reloading 7.62x39 question

[M240]

Hello everyone,
I hate to start a new thread to ask a question, but I couldnt find anything pertaining to this. I wanted to start reloading 7.62x39 and so I bought a Lee die set. I also bought some Hornady V-max 123 grain bullets .310 diameter. The die set came with a .310 decapping pin and a .308 one. so I installed the .310 and went to it. well the .310 one dosnt give the casing enough neck tension to hold the .310 V-Max bullet very tightly. Would it be a bad idea to use the .308 pin for .310 bullets or would that kinda squish the bullet or something. sorry for this lame question. Thanks, Justin

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Welcome to the forum...

As you know or will learn there are no "lame questions" around here. Anything pertaining to reloading is important. First, are you using Brass cases? If you are trying to reload some of the steel cases they won't work well. I'm only asking in a outside attempt to find out why the correct sizer isn't resizing to the correct neck tension for the bullets you are using. As to your original question, go ahead and give the smaller sizer a try and just be careful when trying to seat the bullet that you don't ruin the case. If the bullet doesn't start correctly you will probably "fold over" the case neck ruining it. Other than that there is no problem using the smaller sizer.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

make sure you chamfer & deburr the neck well when useing the .308 pin and it will do well.

 

[M240]

I am using Federal brass that use LR primers once fired... Thanks for the welcome, Arch

 

[ArchAngelCD]

You're welcome...

Federal brass should be no problem at all so I'm wondering why you are having a problem. It's not usual but it is possible your die is out of specs. Are you 100% sure you have the die correctly adjusted? If it's incorrect (too high) you won't get that last bit of resizing you need to correctly tension the neck. (just another wild shot in the dark)

 

[R.W.Dale]

You probably have a little tolerance stacking between bullet diameter and expander pin. I loaded for both bullet diameters and after awhile I just quit bothering to swap out expander and just ran the .308" pilot for everything. It works fine and give you some additional much needed neck tension.


On a set of calipers what do your expanders actually measure?

 

[kanook]

I am using Federal brass that use LR primers once fired...

Please don't use once fired primers, they don't work all that well

Welcome to the THR , you will find a wealth of knowledge here from people who are here to help and have some fun on the way.

 

[David Wile]

Hey M240,

In his earlier post, Marlin 45 carbine said, "make sure you chamfer & deburr the neck well when useing the .308 pin and it will do well." I think it is worth repeating. Chamfering the case mouth will make it easier to seat both jacketed and cast bullets, and it will also make it easier to seat your .310 bullets while using the .308 expander. This will give you more neck tension on the bullet and probably require no crimping.

Also, once you chamfer and debur your case mouths onece, you will not have to do it again unless your cases lengthen and have to be trimmed to length. Then you will need to chamfer and debur again.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

 

[M240]

guess i worded that once fired primers thing a little badly...LOL dont think that wo7uld work to well huh? but ya I fired the feds 1 x out of my sks... oh those expanders measure .310 and .308

 

[Smokey Joe]

A word of caution...

M-240--The above posters seem to have analysed and solved yr problem with the expander dies.

But you're reloading 7.62x39's! So here's a heads up: You said all yr cases are Federal, which use the normal "large rifle" primers. Well and good. Should you, however, be blessed to find some non-military free range brass (the military is almost always berdan primed=not worth it trying to reload, in addition to almost always being steel cases, again=not worth it trying to reload) WATCH OUT FOR THE REMINGTON BRASS.

Remington 7.62x39 cases, for some esoteric reason, use "small rifle" primers, not "large rifle" ones. What the "Powers that be" at Remington may have been thinking when they decided this I can't imagine. What is SAAMI for if not to prevent nonsense like this. However, there you are. And here we are. And we're not in Kansas any more.

You can reload the Rem. cases, using "small rifle" primers, and they go bang just fine in your AK or SKS, or CZ for that matter, but you do have to watch and separate them when priming.

 

[Ohio Gun Guy]

Reloading 7.62x39?......


you mean how to open another box of wolf?

 

[M240]

not to keep dragging this thread on, but I do agree with you there. I love the steel case ammo but I thought id have some fun loading something new. I guess I just like reloading a little to much

 

[R.W.Dale]

Don't slight Remington because of thier foresight to not be lemmings and use LR primers to ignite a paltry 30g charge. Because you know those wacky russians only used lr primers for x39 because that's what the had on hand.


If you start pushing the envelope of what this cartridge is capable of you'll find that small primed rem cases are good for another 100fps and 3x the number of loadings as lr brass

 

[Micksis]

Remington did the same thing with the 6.8SPC their brass is large primers everyone else's i've seen is small.