What's on your menu for today...I'm craving some 7.62 x 39...

[OLD-skool454#3]

Gotta have your greens...

[OLD-skool454#3]

Yes, I cast them using my Lyman 311410, powder coat them with Eastwood powder, and size them to .310- & .311 with my NOE sizing bushings. I charge them with Reloader 7 and load them with LEE Precision 7.62x39 Pacesetter dies.

[OLD-skool454#3]

These are steel cased and the majority of people don't care for or bother with steel case, I do it cause I can lol, but you are right...not much outside YT. It's quite a bit more involved than reloading boxer primed brass. For one, you have the issue of water/rust if you use the hydraulic decapping method or the problem of finding the tool which is next to impossible. Then there is the issue of no berdan primers and having to modify the steel cases for use with boxer primers. You must file/grind the existing anvil down, drill a center hole if you care to do that which in itself is a challenge. The boxer primers don't pop in, they drop in literally and have got to be held in with some adhesive which is iffy because it could potentially cause all the pressure to go in the opposite direction upon firing. All in all it is a good learning experience and given me another option should I need it in a SHTF situation. Oh, in my lead I have added a bit of babbitt, it makes the lead a bit slicker and a bit harder, but not brittle. My powder coat I pre heat my toaster oven at 450, I bake the powder coated bullets at 450 for 5 minutes then finish them at 400 for another 15 minutes, I wash my bullets with dawn ultra and thoroughly dry them before powder coat/baking. Hope I haven't discouraged you and that perhaps some of this has been of some help...

[Grendel Guy]

Did you cast those bullets? I’d like find some reasonably priced primers & powder where I’m not being latently gouged by excessive shipping & hazmat fees. Mi Wall Corp seems to be reasonable on some listings. https://miwallcorpom/reloading/primers/

We (my sons and brother) really liked going to their Father's Day open house sale. Some times would make in on the first group more often the second group. Brought a camping stove to make breakfast while we waited. People would ask us to sell some but we normally had just enough for us. Afterwards on the way home we'd visit the gun shops. Fun times.

[Cowboy T]

These are steel cased and the majority of people don't care for or bother with steel case, I do it cause I can lol, but you are right...not much outside YT. It's quite a bit more involved than reloading boxer primed brass. For one, you have the issue of water/rust if you use the hydraulic decapping method or the problem of finding the tool which is next to impossible. Then there is the issue of no berdan primers and having to modify the steel cases for use with boxer primers. You must file/grind the existing anvil down, drill a center hole if you care to do that which in itself is a challenge. The boxer primers don't pop in, they drop in literally and have got to be held in with some adhesive which is iffy because it could potentially cause all the pressure to go in the opposite direction upon firing. All in all it is a good learning experience and given me another option should I need it in a SHTF situation. Oh, in my lead I have added a bit of babbitt, it makes the lead a bit slicker and a bit harder, but not brittle. My powder coat I pre heat my toaster oven at 450, I bake the powder coated bullets at 450 for 5 minutes then finish them at 400 for another 15 minutes, I wash my bullets with dawn ultra and thoroughly dry them before powder coat/baking. Hope I haven't discouraged you and that perhaps some of this has been of some help...

That is an option, yes.

Turns out Starline now makes 7.62x39 Boxer-primed brass as well, and it's affordable, so that's another option. Theirs use large rifle primers (LRP).

[jsanch03]

Nice to see someone else is willing to tinker this far into reloading for a cartridge. I do the same thing except with 762x54r. I bought the bit and tool that threads into a die allowing you to drill out the berdan anvil from inside the case. Typical Russian steel cases would crack after about 3 firings. But older PPu cases that were berdan primed have been lasting a lot longer. As for the differences in primer pocket sizes, check out castboolits website. There was a vendor that sold a primer pocket attachment for the RCBS primer pocket swaging die. It works by slightly crimping the brass inward which gets the diameter to standard boxer primer sizes.