pocket after you puncture the primer. The Allen wrench works because it is made from a hard steel and wont bend the tip.







Obviously Berdan primers would be preferable. If you cant find any, just remove the anvil from a boxer primer. use the berdan anvil.
Place them in the primer pocket and put in a drop of Super Glue.
Works great and have done full power loads. Can be reloaded again.

[Plate plinker]

Creative guys. You all must have a lot of time on your hands.

[Gideon777]

Who can honestly say they don't have spare time ? Fight the urge to sit infront of the t.v and do something that others won't.

[Jlucas45]

I have the luxury of a small lathe, and after many different approaches, I came up with a 4 step process for converting them to boxer primed.
1) I use a 1/8" carbide end mill in the drill bit chuck and remove the center of the old Berdan primer and machine down the Berdan anvil .030".
2) I use a 5/64" drill and carefully drill a center hole between the two Berdan holes.
3) I use a Lyman primer reamer to optimize and true the remaining primer hole just enough to allow it to be expanded by the RCBS primer pocket swager tool in the press.
4) I use the RCBS primer pocket swager tool to form the primer pocket to fit a small rifle primer.

After a lot of trial and error, I have gotten the small rifle primers to press perfectly into the primer hole and feels just like factory brass with my Lee primer tool. The final product is somewhat subjective, but you get better as you go along.

This group was shot with my Mini 30 at 200 yards with these converted cases, but I confess they were Speer 150 gr flat base jacketed spitzer bullets with 27 gr. H322. This was done for proof of concept, and I have a bunch of Lee 155 bullets cast up to try next, probably in my SKS, or my custom Mauser 95 that was converted to this slick little cartridge. Wolf 154 gr. soft points were also respectable, but not as good at about 3" at the same range (LRF)

Just a side note...earlier in my experimentation, I used a tiny drop of red Locktite if I had any doubts about the primer fit, but have pretty much abandoned the method since I figured out how to get the tight fit.

[Gideon777]

Jlucas, this is fantastic. well done !

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[EDG]

Once upon a time a friend had a batch of .45 ACP cases that included about 50 steel US made 1943 cases.
The steel was softer than brass and I had to toss about 25 of the cases. I loaded the rest and we left them at the range after picking up all the brass.

[pugjunga123]

I tried this system. US made primers were a bit loose. Sealed it with superglue, old nail polish (old one's my wife was not using) both did very well. Then I got a hold of some primers that were made by Sellier & Bellot, those one came in tight. Did have to use any primer sealant.

[Gideon777]

O Really ! Thanks a bunch for the tip !!!!

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