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Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - CharlesHarris - 16 February 2016
In places where center-fire rifles, handguns and ammunition are heavily regulated, shotguns are easier for resident aliens to obtain. Modern rifle powders, rifle and pistol primers are virtually impossible to get legally in places like Mexico or Brazil.
Components for shotgun reloading, i.e. powder, shot and shotgun primers may be more likely available in such places. Resourceful hunters, farmers and outdoorsmen load cartridges using the same simple, expedient methods used by WW2 Partisans and still common throughout the Third World. There are four basic considerations which must be meant, but this isn’t “rocket science.”
First, the powder must ignite safely and generate uniform velocities at low loading density, given the large free airspace resulting from using small charges in a typical rifle cartridge case. Pistol or shotgun powders ignite easily and burn uniformly under such conditions and present to no serious issues for this purpose. In particular, shotgun powders used in 12-ga. and 16-ga. field or target loads are very well suited for loading most pistol and revolver calibers, as well as for assembling small game loads in “deer” and military rifles. Whenever using shotgun or pistol powders, due caution is required to determine a safe and suitable powder charge.
Second, reduced powder charges must safely and reliably expel the bullet from the barrel. Salvaging rifle powder recovered from pulled-down, full charge military or sporting ammunition is a different breed of cat. Ignition will be erratic if the bullet weight is much less than in service rounds, particularly if a reduced powder charge fills less than 2/3 of cartridge case capacity. A fired 7.62x39mm case filled up to its mouth with typical military rifle powders makes a good dip measure to assemble “low recoil, medium velocity” ammunition for the .303 British, 7.62x54R, 7.62mm NATO, .30-’06 or 8mm Mauser, using either gaschecked cast or pulled down jacketed bullets. Such cartridges produce energy similar to the .30-30 or 7.62x39. A .357 Magnum or .30 M1 carbine case used similarly to produces low power 5.56 or 7.62x39 rounds approximating .22 Hornet or .32-20 ballistics for small game shooting.
(My buddy who once lived in South Africa frequently found caches of 7.62x39 ammunition in the bush, but had no rifle of that caliber listed on his FAC. His drill was to pull down the "illegal" prohibited ammo, saving the pulled bullets in one can, and the salvaged powder in another, using them later to assemble .303 ammo for his licensed Enfield to shoot Impala for biltong. Primed 7.62x39 cases were cooked off in the campfire, later taken into town and sold a scrap dealer. Steel cases were worth almost nothing, but brass ones were valuable enough to buy primers used to reload his .303s! A 7.62x39 case cut off at the neck served as a dip measure for loading .303s with pulled 123-grain 7.62x39 bullets turned around BACKWARDS so that they would expand! Accuracy was good enough to 50 metres to kill camp meat for biltong).
Third, the reduced power cartridge must still have sufficient power and accuracy to improve upon the hit probability and lethality of a pistol. The purpose of the Partisan Cartridge is for foraging game or dispatching enemy personnel at ranges of 25 metres or more. In the best case, the reduced power “Cat Sneeze” round can do so almost silently in a rifle-length barrel and will be suitably accurate to kill small game out to 50 metres!
Finally, the prudent Partisan must load very cautiously, such that even an inadvertent “double charge” is not sufficient to blow a primer, rupture the cartridge case, cause hard bolt opening or escape of powder gases, which could injure the shooter, permanently damage a rifle or in the worst case, “blow it up!”
The key to exploiting salvaged powder, is to be both frugal and careful. The best reduced load powders are recovered from pulled down misfired shotgun or pistol rounds. Use the minimum powder charge which ignites reliably and expels the bullet from the barrel, producing acceptable short range accuracy to kill small game. Listen for a uniform report and check the bore if a shot does not “sound right” or if you do not observe the bullet strike. Subsonic loads with lead buckshot or pistol bullets of suitable diameter, or plain-based cast lead bullets without a gas-check, using the minimum charge producing good accuracy fit the requirement.
