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Old August 22, 2007, 11:11 PM   #1
Wildalaska
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Join Date: November 25, 2002
Location: In my own little weird world in Anchorage, Alaska
Posts: 14,172
The 7.62 nagant reloading project Pt 1

With kudos to this:

http://www.realguns.com/archives/130.htm

and info (now sadly gone) from Gunboards, WA decides to reload some of the hundreds of once fired Fiocchi Brass he has....

RCBS dies....$118 for a set?..costs more than the gun...I'll just buy the shellholder for $18!!!!

Dies....I'll use 30 Carbine. Now keep in mind this is trial and error so far and ignores the constant dies switching you must do during load workups..

Step 1. Lube the hell out of cases with Hornady One Shot.

2. Insert generic decapper from Universal decap die into 30 carbine sizer dies, spray inside of sizer with One Shot. Size and decap. Get set for stuck cases cuz the rim is like .012 or some tiny number.

3. Insert expander into a generic holder, gently flare mouth just enough that a bullet (85 grain XTP) will sit there, but not go in.

4. Gently chamfer case inside...I mean one tiny itty bitty twist. Make sure OAL is appropriate (and I will give final figures when I am sure I've got it down pat)

5. Prime. When priming, keep in mind that tiny rim. If you dont HOLD the case EVENLY into the shell holder the case will pop out the the shell holder and be ruined. You got to hang on to the case and insert primer gently. I use the RCBS tool.

6. Charge case. Easiest step.

7. Insert custom made seater stem into seating/crimping die. Adjust die so that bullet is seated INSIDE of case without crimping. The nose of the XTP should be sitting at a depth of .15-20 from the mouth, which puts the base right near the cannelure.

8. Remove decap stem from sizer. Lube cases again carefully. Make sure bullet is fully forward in case (they sometimes drop a little) by giving case a quick whip with hand, again the bullet nose should be sitting at the depth noted above. Then insert case into sizeing die and size until you feel a little resistence, pull case out and see if bullet rattles...if so, just size a little more until bullet is firmly fixed. Ya got to be gentle, I pulled about 3 rims off until I got the style down and having a loaded round stuck in your sizing die sucks!

9. Remove stem from seater. Adjust crimper so that the case above the bullet is crimped....the crimped area should be about .260 long and the diameter should be .308 +/-...as the case body is like .330 you willl have an area of reduced diameter from the case mouth down around 1/4 inch of the body...you will see that little bullet peeeking up at you when you look down the case..If you look at the article my crimp looks a bit like the factory one, just not as radical. The actual Russian crimp was the longer taper crimp

10. Gently chamfer outside of case mouth...gently.

The case mouth reduction is to ensure that the case enters the forcing enabling the gas seal. OAL is critical, I think the one given in the article above is a bit to generous in light of the fact that his crimp is more of a long taper crimp while mine is more factory style. As soon as I am done messing around, I will give figures. The other thing that is critical is case mouth diameter..it has to be right at .308 or even a little smaller.

So far I havent chronyed or even run that many loads, I mostly focusing on mechanics. I looked at the above article plus data for the .32 H&R magnum and 32 S&W. *WARNING ANY LOAD FOR THE NAGANT REVOLVER IS EXTRAPOLATED DATA AND YOU MUST WORK UP LOADS CAREFULLY IN YOUR OWN PISTOL*

...and you should note that pressure signs in YOUR revolver may differ than the ones I see in mine as these revolvers are NOT what you would call precision...

And with that in mind 5.0 grains of Blue Dot functioned perfectly and dropped out of the cylinders with a tap of the finger. 5.5 grains of Blue Dot, 3 dropped out with the finger pop (tap the mouth of the case which protrudes above the cylinder face) while 2 had to be hammered out with the ejector rod. However, in light of the fact that I have had that happen in some chambers with Fiocchi factory stuff, that could be the roughness of the chamber (and we arent talking consistent precision chambers here). I am going to run a few more 5.0 Blue Dot loads and 5.5 and chrony them, the goal being to get a load with a bit more oomph thatn the factory stuff yet still allow me 3 or more loads from a case. With about 500 empties I can keep these babies shooting a while and not need to keep burnin all my Fiochi

I also need to ensure that the load shoots to POA and is accurate, obviously. Havent done those tests yet. Fiocchi shoots a 98 grainer but all I can get here in a clad bullet is 85 grains..if anybody wants to be my friend and send me some spare 32 cal 100gr XTPs or even some of the rainier 100 gr clads

I note that the max BD load for 32 mag is 6.6 grains so I am well below that. I have some Herco and will try that and Bullseye, even though using Bullseye in an extrapolation load makes me nervous. Maybe I will trade trade the Bullsey off for unique.

So anyway, hope its been informative, will keep ya posted.

WildibetthereisacossackinthewoodpileAlaska TM
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