Pull Down Brown Bear 7.62x39

[agrace]

Morning everyone,

I had a question I hope folks can help with.  A few years ago I had some brown bear ammo that got water damage and got some surface rust with mild pitting. I didn't want to shoot it due to that so thought I would pull the bullets and powder and reuse them in a brass cartridge. When loading them into brass I used the minimum load of powder since I didn't know what powder I was working with and used the same bullet.  I feel like that should be fine but having some doubts now and thought I would check with you all.

Thanks agrace

And sorry I have not been around much. Just been crazy busy.

[Filroy77]

I pulled down some 9mm awhile back and weighed all the powder. Divided that by the number of cartridges and reloaded into new brass. They worked just fine and I had confidence that they would be fine. I did weigh the powder individually as well.

I can’t speak to powder that may have gotten wet. I guess you will find out. Beware of squibs. Noise cancelling ear muffs are not your friend in that scenario.

[Hodgie]

I would give them a shot but would probably load one at a time to start with. Would be good for a bolt action if you have one in x39.

[Rocketvapor]

I suggest a rough determination of case volume. 
There may be a significant difference between steel case and brass. 
The recommended method is water volume but powder volume will get you close (enough).
An example is the difference between 22 Nosler case and resized 6mm Hagar converted to 22 NOSGAR.
This is a brass to brass comparison but should show you how.

[agrace]

Thanks, I pulled a bullet from the brass reloaded and pulled a bullet from the steel. The powder in the brass(which I loaded to the minimum recommendation per the manual) is lower than the powder in the steel case. The steel case is to the neck of the case at least, the powder in the brass case doesn't quite make it to the neck.  I took a picture, but it is hard to tell the difference in that as they look about the same in the pic. But with the eye you can see the difference.

[Rocketvapor]

Most steel case rounds are loaded with a powder that allows near 100% fill (to base of projectile).
What powder is in the Brown Bear? 
Do we know? 
Check cases with the same powder for a volume check.

[agrace]

Most steel case rounds are loaded with a powder that allows near 100% fill (to base of projectile).
What powder is in the Brown Bear?  - I do not know the powder

Check cases with the same powder for a volume check.  -- Sorry I am being dense on this one, I can pull the bullets from several of the damaged brown bear and see where the powder is in there, if that is what you mean.

But basically, I pulled the lead and powder from the steel cased damaged ammo, put it in a cannister, got my Lyman book and looked up 125 grain fmj bullet and used the minimum powder specs in my powder measure and from that to loaded the pulled powder and the bullet into 20 brass cases I had ready. Thinking that if I used the minimum, I would be okay.  But got to second guessing myself which lead me here

[Rocketvapor]

If you weigh the powder from a few cases, say 28 grains of whatever it is,
you can't use data for a different powder. 
Hodgdon lists IMR 4198 at 22.6 to 24gr for a 125gr bullet in X39
and BL-C(2) at 30.0 to 31.5. 

[agrace]

Thank you, I think I understand what you are going for now, but maybe not, we will see.

I pulled 5 more of the steel cases and weighed each one of them, the powder went between 25.3 to 25.5.  So I then took that and poured it into the brass case.  Then took the pulled one and compared the powder levels in both as you showed in the picture. The steel and the brass look like the powder is just about to the same place in both. In that case, if I am following, and sorry I am a bit dense at times, I can just used the same powder in grains (25.5) or go a bit lower maybe (25.3) and use it in the brass cases? Or am I completely off base.

And thank you for your patience and help.

agrace

[Rocketvapor]

That sounds good. 

[cvasqu03]

Thank you, I think I understand what you are going for now, but maybe not, we will see.

I pulled 5 more of the steel cases and weighed each one of them, the powder went between 25.3 to 25.5.  So I think took that and poured it into the brass case.  Then took the pulled one and compared the powder levels in both as you showed in the picture. The steel and the brass look like the powder is just about to the same place in both. In that case, if I am following, and sorry I am a bit dense at times, I can just used the same powder in grains (25.5) or go a bit lower maybe (25.3) and use it in the brass cases? Or am I completely off base.

And thank you for your patience and help.

agrace

Agree with RV, this sounds better than your initial post.  Using the minimum general powder charge from a manual wouldn't help unless you knew for certain that the powder in the cases you pulled was both comparable to all other commercial brands and that it was undamaged from the moisture.  Since the powder is a complete unknown I wouldn't risk it. I did to this myself once on bullets from the same batch and much like Filroy77, I measured each powder charge as I collected the powder, then I averaged it out and used that as a load.  On all of them the bullet fired, and functioned the rifle and all were even more accurate than factory ammo (probably a side effect of precision reloading versus mass production).  Since I lost a little powder every time because I was using an inertial puller, I'm sure that average load was a bit lighter than the original (I actually ended up with enough to reload all but one case so I definitely lost some), but it was still pretty good ammo once I was done with it. 

The only thing that still concerns me is the moisture issue. Like Hodgie said, try loading a single one into the rifle first, see it it functions the action and keep an eye/ear out for squibs.  If that works, load two and check for doubling.  Once you've done that a couple of times, try running a full mag. 

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

[agrace]

Thanks for the help everyone. I appreciate it. I have shot some of them and they fired fine.  So I think the powder is okay. I don't have a bolt gun but can try one at a time in the sks. Which doesn't hurt my feelings as that is how I shoot most times I go to the range anyway. Again thank you all and I will let you know how it turns out.

[GuitarmanNick]

I have some Bulgarian 7.62x54R that was shooting patterns when fired from my M-44.

After pulling the bullets, weighing the powder from each case, dividing the total powder recovered by the number of cases and reusing it,... it produces excellent groups. Cases were brass and in good shape so they were also reused.

Powder charge averaged about 50 grains if I remember correctly. Before balancing the charges, they varied by as much as 10 grains from the lightest to the heaviest charge which equates to approximately 20% of the overall average charge.

As has been mentioned, case volume should be compared if not reusing the original cases.

It is doubtful there will be enough difference to create an unsafe condition.

[branflakes]

I agree guitar man.

If case thickness mattered, all my loading manuals would differentiate between which charge goes with which case.  Aluminum, brass, steel. 

Surplus ammunition is sealed right?  So powder should be safe. 

But I have seen in the 7x57 I've pulled, different powder.  Old old ammo.  Most were disk or frisbee shaped BUT there were a couple that had cylinder shaped powder.  You don't want to mix them. 

I doubt that x39 would have different powders though. Especially same batch so probably trivial info.

[cvasqu03]

I agree guitar man.

If case thickness mattered, all my loading manuals would differentiate between which charge goes with which case.  Aluminum, brass, steel. 

Surplus ammunition is sealed right?  So powder should be safe. 

But I have seen in the 7x57 I've pulled, different powder.  Old old ammo.  Most were disk or frisbee shaped BUT there were a couple that had cylinder shaped powder.  You don't want to mix them. 

I doubt that x39 would have different powders though. Especially same batch so probably trivial info.

Case thickness on reloadable cases would likely have minimal variances, but we're talking about re-using cases that were never designed to be reloaded.  It will "probably" still be negligible, but it's a small effort to check so there's no point in risking it.