Reloader762

The ones I have loaded for have been pretty much just like reloading for any other rifle cartridge,chambers are fairly normal for the most part however rimmed case can have stretching issues as well although not as much as say most 303 British made rifles. LngRngShtr,the problem with some military rifles chamber for rimmed cartridges as well as a few rimless chambered rifles besides oversized chambers is the headspace between the boltface and back of the cartridges or the head clearance due to rim thickness. Military bolt guns like the 303 British weren't designed with the reloader in mind,they just wanted a rifle that functioned without issue under adverse battlefield conditions so they made the chambers oversized to accomidate that as well as the ammo of the day which changed several times over the course of the ammo history. The oversized chamber issue which stretches the cartridge case in all directions can somewhat be overcome by neck sizing your brass only after the first firing and from that point on. Here is the part that most reloaders new to 303 British don't understand or know about. The 303 rifles have a bolt with a removable bolt head,the bolt head is numbered,I believe it goes from #1 to #5 each numbered bolt head being slightly longer. The armorer used the different numbered heads to set the headspace between the bolt face and the back of the cartridge case. Original 303 British surplus brass has a fairly specific rim thickness the only brass that comes fairly close to that is Lapua or Prvi Partizan,Remington,Winchester and some of the other US commercial case have thinner rims,which give more head clearance and allow for more case stretch. Depending on how the rifle was set up at the armory with a piticular numbered bolt head this can cause excessive head space with some brass. The graphic below shows what happens to the case when fired and why you can get head case seperation in as little as two firing especially if you full length resize or the case stretches to much to begin with because of excessive headspace cased either by the shorter bolt head or a thinner cartridge case rim or a combination of both. If you having this issue of case head seperation even after neck sizing your cases only or brass life is still short you can try the Oring trick. It works best and I would recommend doing it on the first firing with a reduce load to fireform the cases to the rifle chamber after doing so the cases will now headspace on the newly formed shoulder instead of the rim and you will have zero headspace issues. All you need to do is take one of the new cases you intend to load and fine the appropriate O-ring that slips over the case and fits snug up agents the cartridge case rim like in the graphic. It's also a good idea to remove the extractor from the bolt head so it doesn't mess up your O-rings cases can be pushed out with a cleaning rod after fireforming. In this graphic the O-ring holds the cartridge case head up agents the bolt face,when fired and the case expands all the brass flow forward to form a new shoulder and the case head doesnt stretch and thin out like before. This is the end result,from this point on neck size your case only and only bump the shoulder back enough so it chamber without a hard bolt close.

Excellent example of the rifles are still available but getting harder to find especially Finnish rifles an the carbine version like my Russian M44 which I gave $75 for out the door. Surplus ammo is still corrosive but new commercial steel case ammo is not,both are still berdan primed though. I keep most of my steel or brass case corrosive berdan primed ammo stashed away for a rainy day but I shoot some on occasion and it's no big deal to clean after shooting. Prvi Partizan and S & B make brass case boxer primer ammo,the knockoff brands are Wolf Gold and Winchester whcih are a few dollars more per box but it's the same brass with a different headstamp. As to reloading I started reloading for my Mosins as soon as reloadable brass became available. I purchase a couple hundred pieces of Prvi Partizan and Winchester brass for around $36 per hundred you can still get the Prvi at Graf & Sons for around $46 per hundred. Recently my brother and myself were able to get a quanity of once fired Prvi and Winchester 54r brass for a commercial reloader we know as it was mixed in with his barrels of range brass he was buying for his business. We probably got around 500 or more once fired cases each for 10 cents per case. Although I have J bullets I prefer to shoot cast lead out of my Mosins as it much cheaper and there just as if not more accurate for plinking,target shooting and hunting purposes. 170 gr. cast lead loads. [url=http://s1052.photobucket.com/user/reloader762/media/Baseball002_zps6c1da535.jpg.html][/URL] My Mosin and the first five shot test group I shot with the above load at 50 yds. [url=http://s1052.photobucket.com/user/reloader762/media/54r_zpsdec2f3bd.jpg.html][/URL]

