AK 47 Reloading

Available now? I don't know.

Available before? Sure, and I've been there, done that.

First things first. You can either slug your barrel and see what it's groove diameter is, or you can just assume it's .311" or .312" and proceed like I did. (Some *US* made barrels I've seen are .308 bore, simply because .308 was such a common bore in the US that people didn't retool for .311 when building AK barrels after they were banned from import. Original imported barrels should be .311 or sometimes .312.

Anyway, reloading for it is much like reloading for anything else. Except you generally need to buy your brass, since it's damn hard to find 7.62x39mm brass cased factory ammo that doesn't cost you a first born child.

Once you have your brass, you've got your choice of powders and primers, powder selections are similar to any other intermediate cartridge.

Bullets - here's where it gets interesting.

I chose to buy .311" diameter 125gr FMJ to make sure feeding was ideal. In addition to AK's, I have RPK's, which don't feed JHP or soft point worth a damn. Depending on what AK you have you might have a similar issue with JHP or soft points.

You can ALSO use 308 bullets just fine, in a similar weight range. But a lot of bullets in that weight range are round nose or flat point (for 30 carbine, 30-30, etc). Even though the bullets are undersized for most bores, they shoot just fine and you probably won't even notice a difference.

The AK action is "aggressive" so definitely try to find a projectile with a cannelure in the right place so you can apply a good stiff roll crimp!!!! Otherwise that bullet is gonna get shoved back in the casing DEEP.

Be wary of slam fires. Try to find a small rifle primer that has a thick cup (CCI400 etc. are SOFT and could cause problems.)

Refer to this chart to see which are thick, and which are thin:

http://www.jamescalhoon.com/primers_and_pressure.php

Finally, small base size.

Those rounds get hammered on extraction and ejection, you WILL want to small base size the brass.

Keep an eye out for bent/damaged rims. Carefully straighten bent case mouths with a pair of pliers (closed) or other tapered instrument before reloading to avoid folding the mouth over and ruining the brass.

7.62x39 is one of those calibers it doesn't make much sense to reload. Brass is the big problem, costs a fortune, gets dinged and flung all over the place. I bought 400 rounds of Lapua ammo that is brass and boxer primed. But it was only $5 per 20 when I got it. Now it's over $40 per 20. Just buy the one time use ammo. When you can find it.....

Back when I bought my AK reloading supplies, my cost (including new brass) was right at $200 for 1000 rounds.

At the time, when AK ammo was selling for $90/1000, it was pretty expensive.

Today? It's proved to be a wise investment.

Dies: I back-ordered some Redding 7.62x39 Russian dies from Brownells and had them delivered in two weeks.
Bullets: Ordered 600 .310" Hot-Cor bullets, 200 are still on back-order.
Powder: AA1680 is very common for this round. I have plenty of it so I don't know if it's available.
Brass: I'm reloading brass cased factory ammo that I bought before December.

I know a guy having a tough go with the 7.62 x 39 reloading scene. I american calibers for american buyers I guess. Seems obvious 2 me.

Russian ammo keeps going up in price like it has, people will change their minds.

When you can roll your own for less than you can buy steel cased ammo, it starts making a heck of a lot of sense.

Besides, I'm absolutely positive that American's own more AK-47's than Russia has at this point.

They switched to AK-74 5.45x39 almost 40 years ago and liquidated their AK-47's.

Thus, it's an American gun.

If I wanted to reload on my RCBS set up, what would I need to pick up as far as shell holders, die sets, etc? Anyone have any Part Numbers?

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You can get that off RCBS website or any of the other manufacturers website for that matter.
They only problem I have with reloading the round right now is locating the brass and bullets.

I have a set of Hornady dies. They were a gift, as I don't generally like Hornady dies, but these load acceptable ammo.

Unlike Trent above, I did not experience any bullet setback in shooting my handloads in an SKS. I used Hornady 123 grain bullets, and they worked just fine. The cases still bear some dents or creases in the body section, but they shoot as well as I can shoot them. I too used AA 1680, and it worked well.

