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#1092719 - 09/14/16 11:09 PM Need opinions on a 308 load
tspike Offline
God save the Republic

Registered: 06/02/11
Posts: 780
Loc: VA
City or County: York
Several years ago I picked up a couple of thousand rounds of Sellier & Belliot Surplus .308/7.62x51 from Samco and HKparts. I was only shooting it out of my PTR91 because this stuff has super hard primers and it was the only rifle I could get consistent ignition with. I tried with my Rem 700 308, didn’t get a single round to ignite and with my M1A and FAL I could get about 50% to ignite. I sold my PTR and am left with well over two 50cal cans packed full of this stuff.

I pulled the bullets from 10 of the cases that measured an OAL of 2.78, and they all had an average of 43.2 grs of extruded powder. I inspected the inside of the cases and didn’t see any signs of the brass or the flash holes being corroded in any way. Just dirty. The powder looked good, and it burned nicely when I set a match to it.

I weighed each bullet and they were all 147 grain + or - .01, and are copper jacketed with a bi-metal lead core (attracts a magnet).

What I’m thinking of doing is pulling the bullets and reusing them along with the powder in once fired PMC and LC brass. I’m going to try CCI #34 7.62 Lg rifle military primers, if they prove to be too hard I may drop down to CCI no. 200 Large Rifle Primers.

I was thinking of charging them with 43 grains of the powder and setting the OAL at 2.8 and checking them with the headspace gauge.

Any opinions?






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#1093413 - 09/16/16 09:22 PM Re: Need opinions on a 308 load [Re: tspike]
hino895 Offline
Addicted

Registered: 04/27/09
Posts: 530
Loc: Spotsylvania, Virginia
City or County: Downtown Thornburg
I don't see a problem rebuilding them with new primers.
_________________________
"It will be fine after the swelling go's down"

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#1093856 - 09/17/16 11:14 PM Re: Need opinions on a 308 load [Re: tspike]
tspike Offline
God save the Republic

Registered: 06/02/11
Posts: 780
Loc: VA
City or County: York
I don't want to reuse the brass. It's berdan primed and the cases so corrosion (top pic).

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#1097765 - 09/27/16 09:30 AM Re: Need opinions on a 308 load [Re: tspike]
SamNavy Offline
Bolt action

Registered: 01/03/14
Posts: 158
Loc: Virginia Beach, VA
City or County: Virginia Beach, VA
Sound like a ton of work... did you think about just selling all that ammo and spending the money on new reloading consumables? Even the cheapest Russian wolf/bear steel crap is like $500/1000. Price it low for a quick sale and take $400/1000.

Reloading consumables are really cheap right now. You should have no problem making 147gr plinkers for .40cents/round including brass.

I'd get rid of that stuff and start fresh.

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#1098064 - 09/27/16 09:33 PM Re: Need opinions on a 308 load [Re: tspike]
tspike Offline
God save the Republic

Registered: 06/02/11
Posts: 780
Loc: VA
City or County: York
I think you're right, it's getting to the point where I'm going to spend more time and money than it's worth.

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