The pratice is know as Mexican Matched ammo you can read about it in this article on US National Match Ammunition http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2010/04/history-us-national-match-ammunition.html As to your question back in the day when there was not much reloadable boxer primed brass or soft point ammo if any to be had but plenty of .311" SP bullet designed to be used in the 303 British I Mexican Matched quiet a few rds. of Bulgarian LB and HB brass case surplus ammo. My process was to take 20 cartridges from the same lot and pull all the bullets and set the surplus bullets aside for future use in plinking loads for the Mosin or SKS rifles. Next I would ramdomly weigh about 1/4 of the powder charges from the lot and record the charge weights using the high and low charge weights to get an average charge weight. Cases had all the necks resize to accept the new bullets and were checked for OAL and all trimmed to the same length if possible,deburred and chamfered. The bullets I used were the Speer 150 gr. HotCor and Sierra 150 gr. Pro Hunter both .311" dia. The bore on my M44 is .312" groove to groove. Since I was using a .311" dia, bullet instead of the .310.5" factory bullet and it weighed on average about 2.0 grs. heavier than the factory pulled bullets I reduced the powder charge by 2 full grs. on the test loads from the average charge weight I came up with. Bullet seating depth was set to load manual specifications for that bullet. I loaded up a series of test loads in .5 gr. incriments till I reached the average charge weight. I used to have some scans of the test targets but they are long gone but accuracy was greatly improved using the US commercial SP bullet. I had no problems shooting groups under 3" with the irons at 100 yds. in the M44 vs. buckshot type patterns with the surplus loads. The primer looked much better as well. Still have a small stash of the Speer 150 gr. SP Mexican Matched ammo. [url=http://s1052.photobucket.com/user/reloader762/media/M44MexicanMatch_zps0c0fe3de.jpg.html][/URL] Before with surplus ammo. [url=http://s1052.photobucket.com/user/reloader762/media/Ammo007_zps5f880438.jpg.html][/URL] After with Mexican Matched ammo. [url=http://s1052.photobucket.com/user/reloader762/media/Ammo008_zps5e0437c7.jpg.html][/URL] Another article I ran across late this evening. http://www.theboxotruth.com/educational-zone-177-mexican-match-ammunition/

It's an excellent site to help you figure out just what type and country  your SKS rifle came from.  Most SKS rifle stayed pretty much the same through there production life.  However the Yugoslovian SKS rifles went through a couple of changes and the Chinese SKS rifle had many varients as well as different mfg. changes to speed up production and cut cost. 

ATK owns Federal,Speer,CCI Blazer among other ammo,component,reloading equipment and sporting goods companies.  The Federal Aluminum case ammo is the same ammo as the CCI Blazer wtih the exception of the headstamp.  There are also reports that the Federal ammo is boxer primed where as the CCI is berdan primed.  Reguardless it can't or shouldn't be reload due to the stressing of the Aluminum case when fired.   http://www.atk.com/about/business-groups/atk-sporting-group

Hello,I found this site mainly looking for reloading threads so that's my main interest and I've been doing it for 35+ years,I'm also into prepping for long term events,survival and bushcraft skills. As far as reloading goes I reload for all my handguns and rifles,although I reload and shoot several standard calibers I also shoot and reload several surplus calibers like 7.62 x 39 and 54r as well as 9 x 18 Mak. I'm also a bullet caster and cast all my own bullet for all the calibers I shoot in both rifles and handguns as well asa few others for friends and family that don't reload. I've also gotten into powder coating cast lead and powder coat many of my bullets nowadays but not all. I also do case conversions from one caliber to another as well such as .308 to 300 Sav. and 9mm to 9 x 18 Mak.

I've been reloading 7.62 x 39 for over ten years now with pretty good success.  At first all I loaded was various jacketed bullets in the .310 to .311 range both US and foreign made projectiles,Hornady,Sierra,Speer,Prvi Partizan as well as some surplus pulled bullets form 54r LB and HB ammo.  Later on I added cast lead and now powder coated cast lead.   Most of the commercial made ammo both steel case as well as US and Foreign made ammo does not shoot that accurately in 7.62 x 39 platforms.  I tested a lot of differnt brands of ammo in my SKS rifles and found Golden Tiger to be the most consistian of the steel case ammo.  All the rest is good for plinking and some hunting applications but it's not the most accurate unless your piticular rifle likes it.   Not until I started reloading for the X39 did I find reliable and consistant accuracy shot to shot.   Both my SKS rifles have .312" groove bores,contrary to popular belief the .310" dia. jackated bullets in the 120+ gr. range proved to be the most accurate in both my rifles while the .311" bullets in the 150 gr. range opened up a bit but were sill good for most applications where a heavier bullet was desired for close range bush busting. For powder I like Reloader #7 it works well with all bullet weight ranges as well as cast lead.  If I find a SKS or AK that want cycle with Alliant 2400 which is my preferrred powder for cast lead loads in the X39 cartridge.   Years ago I did a few pulldown test with various steel case x39 ammo,it did improve it some but not enough to justify the effort.  The main problem with the majority of the steel case ammo is just inconsistant bullets and no amount of effort is going to fix that unless you just replace the bullet,the same problem is also found in 54r ammo.  As far as Wolf ammo goes I had problems with that brand of ammo ten years ago and just never bought it again.  Wolf is just an importer out of CA they mfg. nothing and it's hard to keep up with who is making there current batch of ammo.