Reduced RIFLE loads using metal JACKETED bullets attain about 300 m/s (980 fps), and revolver or pistol ammunition 230 m/s (750 fps) to be confident of reliable bore exit, so that you need not worry about lodging a bullet in the barrel. Soft lead, lubricated bullets have much less bore drag and can be loaded as slow as 200 m/s (650 fps) and exit either rifle or revolver barrels reliably, while producing very low noise. When assembling “Cat Sneeze” loads great care is required to prevent inadvertent double charges! Use a powder measure and visually inspect every case with a penlight ensuring no accidental spilled or double-charges.
Exploiting improvised materials and using primitive loading techniques were common because peasant farmer, Partisans and poachers had to "make do." Doing so was common practice in postwar Europe and still is in much of South America and Africa. When ammunition was scarce during, and long after WW2 in Europe, frugal hunters, Partisans and poachers blended and combined all gleaned, salvaged powder from all sources together. This included black powder from artillery igniter packs, smokeless powder recovered from .22 rimfire, misfired, 9mm, 7.65mm or .45 pistol rounds, shotgun cartridges and 81mm or 60mm mortar boosters! (These days we weigh test charges based on listed data using a fast common powder, such as Bullseye, and then check with a chronograph!)
Weighed powder charges gleaned from disassembled 12-ga. or 16-ga. shotgun shells served as a baseline for estimating useable charges for most common sporting and military rifle calibers.
A typical 12-ga. charge used in old-fashioned paper shells assembled with card and vegetable fiber wadding, as was common before about 1960 was 1.5 grams (23 grains) of a fast-burning flaked smokeless powder similar in composition and burning rate to modern Red Dot, Green Dot or 700X. In modern plastic shells using one-piece plastic wad columns, the equivalent charge is 1.2-1.3 grams (18-20 grains) of a denser spheroidal powder similar to TiteGroup, W231, or WST. A powder widely salvaged by postwar Europeans was obtained from US 60mm mortar shell boosters, a Hercules flake powder, called Infallible, similar to modern “duck load” powders such as Unique, Universal, Herco, PB, or WSF.
In conducting practical empirical tests for a battlefield pickup Mauser taken off a dead enemy, a dip measure would be fashioned from an empty 9mm pistol case. The rifle would be tied to a tree, a LONG string attached to the trigger, then from a safe distance the brave Partisan would jerk the lanyard! If the gun made a satisfying BANG~!, the bolt opened easily, the case looked normal and the primer didn’t fall out, it was a “good” load and it was then time to load five more to try firing off the shoulder while trying to bring home supper!
1/4 of a 12-ga. charge works well for a "Cat Sneeze" load with lead bullets in typical "deer rifle" calibers, and as a full-charge load for large caliber handguns such as the .357 and Magnum, .44-40 or .45 Colt
1/3 of a 12-ga. charge will reliably expel a standard weight jacketed bullet from the bore of a .303 British, 7.62x54R, 8mm Mauser or .30-'06. This volume should not be exceeded in weaker rifles like the Lee Enfields, converted Vetterlis or '88 Mauser Commission rifles.
1/2 of the 12-ga. charge makes a heavier jacketed load for strong-actioned rifles such as the Mosin-Nagant, Springfield, '98 Mauser and modern sporting rifles, approximating .32-40 Winchester ballistics in the 7.62 NATO, 7.62x54R, .30'06 or 8mm, or a mild smokeless load for large bore hunting rifles using lead bullets in cartridges such as the .348 Winchester, .35 Whelen, .375 H&H, .444 Marlin or .45-70.
A fired .32 ACP cartridge case makes a dip measure which throws about 6 grains of Bullseye, 6.5 grains of 231, or 4.2 grains of Red Dot which are safe and satisfactory minimum small game loads with standard weight jacketed bullet for small capacity military rifles from the 5.56, and .300 Blackout to the 7.62x39. These light charges work great for low noise “Cat Sneeze” loads with soft lubricated lead bullets in the 7.62 NATO, 7.62x54R Russian, .30-’06 or 8mm Mauser. They might not reliably expel jacketed bullets, so check the bore if anything sounds abnormal or you don't see the impact if you try jacketed bullets with light charges in those calibers! A Brownell's Squibb Rod turned onto a Dewey cleaning rod and tapped lightly and persistently with a dead blow lead hammer is the safe way to remove a stuck jacketed bullet, after flooding the bore with Kroil.
