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I am a licensed gunsmith, and
a collector (hoarder?) of military firearms. I am also a licensed
ammunition manufacturer and currently load or reload for over 60
rifle and pistol cartridges.
In regards to using
7.62X54R (Mosin-Nagant)
brass to make reloadable cases for the
8X56R (Steyr-Mannlicher
m95), it is an easy proposition. I have used
S&B
brass with good results, and the new Winchester brass promises
to be better (the S&B cases are thinner and will not withstand
much stretching before incipient or actual head separation).
I prefer to use once-fired cases for conversions since any gross
defect on the case will be manifested in the first firing.
Lee Precision
makes
8X56R dies for the same price as their other limited production
dies, so there is no need to spend a great deal of money.
The Lee set includes a shell holder and loading data that you will
have a hard time finding otherwise. In addition, the neck
expander on newer Lee sizing dies has a very substantial taper that
makes neck forming extremely simple.
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Annealing Description: |
| Annealing
of brass is accomplished by subjecting the material to various
temperatures and times. The effect of annealing is to reduce
or remove the residual stresses locked into the brass part that
were introduced during cold working of the metal as for example
during the drawing and forming phase of the tube stock.
Here are two common ways of annealing brass cases:
- Place an inch or so of water in a tray, stand the cartridge
case upright in the water. Heat the case's neck with a propane
torch, then quickly tip it over in the water for rapid cooling.
- Hold the lower half of the case in pliers while rotating
the case while over a propane flame, heating the neck area.
When the case reaches temperature, it is immediately dropped
into water.
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The brass should be neck annealed,
with the "color change" extending about halfway down the
case body. This is necessary to give the body enough malleability
to expand upon firing to the much larger chamber of the 8X56R.
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NOTE: |
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Do not
heat the case to a cherry red. Just heat the neck and watch
the "color line" run down the body.
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My preferred method is to hold
the case in a pair of pliers, heating the neck and rotating the
case until the desired level of annealing is reached, then drop
the case into a bucket of water. The water has nothing to
do with annealment, it simply cools the case before enough heat
travels down to the head to soften it. Soft case heads are
dangerous - your first indication after firing one (if you are
still living), is loose primer pockets .
Lube the inside of the case neck
with a cotton swab coated with case lube. I find
Lee's wax-based case
lube excellent, as it can be cut to any desired consistency
with water or rubbing alcohol and it does not affect your powder
or primers - you don't have to worry about cleaning every trace
of it out of the case. Put a bit of lube around the head end
of the case as well, although very little (if any) of the outside
of the case will contact the die. Run the case through the
sizing die, examine it for mouth splits, and lightly chamfer the
inside of the mouth. Wash the cases in a rubbing alcohol bath
and set aside to dry.
Bullets are the major problem
with the
8X56R.
They do not use a standard 8mm bullet, even though the cartridge
description has the "S" bore (.323") designator. The
8X56R
uses a .329" bullet that is not in standard production anywhere,
although there are a good number of custom bullet makers that can
provide you with .329" - .330" bullets. Accuracy with these
rifles using standard 8mm bullets is usually dismal.
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I have come up with two simple
solutions: |
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1) Buy a
Lee Sizing Kit
in .329" diameter. Lee's product # is 90934.
Buy the
Speer
.338" - 200 grain Spitzer Hot-Cor bullets. These
particular Speer bullets have a softer core and thinner jacket
than others I've tried. Using a liberal amount of case
sizing lube, simply size the bullet down in the die according
to die instructions. It takes a good press and some amount
of force. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, FORGET TO LUBE
EACH AND EVERY BULLET!! After sizing, wash the bullets
in a solvent that will remove all traces of lube. These
bullets generally come out at around .330" - .331"; don't worry,
it's close enough. Don't worry about the die, either -
it's designed to size jacketed bullets. |
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2) Buy a
Lee Sizing Kit
in .329" diameter. Lee's product # is 90934.
Cast your own or buy some 200 - 225 grain .338" bullets.
They need to be as pointed as possible and fairly hard - I use
8 parts wheel weights/2 parts Linotype. Lube them with
the Liquid Alox
that comes with the Lee Sizing Kit, following the instructions
enclosed. After they dry (read: the next day), size them
as per instructions. If you want to
gas-check the bullets, I find that I have better luck
with the .338" checks by seating them in another pass - not
while sizing the bullet. If you can get 8mm checks that
will fit on the heel of your bullet, they can be attached during
the sizing operation. I lube the bullets again after sizing
- it's up to you. |
Load the cartridges in the usual
fashion, using 48 grains of any 4350. Keep overall cartridge
length at 3.0" as the Steyr is very finicky about
OAL and bullet
type. Spitzers are important - the rifle will often completely
refuse to strip short rounds or blunt bullets from the magazine.
After fire forming the cases, it is of the utmost importance
that you resize the brass as little as possible. Back
off your sizing die so that it sizes only most of the neck - just
enough to hold the bullets in place firmly. These rifles headspace
on the cartridge rim and often have absolutely HUGE chambers.
Full-length resizing every time is guaranteed to cause head separations
in only 3-4 loadings at most. Cases made from the
7.62X54R are a little bit shorter than the 8X56R brass,
but since the cartridge headspaces on the rim and has no identifiable
shoulder, this is of no consequence.
New brass is available from Bertram in Australia. I know that
Midway USA carries it; I think that the
Old Western Scrounger also has it. It's excellent
brass, it's just expensive as hell. The same precautions about
resizing fired cases apply to the Bertram brass as well - or maybe
more so, considering its expense.
The following load data is completely safe in my 95, which has a
slightly dark but strong bore. I have not chronographed it,
as my Chrony took a hit from shrapnel peeled from a bullet by a
ported barrel. I really need to get it fixed.
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Load Recipes: |
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1)
Speer 200 Hot-Cor Spitzer, resized to .330", 50.0 grains
of any 4350, Winchester LR primer. |
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2) Cast gas-checked 225 resized to .330", 45.0 grains of
any 4350, Winchester LR primer. |
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3) Cast gas-checked 225 resized to .330", 56.0 grains (or
as much as you can get in the case and still seat the bullet)
of Accurate 8700, Winchester LR primer. This is a very
low-pressure loading and is great for the cast bullets. |
I can write a book on modifying
stuff to allow you to trim the Bertram brass ( I doubt that the
S&B or Winchester will ever grow enough to need trimming), modifying
dies, etc. - I do it all the time to allow me to reload obsolete
ammo for people so that they can enjoy their old guns.
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