7.62/308 question

[oneyeopn]

I know this may not be the forum for this question but I will ask anyway. My Nephew (the thousand yard shooter) gave me a wooden crate of ammo. South African 7.62x51 AP (steel core). He has a Remington 770 in .308 and I just put a .308 barrel on my black Mauser. Both rifles shoot .308 great but this ammo is a little long and when you shoot it, it hangs up when you are trying to extract it. It will extract but it is more difficult than I like. When I say a little long I mean very little. A .308 case from Freedom is 2" and one of these cases is 2.016". After firing a .308 it expands to 2.02" while the south african expands to 2.033" and you can actually see where it expanded into the barrel causing it to hang on extraction. I was thinking about pulling them (I have already started) with my kinetic hammer and using the components to reload into .308 cases. Measuring the charge and duplicating it in the new cases and reusing the bullets. It is 1980 production, non corrosive powder but berdan primed. They shoot real clean and are pretty accurate. I have 576 of these rounds so I ordered a hornady collet bullet puller for my press today. Does this sound reasonable or does this sound crazy? Would you reuse the bullets or buy new. I am going to end up with about 3 lbs of powder or more. I just hate to waste them.

 

[SW Gun Guy]

Wow oneyeopn, you get to have all the fun. I am hardly the expert on any of this; but trying to think outside the box, how about this. Pull the bullets, dump the powder and save, find a way to trim the cases to a good length (a case trimmer that does not require the primer being out) and then just reload them with the bullets and powder. Just my $ .02

 

[oneyeopn]

SWGG...I have been thinking along those lines, I would only need to trim about .015 off of them, but all of my case length gauges require a primer flash hole.

 

[oneyeopn]

According to reviews the brass in the South African 7.62 stretches or flows as they say into all the little miniscule cracks and fissures. Dimension wise they are supposed to be identical. The brass may not be acceptable for my use, but it gets great reviews for the DPMS .308 AR. Maybe I should just sell it.

 

[Fkimble]

I would be concerned about excess pressure with the brass being forced into the barrel. If the brass is that soft again I would be concerned about normal pressure. I think your correct to not want to reload those cases even after trimming.

 

[Gunslinger808]

You could always send it to me for proper disposal.

 

[oneyeopn]

Gunslinger, If your nice I will send you some of the primed cases LOL

 

[oneyeopn]

Well after much research and testing, the powder is a commercial variety of IMR4895 which will work in both my .223 and .308 reloads. It will be worthwhile just to pull them and collect the components, they have a 163gr Steel Core bullet. Not very good for hunting and definitely will tear up my target backboard. I may reload a few of them like 50 just in case of an acronym situation but I will buy better bullets and use the powder. So if anyone wants some 30 caliber AP bullets I will have a few to get rid of LOL

 

[drhenzler]

I know this may not be the forum for this question but I will ask anyway. My Nephew (the thousand yard shooter) gave me a wooden crate of ammo. South African 7.62x51 AP (steel core). He has a Remington 770 in .308 and I just put a .308 barrel on my black Mauser. Both rifles shoot .308 great but this ammo is a little long and when you shoot it, it hangs up when you are trying to extract it. It will extract but it is more difficult than I like. When I say a little long I mean very little. A .308 case from Freedom is 2" and one of these cases is 2.016". After firing a .308 it expands to 2.02" while the south african expands to 2.033" and you can actually see where it expanded into the barrel causing it to hang on extraction. I was thinking about pulling them (I have already started) with my kinetic hammer and using the components to reload into .308 cases. Measuring the charge and duplicating it in the new cases and reusing the bullets. It is 1980 production, non corrosive powder but berdan primed. They shoot real clean and are pretty accurate. I have 576 of these rounds so I ordered a hornady collet bullet puller for my press today. Does this sound reasonable or does this sound crazy? Would you reuse the bullets or buy new. I am going to end up with about 3 lbs of powder or more. I just hate to waste them.

I'd consider getting a finish reamer and lengthing the neck area of the chamber a little. May as well check for clearance while your at it... .005 to .008 is ideal.. then you can shoot all the South African surplus ammo you can find without further issue.

One reporters opinion.

 

[Neumann]

7.62/.308 headspaces on the shoulder. You can buy a case gauge from Dillon (and I presume others) which checks the shoulder and overall length. The case fits inside the gauge, which works whether the case is primed or not. Use this gauge to set up the resizing die, and trim to maximum OAL after resizing.

There are small but measurable differences in the external dimensions of 7.62x51 and .308 Winchester. There are also differences in pressure specifications, how that pressure is measured, and the distance the bullet is expected to jump before engaging the rifling. Military brass is thicker, but there is no demonstrable effect on pressure due to this factor.

 

[storeyteller]

Why not remove the decapping pin and FLR the brass also?

 

[PunisherBane]

buy an m14 and go all ebr crazy with it

 

[Enframe]

If that is black tip (armor piercing to NATO spec), and you don't want it, sell it. The South African 7.62x51 has a decent reputation for quality, so it should be relatively easy to move. Then use the proceeds to buy some .308 for your bolt gun. The SA stuff you have was spec'd for semi/full auto military weapons, like the M-14 or FAL, M-60, etc. It could very well cause extraction problems in a match (tight) chambered .308 bolt gun, as you say.

 

[oneyeopn]

where would you advertise it?

 

[arizona98tj]

They make case trimmers that index off of the shoulder rather than the head (which means it doesn't matter if the primer is in or out of the brass). One such example is on the Accurateshooter website has a review on it, made by Little Crow Gunworks. It's a lot faster than the traditional hand cranked case trimmer.

 

[BHarada]

They make case trimmers that index off of the shoulder rather than the head (which means it doesn't matter if the primer is in or out of the brass). One such example is on the Accurateshooter website has a review on it, made by Little Crow Gunworks. It's a lot faster than the traditional hand cranked case trimmer.

I wish I had seen this before I bought my Lyman trimmer. In fact, if sportsmansguide.com ever ships my order of 1800 stripper clipped xm193 I may order it anyway. Lol

WFT

-Bill

 

[oneyeopn]

I wish I had seen this before I bought my Lyman trimmer. In fact, if sportsmansguide.com ever ships my order of 1800 stripper clipped xm193 I may order it anyway. Lol

WFT

-Bill

Arizona98 and Bill thanks for bringing that too my attention. It would do exactly what I need. I hate to get rid of so much practice ammo when a little elbow grease could fix it. I have way more time than money and I could do it in 50 round lots. Save my new 308 ammo for hunting but practice blowing things up with this ammo. Gotta wait for a couple of days but that sucker is on my need list. LOL I wonder what happens to a prairie dog hit with 163gr? steel core bullet?

 

[arizona98tj]

Glad to help. Good luck on your project, however it turns out.

 

[StlBluesFan72]

I wonder what happens to a prairie dog hit with 163gr? steel core bullet?

prarie dust?

 

[oneyeopn]

Well I received my Hornady Cam Lock Collet bullet puller and collet while we were in Graham Tx for the last couple of days. Just watch how fast I pull these apart and break them down into components. 15 thousandths off and they are all great for my .308 If I had a dpms AR10 .308 I would have 600 rounds of armor piercing to run through it, as it is I will be reloading these for a long time to come.