A fired 9mm Parabellum case makes a dip measure which throws about 8.2 grains of Bullseye, 7.5 grains of Unique, 7 grains of Hodgdon Universal or 10 grains of TiteGroup, WSL or WSF. These powders are best for loading reduced loads with jacketed bullets in cases of 7.62 NATO, .303 British and larger.
To load lubricated lead bullets use the same 9mm dip measure to drop about 7 grains of PB, 5.5 grains of Red Dot, 6 grains of 700-X or Hodgdon Clays, or 6.5 grains of Herco, for subsonic, lead-bullet “Cat Sneeze” in the 7.62 NATO to .30-’06 and 8mm Mauser.
To reload fired Berdan cases using 209 shotshell primers for reduced loads, the firing pin indent of the fired Berdan primer cup is drilled entirely through the solid web of the cartridge case using a 50 Gage (1.8mm) drill. The hole drilled in the primer cup then carefully is enlarged with a 6 gage (5.2mm) drill, taking care to not remove metal in the web of the case, other than any radius remaining of the Berdan primer "anvil" formed in the case head, if you wish to prime cases with standard Large Rifle or large pistol primers. If you drill too far, or wish to use 209 shotshell primers, due to availability, then run the 6 gage drill entirely through the case web.
While supporting the interior of the case with a piece of pipe, swage the primer pocket to shape using a cone shaped mandrel made from the shank of a # 14 flat head wood screw to reshape the pocket to accept a 209 size shotshell primer. Select a screw whose shank is of full dimension, then cut off the threads. With a patience and practice you can chuck the remains of the screw in a hand drill and radius the cutoff end with a bench grinder. This takes some fussing, but you only need to make one. To use the mandrel, insert a short piece of pipe into the new hull and drive it over the mandrel with a hammer. Whack it hard enough to allow a new shotshell primer to seat flush with the base of the hull. Fired cases reloaded with shotshell primers are easily deprimed using a piece of ¼” rod and a mallet.
(Cases converted to use shotshell primers are used only for small game loads, never for full service charges!)
Bulk lubing of cast bullets or buckshot is done most easily using Lee Liquid Alox. Lacking this, a practical expedient is to dissolve Johnson Paste Wax or odd dried up ends of Kiwi shoe polish in equal parts by liquid volume of mineral spirits, tumbling on the same way. For low velocity loads you do not need or want hard alloy. Any soft scrap lead you can scratch with your thumbnail which casts well is fine.
A frequent question involves loading buckshot for “Cat Sneeze” loads. Common US 00 or British SG buckshot is nominally .33” diameter and is too large to load in .30 cal. rifles unless it is sized first. Unsized it works just fine in the 8mm Mauser. To improvise a .30 cal. sizing die take a 1/2" thick piece of aluminum, brass or mild steel plate. Drill a 1/4" pilot hole entirely through the plate, then enlarge the 1/4" pilot hole in stages successively with a 9/32", M or N letter drill, then finally with a 5/16", nominally .3125". Then countersink, deburr and polish the chamfered hole with emery cloth. I recommend drilling a 3/8" hole through your bench top and then attaching a threaded baby food jar lid with matching hole under your work bench.
Position and C-clamp your improvised plate sizer die over the hole, lightly oil your buckshot, drop them one at a time onto the countersunk hole, and smack each through with a 5/16" punch and a plastic hammer into your storage jar. This works for .32 pistol bullets too! A 5/6" hole works fine for .32 ACP, S&W Long and .32-20.
