Simplified Reloading - Partisan Style

[Mortblanc]

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!