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Assorted brass picked up from different ranges.

Range brass – any good for reloading?

Geoff Leave a comment

Picking up brass from the range is seen by some to be scavenging, and by others to be a useful service to all range users. But at the end of the day, should you be putting range brass through your rifles?

When you sling a couple hundred rounds down range, chances are you won’t be able to recover all of your brass, especially if you’re shooting a semi-auto rifle. After a shoot we all (hopefully) like to clean up our casings, even if they’re not reloadable. We also pick up our targets and other rubbish because we like to keep the range in good condition for all users – and we like to find it that way too.

However, while you’re cleaning up and finding (most) of your brass, you come along some shell casings left by other range users. Do you take them? Sure, why not? Picking these up leaves the range cleaner than you found it and probably makes up for some of the brass that you’ve lost. You could recycle it, beef up your collection of weird and wonderful casings, or you could even reload it. But should you?

Reloading casings of unknown origin

When you’re reloading to achieve optimum accuracy, the answer is: No. As mentioned in a previous article, hand loads designed for match performance eliminate as many variables as possible. When you pick up random brass you have no idea how many times it’s been fired, whether it was a factory round or reloaded and what kind of pressures it’s been subjected to.

All of this has a large bearing on tempering and forming of the metal, which ultimately won’t be consistent with any of your own carefully prepared cases. If you’re controlling your shooting and keep brass sorted as unfired, once-fired, twice-fired and so on, why would you introduce a complete unknown into the mix?

Although, we all like to let loose and destroy things from time to time. Not every trip to the range is about absolute accuracy. Sometimes you just want to put big holes in things. Other times you could be introducing your friends to shooting. These are occasions that don’t warrant using your pet loads and favourite materials. In my opinion, range brass is perfect for this.

Preparing range brass

When it comes to using unknown brass you’ve got to be more careful than usual – but saving your good brass makes this extra effort worthwhile. I don’t think tumbling is a necessary step in reloading, but when it comes to cases picked up off the range, I think it’s a great idea.

Running your new found cases through a tumbler will remove any unknown dirt or residue that may be lurking around. You should also make sure you clean the primer pocket, trim the case to length and debur/chamfer the inside and outside of the case mouth if necessary.

Remember that these cases may have been fired 6 or 7 times before you ever got your grubby mitts on them, so they could only have one or two shots left in them. But again, remember that you’re saving your good stuff for competition days and hunting trips – when accuracy is really important.

In the meantime, keep your range tidy and your ammo box stocked by cleaning up after yourself and your fellow range users. Just don’t take someone’s brass if they haven’t left yet – chances are they want that when they’re done!

Match quality rounds reloaded for half the price of factory ammo.

How to save money on reloading

Geoff 3 Comments

Reloading not only allows us to create accurate rounds tailored to specific rifles, but also helps to keep down the cost of shooting. Components can be costly in New Zealand, especially powder which accrues charges for dangerous-goods handling.

The cost of reloading of in New Zealand can be high compared to buying components in the States, and unfortunately a lot of this does come down to those handling charges. Whether it’s the shipping, handling and import charges on bullets and brass or the explosives handling fees on powders and primers, there’s always something that makes it more costly to assemble your own ammunition at this end of the world.

Fortunately there are a couple ways to reduce the cost of hand loading your own ammo. Here are two that I recommend.

1. Shopping around

There are numerous gun stores in Auckland and the rest of New Zealand that sell reloading components. There may only be a few major ones, but there are also plenty of local shops that stock what you need.

In order to find the most cost-effective way to produce match-accuracy rounds I put together a spread sheet comparing the cost of the primers, brass, powder and projectiles at around eight different stores. By comparing prices around the country I managed to shave off more than 50 cents a round. That’s $50 per hundred rounds. Not bad.

When shopping around, don’t forget to account for courier fees. For example, when purchasing some Sierra projectiles I found that the cheapest store in the country was around $10 cheaper than my nearest gun store. Given the $4.50 courier charge and the time it would have taken to reach me, I opted to go the slightly more expensive route.

2. Economise where possible…

…without sacrificing quality. In some areas you may wish to spend a tiny bit more. For example, Federal Large Rifle Match primers cost me less than a dollar more per 100 than less consistent primers. That’s an area where I don’t mind spending a tiny bit more.

When it comes to economising, not everyone can afford to buy vast quantities of powder at a time. However, you can increase your powder economy by 10 per cent very easily.

ADI Powders are manufactured in Australia, and as a lot of shooters know, many Hodgon powders are produced at the ADI plant. In fact, ADI provides a handy sheet that lets you find the Hodgon equivalents of their powders. There is also info for other manufacturers as well.

The reason this is such a bonus for New Zealand reloaders is that not only can you support a company that is kind of local (across the ditch is better than across the world), but if you buy their 500 gram containers, you’ll be getting 10 per cent more than an American manufactured equivalent 1lb which is 454 grams. Usually at the same price too.

There are always ways to make your reloading cheaper, hope these two help!

 

Various live rounds.