US 0 or Italian 10/0 buckshot is nominally .32 inch and fits very snugly in a fired .30 cal. case neck. They will usually chamber easily IF your seating die reduces the outside case neck diameter to about .340" or so. 0 buckshot also works well in .32 revolvers and pistols and in rifle cases such as the .310 Cadet, .303 British and 7.62x39 or 7.62x54R.
US #1 or British Special Sg buckshot is nominally .30 caliber, but may be too small to effectively take the rifling, depending upon tolerance. If too small to fit tightly into the cartridge case, smack it lightly against a steel plate with your plastic hammer, then run it through the sizer die to make little lead “hockey pucks” which can be stacked in pairs in a .30-’06 or 7.62x54 case, or loaded singly in the 7.62x39, .303 British or 7.62 NATO.
I recommend 0 buckshot for assembling small game loads, using the buckshot straight out of the bag as-is. If all you have is 00, run it through a .311"-.313" sizer die first.
A dip measure fashioned from a .22 Long Rifle fired case throws about 2.8 grains of Unique, 3 grains of Bullseye, 3.2 grains of 231, Hodgdon Universal, or HP38, or 4 grains of TiteGroup or WSL. This represents about the minimum powder charge which reliably expels a buckshot reliably from a rifle barrel in larger cases such as the .303 British, 7.62 NATO, 7.62x54R, .30-'06 and 8mm Mauser. It makes a quiet and effective, good short range small game load for use within 25 yards. The same charge can be used safely in small rifle cases such as the 7.62x39, and .30-30, but will be a bit louder. You can safely substitute soft lead .32 pistol or revolver bullets of 100 grains or less, but with heavier bullets, you may "stick" one in the bore!
To load buckshot simply, decap your fired cases with an icepick. Reprime by placing a fresh primer open face up on a clean, flat steel plate, centering the primer pocket over the primer, GENTLY tapping the primer in by inserting a 1/4", non-sparking brass rod through the case neck until it rests against the inside solid web of the case head, urging the primer into its pocket with a few light taps of a plastic hammer, until the primer is flush with the case head.
Use needle-nosed pliers to gently reshape any dents in the case mouth, until it is round. Use a countersink turned with the fingers to gently inside deburr the inside wire edge of the case mouth. Solder an empty .22 LR case onto a bent copper wire to serve as a powder measure. Measure powder charges by pouring about 1/2 of a baby food jar of powder at a time into a small jar, filling the dip measure by pushing it down into the powder and letting the powder flow into the measure of its own weight, by gravity only. Slowly raise the measure up over the mouth of the jar, then strike the powder level across the top of the measure with a pen knife, razor blade or card. Then carefully pour the measured powder charge into your primed case. Start the sized buckshot into the case mouth with your thumb.
If necessary, place the case head against a block of wood and gently tap the buckshot flush with the case mouth using your plastic hammer. Smear any available fat, grease, wax or tallow over the ball to fill the gap between the case mouth and the radius of the seated ball. This lubricates the bullet. Also smear a thin film around and over the primer to waterproof the cartridge.
If your rifle is sighted in for full charge hunting or military ammunition, try the buckshot load using the same sight setting at 50 feet. If you can hit a bottle cap at 50 feet with that sight setting, you are done. If any sight adjustment is needed, raise the rear sight a notch and try again. Realistic iron sight accuracy with typical milsurp rifles is a bottle cap at 50 feet or a Vienna Sausage can at 25 yards. Scoped hunting and dedicated sniper rifles will do much better! Any of my scoped Mosin-Nagants are good enough for silent 100 yard head shots, 3-inch five-shot groups or better, with either buckshot or cast lead .32 ACP bullets with nearly silent Cat Sneeze loads , using 500 yd. sight dope for full charge jacketed loads.
