8mm surplus reloading

[L Bruce]

Has anyone ever heard of or pulled surplus bullets,lowering the charge then re seating the bullet in the same case?

[joem]

I pulled many hundreds of Turkish garbage, saved the powder and bullets and reloaded them in my cases. Any surplus I've bought was Berdan primed and corrosive. The Turkish stuff had varied charges by 3 to 4 grains. Some cases were split as they came out of the bandolier. All the cases went to scrap. Bullets were great and powder was good.

[musketshooter]

It is easy to do. Why reduce the powder charge? Most people pull down surplus ammo to salvage the bullet and powder. Some of us decap the corrosive primers and reload with new NC primers.

[meterman]

Did that with a lot of Spanish-made 9mm Largo. Fired as issued, the primers would puncture and flatten and the words on the cases were burnished and made illegible. So, I pulled the bullets, reduced the powder charge 20%, and the results were a normal-looking fired brass. Of course they were Berdan primed, so I tossed them. But it made me feel a lot safer about shooting them in my old Astra. These were Santa Barbara, manufactured in the early 1970s.

[joem]

I shoot a bit of 9mm largo but I reload for it. Cases are available from Starline brass when they make a run of it.

[Dave in NGA]

I have reduced charges in 7.65x53 argentine ammo to each my mind while shooting the 1891 mauser. Kicks less and shoots just fine.

[Sunray]

"...lowering the charge..." Using what data? You have no idea what the powder is. Making up your own data for completely unknown powder is unsafe.
"Mexican Match" is well known though.

[Litt'le Lee]

it would be OK to say reduce by 10% or more to reduce recoil--you would have to do a test session--i was taking 06 from CMP ammo and using the bullets and powder to reload 308--then I would sell the 06 brass,banderlers and clips--the 308 turns out to reload for 10 cents a round

[bruce]

Re: OP. Pull the bullets. Sample the powder charge weight in a selected sample... say 100/1000 rds. Average the weight. Now unless you plan on combat operations,etc., consider reducing the powder charge a bit. A Kar-98 w/ full power surplus heavy ball ammo will get your attention after about 30-40 rounds. Reducing the charge by say 10% will result in a lighter kicking load that will be easier to use for extended range sessions. Save the left over powder for later use. Depending on how much surplus 8mm you're working with, you might end up with enough powder to load some more ammo. Of course this does expect that you will be working with one lot number of ammo. Either that or keep the lot numbers separated. JMHO. Sincerely. bruce.

[PhillipM]

I've never thought to reduce the charge, but as said above, paper punching doesn't require a combat load.

I call my stash of Turkish 8MM my flintlock simulator because it hang fires so often.

[joem]

I did weigh charges in a lot of Turkish ammo. that how I found out the charges varied by 3 to 4 grains. Along with cases being spilt which made pulling the bullets easy to pull. I made test loads and chrono them. Pull down enough of them and you get several 8# jugs of powder. When I ran out of bullets I went to Sierra and bought factory seconds. Cheap shooting.

[fguffey]

It is easy to do. Why reduce the powder charge? Most people pull down surplus ammo to salvage the bullet and powder. Some of us decap the corrosive primers and reload with new NC primers.

I have pulled down thousands of bullets from Turk ammo. I have found the powder weight to be very consistent but when running the bullets across a chronograph 2,900 fps is a little fast. I reduced the powder load from 49 to 45 grains and I formed 30/06 cases to 8mm57 to get rid of the Berdan primers.

Then there is case splitting with the Turk cases, I have never found one split before firing but I have at least 3 out of 10 cases split when fired.

That leaves the ‘why?’ The case always splits longitudinal. The split could indicate a shaped charger of powder laying/caked on the side of the case or gas escaping past the neck and shoulder of the case when fired. When the pressure inside the case drops the gas trapped between the case and chamber could be causing the case to split, I do find the Turk cases to be brittle, instead of the case collapsing because of the pressure trapped between the case and chamber I believe the cases are splitting.

F. Guffey

http://www.turkmauser.com/ammo.aspx

[L Bruce]

I pulled down about 40 rounds of Yugo 53 surplus 8mm. The results were no corrosion,powder looks like the day it was loaded
loads were a consistent 41 Gr. I reduced the load 10% after neck sizing. The recoil was very much reduced,point of impact was about the same as we were firing off hand.The only down side was that we had three click no bang failures (bad primers)
Thanks to all who responded.

[fguffey]

I pulled down about 40 rounds of Yugo 53 surplus 8mm...... The only down side was that we had three click no bang failures (bad primers)
Thanks to all who responded.

I know you know and I understand you pulled the bullets but on old ammo there is a chance powder can cake; if this happens on the primer end of the case ignition can be delayed. Meaning I would be in no hurry when opening the bolt after a failure to fire.

F. Guffey