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Old December 21, 2005, 04:22 PM   #1
Gewehr98
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A fix for reloading Sellier & Bellot rifle brass!

I've been sitting on a bunch of S&B .303 British and 8x57 Mauser brass, waiting to reload it. I've been waiting because every time I try to seat a new primer in the S&B brass, it sits very high unless I darned near crush the thing to go flush. Crushed primers or primers sitting above the case head aren't a real good thing, so I put the project on a back burner.

My package from Midway arrived today, and inside was an EJS Primer Pocket Uniformer. It's a handy hexagonal chunk of steel about 3" long, with two carbide cutters, one on each end, precisely set for large rifle and small rifle primer pockets. These cutters are SHARP, and the uniformer comes with two thick rubber caps to save one's hands when using the opposite end of the tool.

I grabbed a piece of deprimed and resized S&B 8x57 Mauser brass, and gave it a shot. All one has to do is turn the uniformer inside the primer pocket, applying pressure while turning, until the face of the uniformer tool bottoms out on the cartridge case head. That's it, you're done.

How'd it work? Perfectly! I've tried Winchester, Federal, CCI, and Remington large rifle primers in my S&B brass after I reamed the primer pockets, and they all sit nicely, just slightly below flush, much like the primers in my commercial brass.

Voila'!

Now I have to get busy, I have to amortize the $19.99 cost of the primer pocket uniformer by making lots of 8mm Mauser and .303 British ammo...
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Old December 21, 2005, 07:36 PM   #2
HSMITH
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Can you chuck it in your drill? I use RCBS uniformers in my drill and it takes 90% of the work out of doing it.
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Old December 21, 2005, 09:28 PM   #3
Gewehr98
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Not without either a large Jacobs chuck...

Or some sort of 1/2" hex deep socket adapter, because the uniformer measures exactly 0.500" across the flats.

I thought about chucking it up in a lathe, or drill press, or even cordless drill, but it removes so much metal with such little effort, I'll continue to use it by itself.

I just tried it on a batch of Lake City '01 7.62mm NATO brass, and it did a nice job cleaning out those primer pockets, too. Hmmm...
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Old December 22, 2005, 06:54 AM   #4
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Be careful. I've seen a lot of case head separations with S&B brass.
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Old December 22, 2005, 08:53 AM   #5
dfaugh
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Quote:
Be careful. I've seen a lot of case head separations with S&B brass.
Ditto..my buddy and I had about 100 S&B cases, and were getting signs of potential case head seperations after 3-4 mild loadings...

We didn't, however have the problems you've described with primer pockets so maybe they've changed their brass, this was a couple years ago...
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Old December 22, 2005, 03:10 PM   #6
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Do you know what they call S & B in Germany? - Sellerie und Blumenkohl (Celery and Cauliflower). OK, it's hard to compete on a market dominated by Zeiss & RWS. Anyway, give it a try.
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Old December 22, 2005, 04:27 PM   #7
Gewehr98
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I always watch for case separations.

I'm reloading .303 British, remember? Neck sizing dies for that round are a must, I've learned that very early on.

No case head separations, so far. My two stepsons are somewhat recoil sensitive, and each has a Turkish Mauser in 8x57, so I've been loading a 185gr cast gas check bullet on top of Alliant 2400 for them. Accuracy has been exceptional, and recoil for the 100-pound shooters is not an issue.

I will use my feeler probe in my S&B brass, though, just to make sure.
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Old December 22, 2005, 08:50 PM   #8
6mm4me
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S&B brass 7MM

I reloaded some in 7MM, primers went in ok, but I had to trim the brass alot to get it into spec's. Might want to check that issue.
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