Anyone Reloading .30 Mauser?

[rrengineer]

Anyone out there reloading 7.63 X 25 Mauser ammo? I have a couple of Broomhandles and with the new insane laws here in California ammo for these guns is VERY hard to find. What is your favorite recipe for this load, bullets used, etc. What kind of a press are you using?

[hambam105]

Look into reforming .223 brass to make 7,62x25.
Yah, it's a lot of work.
Starline Brass might have the brass. Might.

[superhondaz50]

Ya, it's cake. Brass is available and cheap, $22 for 100 at grafs. You can also use tokarev brass too if you already have it. You can also use Tokarev dies if you have them, but a Mauser die set with shell holder is only $32 from grafs. The best load I've used are spear 30cal 100gr plinkers with 5.5gr of unique at 1.360 OAL, flawless function and accuracy.

[sudo]

Lee sells the same set of dies to load .30 Mauser and 7.62x25 Tok, so buy whichever one is cheaper. The Lee seating die is a floating design that guarantees crooked bullet seating, so you'll have to either wrap an o-ring around the seating stem to take out any play or use a Lyman M-die expander to put a step in the case neck for the bullet to seat uniformly. The M-die method is much more consistent.

I load 71gn .312 plated Berry bullets for my Tokarev with 5.2gn IMR Target (similar burn rate to Alliant Bullseye) loaded to 1.27". This load just barely cycles the gun. You can probably reduce by 1gn and work up for Mauser. Don't worry about sticking a bullet; I went down to 3.5gn and the bullet still cleared the barrel. I've also used the same load in my CZ52 after resizing the bullet down to .309.

[hambam105]

30 Mauser and 7.62x25 are not identical calibers, I think.
J. M. Cougar has a song, Check It Out.

[sl0re10]

30 Mauser and 7.62x25 are not identical calibers, I think.
J. M. Cougar has a song, Check It Out.

+1

You may be able to use tokarev brass but I wouldn't consider tokarev load data safe.

[hambam105]

I've heard the 'old-timers' tell me that many a 30 Mauser pistol was destroyed with Soviet style Tokarav pressures.

[superhondaz50]

Tokarev ammo is too hot for a broomhandle.

[rrengineer]

Tokarev is 7.62 X 25 and .30 Mauser is 7.63 X 25. I know the difference in pressures between the two. I have been shooting Broomhandle pistols for over twenty years. I have both a Romanian Tokarev pistol and a .30 Mauser Broomhandle as well as a Red Nine Broomhandle (9 MM). Using Tokarev ammo in a Broomhandle will probably not blow it up. The bolt stop usually takes the brunt of the punishment damaging the bolt stop and deforming the slot in the slide the bolt stop resides in. Worst case the slide cracks. In the absolute worst case if you continue shooting the hot Tokarev in the Broomhandle, the bolt stop fails and the bolt will come flying backwards hitting the shooter in the face, hopefully not the eye! Also a good Idea to not have an old weak recoil spring also. I know enough to store the ammo for both pistols in separate ammo cans and never bring both a Broomhandle and a Tokarev to the same shooting session. I'm only human and Murphy's law can bite you in the butt or the face in this case. I have about 500 rounds of both calibers, but since you can not mail order ammo here in Californistan any longer, I am not holding out hope to see Broomhandle ammo at Turner's or Ammo Bros any time soon. Reloading is inevitable. Now to start working up black powder loads for the 1876 SAA I recently acquired.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/sUB2oWK5kPVysL477