Can I turn GP-11 surplus into hunting ammo

[tube_ee]

By just pulling the FMJ bullet and pressing in a suitable hunting bullet?

Why? Well, because once my C&R clears, Il'l be buying a K31. I doubt I could load for what the surplus stuff costs, and by all reports, its great stuff as-is. Assuming that bullet weights were the same, the powder charge in the GP-11 should be suitable, right? Ideally, I could end up with a hunting load that shoots at or very near the POI of the practice ammo, without paying the high price of boxer-primed 7.5x55 brass, or dealing with trying to reload Berdan primers.

If this is a workable idea, what bullets should I be looking at?

--Shannon

 

[ReloaderFred]

It's going to be difficult, but not impossible, to pull the military bullets, due to the fact that most of them are sealed in with waterproofing tar compound. You can seat the bullet a few thousandths to break the seal, and then use a bullet puller to pull the FMJ bullet from the neck, and hope it doesn't deform the neck/shoulder of the case.

Once you've removed the bullet, it will probably be necessary to resize the neck, in order to get enough tension to hold the bullet in place. Without resizing at least the neck, the bullets will set back and cause pressures to jump, or even fall out.

I've reclaimed ammunition in the manner you indicate, and what I've done is first make sure the ammunition is from the same lot. Then I pull ten bullets and dump out the powder and weigh it. Then divide the total by ten and that will give you the average weight of the charge used of the mystery powder in the military cases. That becomes my maximum charge weight, if the bullets I'm replacing the originals with are the same weight and similar shape.

After I've pulled all the bullets and emptied all the powder into a clean container, then I take the decapping pin out of my sizing die spindle and put the expander ball back on the stem. Prior to sizing, I check the necks, and if they have a lot of waterproofing tar in them, I chuck an old bore brush of the proper size in an electric drill and run it into the case mouths, which will remove most, if not all, of the tar. Then I run the empty, primed cases through the sizing die, without the decapping pin. Then, when all the cases have been sized, I chamfer the case mouths and then recharge with powder and seat the bullet.

This works, and in some cases, is the cheapest way to go, but remember that most of that old military ammunition contains corrosive primers, so clean your rifle immediately after firing, or you'll have some rust to contend with.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[lonniemike]

Fred is giving some good advise. I'll add that GP-11 is non-corrosive primed and I don't think you'll find any tar/sealant other than the Swiss's regular crimp with or without a wax ring on the outside of the round. I haven't found any other sealant yet.
165 SP Rem in bulk work well on GP-11. best-o-luck

 

[aufevermike]

(50) .284 for $18 = .36 cents
(100) 165 Rem SP $10 - .10 cents each
(100) primers $2= .02 cents each
37 grains of 4064 $18 pound= .09 a load
Reloading each case approx. 10 times brings it down to around .25 cents and is a bit mor accurate than the GP-11 How can you beat that?

 

[m0ntels]

Hornady and Wolf make soft point hunting ammo. Not cheap, but no hassle. Hornady is $1/rd, dont remember what Wolf is going for.

Randy

 

[dcloco]

I use the 284 Win brass as well.

Found a super deal on 174 gr FMJ pulls...this is an AWESOME round.

The GP11 is expensive - $25/60...you can load a lot of rounds for that.

 

[tube_ee]

(50) .284 for $18 = .36 cents
(100) 156 Rem SP $10 - .10 cents each
(100) primers $2= .02 cents each
37 grains of 4064 $18 pound= .09 a load
Reloading each case approx. 10 times brings it down to around .25 cents and is a bit mor accurate than the GP-11 How can you beat that?

480 rounds GP-11 surplus: $156 (32.5 cents/round)
bullet: 10 cents
Time: free, as I don't reload during working hours.

So yeah, doing this is a bit cheaper. If I buy brass, it'll likely be actual 7.5 brass, as re-forming just isn't my kinda thang. That's going to drive the price up even more, as the good stuff's not cheap, and the cheap stuff's not very good, at least by Internet lore. Long-term, that's the solution, of course, but if this'll work, it should serve me well for while, right? I should be able to get a season's worth of shooting and hunting out of a case of GP-11, I'm only good for a couple of boxes out of an M-44 Mosin per range session, less from the bench. I expect the K31 to have similar recoil, although without the Mosin's skinny, shoulder-mangling stock.

If this is a bad idea, I'll skip it, but why would a powder load for one 174 grain bullet be unsafe, or even questionable, for another? That's a real question, as my reloading experience is limited to revolvers, where except for lead / jacketed differences, bullets of the same weight are safely interchangable with respect to powder charge. If that's not true for rifle rounds, why not?

Thanks again,

--Shannon

 

[Sunray]

"...By just pulling the FMJ bullet and pressing in a suitable hunting bullet?..." No. You have no idea what that powder is nor how old it is. It may or may not even light.
7.5 x 55 Swiss brass isn't hard to find nor terribly expensive. Midway lists new Norma brass at $18.29 per 20 or $81.99 per 100.

 

[aufevermike]

Backstraps in your freezer from the handload you made yourself from an admirable weapon........PRICELESS

 

[Dave R]

as re-forming just isn't my kinda thang.

Its not like that...

You just run the .284Win brass through your 7.5 Swiss full-length resizing die. The one that comes standard with your die set. Then you may or may not have to trim to length. That's it. It takes a slight bit more effort (and lube) than it will after you have fired them the first time. But its really no different than reloading official 7.5 Swiss brass.

No multiple steps, no special dies, no worries.

 

[dcloco]

284 Win Brass

Just like DaveR said.

I have 500 cases primed and ready for powder.

This is an EASY reform, as you are necking up.

Fire once, resize, trim to length, and you are set.

I HIGHLY recommend the 284 Win brass over ANY other brass - it is thicker in all the right places.

I also HIGHLY recommend the Redding die set. This is the ONLY die on the market that is manufactured to the K31 chambers. Everything else is K11 etc.

There is LESS recoil with the K31. Rifle is a touch heavier than an M91 or M91/30. True pleasure to shoot a K31.

With 174 gr bullets, recoil is similar to an M91. Using lighter bullets than this is very easy on the shoulder.

 

[OldSchooler]

Other than the exercise and the learning experience, why bother with all that tomfoolery.

You want to go hunting, right? Then, just buy a box or two of of hunting ammo and go hunting. How many rounds are you gonna shoot while hunting, anyway?

Later you can do all that case forming or practice removing berdan primers via the hydraulic ram method - and whatever else you want to do. In the meantime, time is money. Get some reliable shells and go hunting.