A friend was out west on a trip, so he stopped at J&G in Arizona. Brought back 14,400 rounds of the Swedish wooden bullet ammo, all the same 1985 vintage lot number. Without him bringing it back, the shipping would have been a deal killer. We have 4.5 cents in each round including the Az sales tax.
Having read of people pulling the wooden bullet, using the NC berdan primed brass for one shot, and repurposing the powder, 3 of us decided let's try it. Powder is reported to be about like Unique. One guy will be using the brass with rifle powder for his 42B which likes to fling the brass a ways. Me, I'm using the brass and powder for my cast boolit loads in my Swedish bolt guns. Pulling the bullets and weighing the powder on 5 sample rounds, it averaged 22.2gr each, with the charges in the 5 weighed rounds going from 19.x to 23.x gr...not super consistent, but then maybe for wooden bullets it wasn't needed. A friend averaged in the 23.x range for 5 rounds he weighed. The brass had a mild crimp on the wood bullet which I removed with a Lee universal expander die. I then cleaned up the inside case mouth edge with a drill and deburring tool.
Lyman 266469 with 2.96" oal. Started low at 9.5gr salvaged Swedish wooden bullet power (let's call it SWBP). Nothing shot bad out of my Swede M38, but 11.0gr shot the best, but needed elevation/rear sight adjusted a little compared to my normal 1700fps cast load. At 11.0gr SWBP, the extreme spread for 5 shots was 9fps! 1304.2 average fps at the muzzle in 40 degree temperature. A mild load, but serves my purpose. Roughly 50fps more for each 0.5gr increase in SWBP from 9.5 to 11gr. Also noted was if the rifle was not tilted up to bring powder near primer, the velocity decreased by about 60fps. No big deal to tilt up in my style of slowly shooting at steel plates and cans. First shot fired was remote, just to be sure. No high pressure signs in 9.5-11gr range, in fact I get a little soot on some of the case necks. Got real good at pulling wood bullets.
Now another test. I own 4 Swedish military bolt action rifles (M96, M96/38, M38, M94/14). Testing the same 11.0gr load in the other 3 rifles, every rifle liked the load! Yes the elevation setting were different than normal used, but no big deal, just write down the different settings needed. My M96 actually shot them into half the group size of my M38 (M38 group shown).
So, 4.5 cents in each primed case. That's actually less than what primers go for now, but let's say that's worth 4.5 cents, making the powder free (don't count labor). Rough figuring what the same amount of Unique would cost if available, that's around 10 cents in free powder in each round. My plan is to use the powder only for my Swedish 6.5x55 cast reloads. One friend will be experimenting with its use in pistol cartridges. 3rd friend hasn't decided on a powder use yet.
This test target was shot at 35yd. It show a case with corrosion and a nice case. I simply scrape off the white corrosion with a knife blade to help ensure it doesn't scratch my chamber. The spot right below the group was actually a dent on the round black sticker, not a bullet hole.