While the Lyman 310 tool is traditional, recommended for modern users, is the Lee hand Press: http://www.cabelas.com/presses-dies-lee-hand-press-reloading-kit-3.shtml See also: http://www.ehow.com/how_7622520_use-lee-hand-press.html You-Tube demo here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IoNCtFHwU The Lee hand press uses standard 7/8-14 threaded dies and common shell holders, so that you can use dies which you may already have. It has ample leverage to full-length resize pistol cases and smaller rifle cases. The 9mm, .45 ACP, .357, 5.56mm or 7.62x39 brass size relatively easily. While .30-'06 brass fired from an M1 can be resized on it, doing so takes significantly more effort. However, the Lee hand press is an affordable starter-outfit, well designed for its task. A complete portable kit with dies, primers, powder, bullets, small loading block, etc., stores in a .30 cal. ammo can, or WWII GI gas mask bag, thrown over the shoulder or attached with a snap-link onto your wilderness ruck.
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - Steve - 16 February 2016
I think it's worth mentioning that reduced power rifle loads can have dangerous pressure spikes - not what you'd expect from a reduced load but a fact nonetheless. Many people have blown up rifles with reduced power loads, which is why the reloading manuals state minimum as well as maximum charge weights.
Personally, I would rather use black powder than use unknown scavenged smokeless powder.
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - Midnitemo - 16 February 2016
I agree , would have to be a last resort to use scavenged powder , am a big fan of IMR's Trail Boss propellant , all my reloadable cartridges have a tried and tested and recomended combination using it , .308/.223 and 38/.357 it's the perfect powder for me and I've just discovered you can buy it in 5lb tubs at a fair discount , tis a very bulky powder so no need for fillers or packing with light charges and very little chance of double charging because of the bulk...perfect all rounder for my stores.
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - Steve - 16 February 2016
Trailboss is about as foolproof as you can get - simply measure the volume in the case after the bullet is seated and use that much volume of trailboss as your maximum load. If you want less power, you can go down to 70% of maximum.
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - CharlesHarris - 17 February 2016
The fast burning pistol and shotgun powders mentioned are trouble free in reduced loads.
Military rifle powders recovered from full charge service loads, as also described, are problematic if the charge occupies less than 2/3 of the case capacity, but if that requirement is met, there is no problem.
The dangerous pressure spikes occur when you reduce heavily coated powders in very light charges nwhich occupy less than 1/2 of the case capacity, in which case the charge lies out in the bottom of the case and a greater surface area is exposed to the primer blast.
If you follow the instructions in the article you won't get into any trouble.
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - Mortblanc - 28 October 2017
Bumping a thread due to the fact that the weather is crap and I am bore to the point of reviewing old SUK threads, which is truly boring except for this firearms section which has some real gems if read closely.
The famous "pressure spike" is an anomaly which rarely occurs and is usually instigated by the condition CH has pointed out, a case containing less than 1/2 its total capacity.
The reason for the "pressure spike" is that if there is less than 1/2 the case filled the powder can string out of the bottom of the case and when the primer fires the entire charge of powder detonates instantly.
Powers are intended to burn from back to front of the charge and even though the ignition of a cartridge seems instantaneous there is a controlled and progressive burn from end to end of the charge.
One cartridge that is famous for this type behavior is the .38 special when hand loaded with fast burning pistol powder, specifically the brand labeled Bullseye. If the charge of Bullseye is reduced to below 2.5 grains it no longer fills the .38 spl case sufficiently and there is the potential for pressure spikes.
Reports of .38 caliber and .357 caliber pistols blowing up while using these reduced charge target loads became so common that the powder and firearm companies did some thorough testing and discovered that they actually could duplicate this event about once in every 100,000 shots. Thing was that so many million of the rounds were being fired in competition and practice that it was more frequent than was acceptable.
The recommendation became never dropping below the 2.5 grain threshold when shooting Bullseye, and if loading squib loads in rifles using pistol powder, to use a filler to keep the powder against the primer. Polyfill or even a quarter sheet of bog roll crumpled and stuffed against the charge will work.
So rule of thumb is to make sure the case is half full. You will have few if any real problems.
So using a charge pulled from a 7.62x39 in a .303 lee rifle should be no problem. You would probably still maintain a good potential for accuracy.
In addition I have purchased a bolt action rifle in 7.62x39 recently. One of my main objectives in this purchase was to ascertain the actual accuracy of the 7.62 surplus ammo now on the market.