Dies
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/573252/rcbs-2-die-set-762x39mm-308-and-311-diameter-expanders

Shell holder
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/596451/rcbs-shellholder-32-22-ppc-6mm-ppc-762x39mm

bullets

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/91...n-full-metal-jacket-box-of-1000-bulk-packaged

(These cost $96.99/1000 when I bought them 7/10/2006.)

Shell holder cross reference chart.

As to dies read what Trent posted in post #2.

He asked questions that are important in choosing the dies and pay attention where he mentions small base for an AK.

Right now 7.62 x 39 dies overall are scarce (as are all hand loading components) so you may want to consider that also.

RCBS 35007 7.62x39mm SB T/C Die Set is a small base RCBS die set in 7.62 X 39.

RCBS 35001 die set 7 62x39mm russian 308 and 311 diameter expanders is a standard die set with both .308 and .311 expander.

EDIT: Never mind as Trent was quicker than me this morning posting.

Ron

Reloadron;

Fastest fingers in the Midwest, man.

When I was cleaning the gun room this last week ... I have a sturdy box that contains 1900 of the projectiles I ordered back in 2006. That bugger split on the bottom sending 7.62x39 bullets scattering across the concrete floor. I was on my hands and knees for 2 hours cussing at those little stubby things.

Looking at what I paid vs. what ammo and stuff is costing now, I'd like to make a public apology to my poor bullets that I gave such a verbal lashing to, if I offended them in ANY way let them not be angry and shoot crooked.

EDIT: Ok, it was more like a half hour on my knees. But if you had my knees, you'd understand why crawling on a concrete floor for any length of time feels like it takes 4x longer.

BTW you *might* be able to get by without a true small base die. But the problem is, AK tolerances are very much on the loose side. If you own more than one AK, or have one that's blessed with a chamber that's headspaced/ reamed poorly, you WILL need that small base die.

If you have ONE rifle, given the scarcity / cost of things, I would probably skip it and only order it if you find you absolutely need it to get your reloads to chamber.

Trent said:

Reloadron;

Fastest fingers in the Midwest, man.

When I was cleaning the gun room this last week ... I have a sturdy box that contains 1900 of the projectiles I ordered back in 2006. That bugger split on the bottom sending 7.62x39 bullets scattering across the concrete floor. I was on my hands and knees for 2 hours cussing at those little stubby things.

Looking at what I paid vs. what ammo and stuff is costing now, I'd like to make a public apology to my poor bullets that I gave such a verbal lashing to, if I offended them in ANY way let them not be angry and shoot crooked.

EDIT: Ok, it was more like a half hour on my knees. But if you had my knees, you'd understand why crawling on a concrete floor for any length of time feels like it takes 4x longer.

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I know at one time I had some 7.62 x 39 dies and am clueless where they went. Yeah, been digging things out for retirement and I know the drill with the knees. Today I only have one rifle that uses the 7.62 X 39 round and that is an old SKS. On the bright side I likely have a few thousand rounds in assorted flavors, including some old brass stuff made by Winchester. Can't recall when I last even shot that rifle.

Maybe I gave those dies away? That or sold them years ago, beats me.

You may want to know that your knowledge base on small base dies has really gotten me thinking about them. Enough that I see some in .223 and .308 for starters in the near future.

Nice going on the stash. I am now loving all the powder and bullets I have stashed over the years as well as primers.

Ron

i use berdan primers and the steel cases. my aks dont ding em up and i get alot of loads out of em. casting with the new lee mold with 50/50 linotype lead gets my bullets pretty hard and they feed fine. crimps easy enough.

thagunman said:

i use berdan primers and the steel cases. my aks dont ding em up and i get alot of loads out of em. casting with the new lee mold with 50/50 linotype lead gets my bullets pretty hard and they feed fine. crimps easy enough.

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For you anneal the cases to relieve the work hardening of the cases? Or just disgard them after they get too hard?