Bringing ammunition into NZ

Geoff 38 Comments

Over the Christmas break I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the USA with my wife to visit family and friends. Of course the States is a Mecca for gun owners, and I did a fair bit of shooting while I was there. I also managed to bring back some ammunition and other shooting equipment from my trip. I thought I’d provide the details of bringing ammo back from the USA to NZ, as information was sparse when I was looking into the process.

Inform your carrier

I’m putting this here because it’s the first thing you should do. Give your travel agent or the airline plenty of notice (aim for 2 weeks minimum) that you will be carrying ammunition and/or firearms in your checked luggage on the way back. You don’t want them to reject your luggage when you’re coming back home, leading to a massive waste of money.

The only real restriction in how much ammo you can bring back is what the airline says. For me, flying Air NZ, it was 5 kg per person. Between my wife and I, we brought back just shy of 10 kg of live rounds. They stipulate “sporting rounds”. I guess that means don’t bring mortar shells in or something, as every military calibre I’m aware of has sporting applications.

They also stipulated it should be in its original packaging. No problem there.

Funnily enough, after declaring to the carrier that I would be bringing ammo (and possibly a firearm) back into NZ, I underwent a “random” search when leaving Auckland for San Francisco. Just a quick swap to see if I was covered in explosives or anything – no big deal. I’m assured it was random. I think not – but who cares?

Purchasing your ammo

When you’re buying ammunition online, a lot of companies won’t sell to you if you have a USEever A delivery address and a NZ billing address. You may need to get family over there to purchase for you ahead of time (so it’s delivered by the time you get there), or you’ll have to go into a gun store.

As an aside, not being a US resident makes it very hard to obtain a firearm. There are also wait periods in a lot of states from the time of purchase to the time you can take possession of the weapon. If you’re wanting to get a rifle over there, a lot of planning is needed. You also need to make sure it’s on the approved list provided by the NZ Police, and there is an import permit involved as well. However, back to the ammo…

Leaving the country with ammunition

My experience was flying out of California (San Francisco) in the States, depending where you go, there could be a vast difference. I had no problem leaving the country with ammo. Nothing to report, my carrier already knew and no hold ups here.

Arriving in New Zealand

There is no import permit required for sporting ammunition. Some people will tell you differently, but there really isn’t. I spoke to arms officers, the police, airport police, Air NZ and airport staff before even leaving for the USA. Not everyone says the same thing, but according to the arms officer, police and my experience, no import permit is needed for live rounds. Heck, customs didn’t even check my firearms licence.

When going through customs I technically had nothing to declare. I didn’t think the ammo needed declaring, and I had nothing else that would get in the way of a completely legal reentry. However, I declared the ammunition anyway.

I did this just to avoid any hassle. i didn’t want to be pulled up or anything, so I volunteered the information. The customs officer searching our bags said they had no problem with ammunition, and they don’t even care how much (again, just the airline limit), but it’s firearms parts they’re concerned with.

I also brought in a scope (my wife’s Christmas present from me) and some reloading gear (my Christmas present from my wife’s grandmother) with no issues at all. Customs did mention the reloading gear, but I guess their concern was whether or not it was used or had any foreign matter in it.

They had more of an issue with the hair product in my wife’s bag than any of the firearms paraphernalia that we brought in.

I hope this clears it all up – it’s actually very easy! Any questions? Post a comment below.

PPU brass and Federal Large Rifle Match primers.

Accuracy in reloading

Geoff 3 Comments

Just how important is accuracy in reloading? Well, it depends how accurate you want your rounds to be. The key to achieving consistently good rounds is removing every source of variance possible – you are going for repeatability. In other words, to get your bullets in the same hole every time, you need to make sure that all  the variables that go into making them are as controlled as possible.

Match vs. Plinking ammo

If you’re reloading ammo to burn at the range, you can afford to take a “set and forget” approach to your reloading. Once you have your powder trickler set to the right volume, you should be getting fairly consistent charges. You’ll also only need to measure your COAL a few times to ensure that the rest will be coming out the same. This is good enough for general ammo production, and will be as good or better than factory ammo at a third of the cost (depending on your components, etc.).

However, for match ammunition or for working up a load for a new rifle, a lot more precision is required. I tend to weigh every charge on a scale before seating the projectile. Every round is exact. If it’s not, I pour another charge and start again. Because the powder trickler goes off volume and the scale goes off weight, some standard deviation is to be expected.

Resized case in shellholder.
Match performance is the result of repeatable procedures.

I also measure the COAL of every single round. Not because my settings have changed, but because slight variations in even the most expensive bullets do happen. Those that aren’t exactly the same get pulled or used for target practice. Why be so pedantic? Because we’re eliminating every possible variation to make sure our ammo production is as uniform as possible from round to round.

I know of people that do this to the extreme. The weigh every bullet they use. They have a log for every casing, rejecting ones that produce inferior accuracy due to differences in metal hardening or other aspects that are beyond the average reloader’s comprehension. This is for the accuracy fanatics. And more power to them, but I enjoy a fine level of accuracy for the amount of effort I put in. It’s each to his/her own. If I had to be as pedantic about my reloading, I probably wouldn’t enjoy the actual shooting as much. But everyone is different, and for some of the shooting fraternity, ultimate accuracy is the ultimate goal.