I had been using a variety of surplus Russian, Bulgarioan, Polish and Serbian ammo for several years in my SKS and AK rifles but I never really believed I was getting the full potential of the ammo from those mass produced military platforms.
In short, I was not sure if any accuracy problems were caused by the rifle or caused by the ammo.
The AK has a horrible reputation for accuracy potential. The SKS is a little better, but neither are famous as target rifles. I had already dispelled some of the rumors if only in my own mind by mounting good scopes on both platforms and obtaining shot groups of less tan 2" @100m from both platforms as being normal and shooting a couple of 1 1/2" groups with my AK.
At that point I realized that most of the people reporting the bad groups from their rifles were either:
1. Not using the sights furnished with the rifles.
2. Not using scopes on the rifles furnished with scope mounts.
3. Really bad shots!
As soon as I could get a scope mounted on my new rifle, a Ruger American Ranch Rifle, I headed for the range with an assortment of ammo. I had 4 types of surplus ammo and a box of Privi Partisan soft point produced for the commercial market by the Serbians.
Within an hour I had a half dozen tiny groups sprinkled around the aim points on the paper.
The surplus ammo was consistently providing 1 1/4" groups and one batch of Russian made "spam can" ammo with no brand name and only lot numbers on the box offered a group of less than 1"@100m.
I was amazed, and overjoyed! This cheap surplus ammo was superb even though being turned out by the millions of rounds and some of it being left from the mid-1970s. The only reason anyone equipped with an AK misses their target in combat is because they fail to aim!
Then came the disappointment.
Neither the PP Serbian commercial soft point or the box of Federal commercial ammo I would expect to use as hunting ammo offered the same performance as any of the surplus rounds. The PP ammo gave only a 6" group strung vertically and the Federal was all over the target with an 8" cluster which I would not call a group.
Come to think about it, I may be pulling some bullets and swapping soft point slugs for FMJ before hunting season arrives!
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - CharlesHarris - 28 October 2017
The cause of the Bullseye Blowups was thoroughly investigated by the NRA and by Hercules Powder Co. at the time, and the only way the results could be duplicated was with a combination of multiple powder charges and increased seating depth, caused by mis-operation of progressive loading machines. I will try to attach an article which goes into detail on this, but am not sure how successful that may be...
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - CharlesHarris - 29 October 2017
The thumbnails are readable if you click on them to enlarge for viewing.
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - Mortblanc - 29 October 2017
I find part of their discovery troubling.
If they only had cylinders blow during trials when they suspected a crack between cylinders then what caused the crack?
Those cases with 5-10 charges and a bullet on top were troubling too. I can not imagine that happening to any reloader with an IQ higher than his age! I suppose that anything is possible.
The studies I read were many years prior to this report, made before even I had begun reloading and I discovered them early in my studies. My first powder purchase had been Bullseye and I have to admit that it was my last purchase of that powder type. I still prefer a powder that will overflow the case if double charged whenever possible, but that is not always possible due to powder density and the size of the case.
My second can of powder was the Unique label, simply due to the bulk and safety margin of the slightly slower burning powder. There is no way to know how many cans of Unique I have burned over the years. I used it contentedly for several decades for all my .38/9mm/45 reloads and all my shotgun reloading until the recent shortage of components over here caught me with a limited supply.
I was forced to purchase a large amount of the powder Spain uses for loading their NATO spec 9mm rounds and it has given me good performance in all the pistol rounds I have reloaded using it. I have reloaded everything from 7.65acp pistol up to .44 magnum with good results, although the large .44 cases need a slower powder. I have also used it in 12 gauge shotgun loads to good effect.
As soon as the products were once again available I stocked up on my favorites as well as purchasing some new offerings that seem to better suit my rifle shooting needs.
RE: Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style - Straight Shooter - 29 October 2017
I wonder what powder Keith uses ? i would think he could well make his own .....as can many with guns ...or is this only possible for single bore black powder type weapons.