Need help with old 7.62 x 39 corosive ammo

[WILLIEVEE 15]

Looks like I will be getting into reloading 12ga and 7.62 x39. I purchased a bulk of corrosive ammo recently and have a few questions some of you with experience might be so kind to give some advice to a total reloading novice.

Can I take care of this problem by reloading with new powder, (I don't want the mess of scrub down every time I shoot it). Secondly what about the old primers and how much do they add to the corrosion and can they be easily replaced or will I need to? Seller said 98 out of a 100 go bang.

 

Thank You

 

AllJacks

Edited March 7, 2009 by AllJacks

[gtnichols 51]

I think the primer on those corrosive rounds is the most corrosive component.

Yes, clean it directly after each time you shoot corrosive I have seen the results of not cleaning a SKS, while it still fired ok afterward, it did have acid like etching inside the barrel after being left in the closet without cleaning for a couple months,,.

[WILLIEVEE 15]

Thanks,

Did some checking and you seem to be right on the nail with the primer, Berdan I believe. Now any infor replacing the Berdan with Boxer anybody done this? I may be spitting in the wind, don't know.

 

Thank you,

 

AllJacks

Edited March 7, 2009 by AllJacks

[nalioth 405]

I think the primer on those corrosive rounds is the most corrosive component.

Yes, clean it directly after each time you shoot corrosive I have seen the results of not cleaning a SKS, while it still fired ok afterward, it did have acid like etching inside the barrel after being left in the closet without cleaning for a couple months,,.

The primer is the only corrosive component in 'corrosive ammo'.

 

 

Thanks,

Did some checking and you seem to be right on the nail with the primer, Berdan I believe. Now any infor replacing the Berdan with Boxer anybody done this? I may be spitting in the wind, don't know.

 

Thank you,

 

AllJacks

This should get you started:

 

Reloading Berdan - Surplusrifle.com

 

There is some other good info there on Berdan reloading, too.

[WILLIEVEE 15]

Thanks Nalioth for the help, good luck with your sales quality stuff.

[csspecs 1,987]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mbf4C-8ViM

 

This guy says that he reloads boxer primers into steel berdan primed cases.

 

I was going to give it a try one day.

[HillBilly2 9]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mbf4C-8ViM

 

This guy says that he reloads boxer primers into steel berdan primed cases.

 

I was going to give it a try one day.

 

What a moron. No one can tell him he can't do it because he has done it. The fact that it's cobbled together crap that may or may not be reliable is not an issue with him. He's done lots of them. The primers blowing out did not appear to bother him either, they went off after all. Oh well, you can't educate anyone who already knows it all.

 

Berdan brass can be reloaded. It pretty much requires berdan primers to do it right though. They are very hard to find now, and sell for close to the price of loaded ammo.

 

Berdan brass can be modified to use boxer primers. It requires removing the primer properly. Then machining off the anvil, drilling a flash hole, and fabricating and installing a sleeve to reduce the size of the berdan pocket to the size of the boxer primer. Not really worth the effort unless your reloading for some odd ball caliber thats unavalible otherwise. Punching the decapping pin thru the bottom of the case and then gluing the primer back with locktite does not make good ammo. Did you catch the part about sometimes it would punch the bottom of the case out?

 

Steel cases can be reloaded, kinda. 45ACP comes to mind. Bottlenecked high pressure rounds would scare the hell outta me. I've seen enough neck splits from good looking surplus ammo. I might use them for light plinking loads, maybe with cast bullets, but only if thats all I had.

 

To get back to the OP's post. You cannot change the primers to non corrosive. Sorry, anyone who would try to remove a live berdan primer is competing for the Darwin award. What you can do is shoot it and clean it. It's really not that hard, windex & hot water really helps. OR you can sell it to someone willing to clean up afterward and buy some non corrosive ammo. With the current shortage and resulting prices that option is looking better than ever. Privi and Fiocchi boxer primed brass shells are now less that twice the price of the imported stuff.