A proper work space

Whether you’re reloading for 3-gun, varminting or 1000 yard shots, one thing’s always necessary; a properly prepared working area. A space that is free from clutter, mess and distraction is essential.

Before I learnt this lesson, I’ll admit I knocked over a few cases full of powder and so on. Everything should have its place in a reloading station. A good example of how much your work area affects your ammunition production is a mistake I made a few days ago…

Working up a load I was preparing six rounds at 1-grain intervals to take to the range. With six different charges, that’s a total of only 36 rounds, but there’s a lot of finicky business around getting the charge weights right every time. About half way through I move my scale from one bench to another to make room for something. Once settled on the other bench, the charge come up at a different weight.

Now this wouldn’t be a problem if I was using a digital scale, I would be able to hit TARE and know I was working with a clean slate. However, with my mechanical scale, things aren’t quite so simple. The difference in weight readings was because my bench was on a lean… Something had got under one of the legs and was causing the weight on one side of the scale to dip down. The difference was about 1.2 grains. Yup, I just painstakingly produced about 18 rounds that were completely useless because I had no idea what the actual charge was.

Not the worst set back in the world, but a good lesson to learn – always prepare your space thoroughly before starting your reloading procedures.

Hand loaded 6.5x55 rounds. Featuring PPU brass and 142gr Sierra Matchkingds.

Check your reloading data. Then check again.

Geoff 1 Comment

Reloaders are a unique bunch. They represent the line that divides casual shooters and members of the shooting community. Anyone that does any great volume of shooting will reload. So will people interested in achieving the ultimate in accuracy for their particular firearm. Reloading is a unique skill that takes a while to learn, and there are lessons for those who are new to the game. The first one is – check your data.

Check your data before you purchase your components

If you’ve just bought your first reloading kit, dies, shell holders, etc, etc, you want to cracking into producing some highly accurate, super cheap rounds. Hold on. Before you run to your local gun store to buy the cheapest (or most expensive) projectile for your rifle, do some research.

The internet is a vast resource for reloaders. There are plenty of forums that are overflowing with useful data and personal reloading recipes. You’ll also find that most manufacturers will have some load data on their website, or will provide you some by email. This is an authoritative source of information that you can trust.

So, start your search with the forums. Find out what people are using in your particular type of firearm. Certain models, barrels and magazines will have preferences for different weights, seating depths and powders. Once you’ve got a general feel for what would suit your purposes (cheap as chips for plinking, best round for accuracy, great wounding for hunting, etc.), narrow it down to one bullet to start with.

If you’d like some good info on what kind of round is good for your rifle, check out the Knowledge Base at Nathan Foster’s Terminal Ballistics research website.

Check your data when you buy your components

Another great resource is your local gun shop owner or gunsmith. On my last trip the gun store I learned something about conflicting data that I had. I went in to purchase reloading components for my Husqvarna M38 Swedish Mauser. I was armed with reloading data from Sierra (I was purchasing 142 gr Sierra HPBT Matchkings) and data from the powder manufacturer. However, I wasn’t sure on the figures as the powder manufacturer stated a starting load close to the maximum load recommended by Sierra. They also had different seating depths/COALs.

6.5x55 with a 32.6 gr charge and a 3.100" (78.75 mm) COAL.
6.5×55 with a 32.6 gr charge and a 3.100″ (78.75 mm) COAL.

My thought was that the powder manufacturer was trying to sell more powder at the expense of my brass and barrel, but in chatting to one of the sales guys at the local store, we quickly figured out that the powder manufacturer’s specifications were dangerously high for my rifle. The reason being, Sierra’s load was built up for a rifle of similar vintage to mine (the test rifle was Swedish Mauser M96), while the powder manufacturer’s data was figured off a brand new action with a custom built barrel. This made more sense as I realised the 0.050″ difference was to allow for the long throat of the Swede, while modern actions would be a bit tighter.

Whether these rifles were actually used to test these loads or it was done entirely withing a ballistics calculator and other software is unknown to me. Regardless, the same data for the same calibre and projectile came out completely different from two very authoritative sources. So, remember when reloading to always get as much information as possible at every step of the process.

And of course, reloading and shooting hand-loaded rounds comes with risk. Start at minimum loads and work your way up until optimum performance is achieved or pressure signs start to show. If your bolt is stiff on extraction or primers come out flattened or cratered, dial back on the powder a bit.

Corrosive ammo in SKS/AK47

Geoff 2 Comments

The SKS will outlive us all. There’s no question about it, Simonov created a carbine that will stand the test of time. Unfortunately – it just didn’t stand the test of the Soviet military. Well, not for long anyway, as its Kalashnikov cousin – the AK47 – soon took over. While its history is long and interesting, this post is concerned with the modern day application of the SKS with military surplus ammunition.

As much as the Soviets may have swiftly moved on to bigger and better (and more automatic) things, there are military forces all over the world that have made good use of the robust and reliable SKS. It’s been produced by Eastern Bloc countries and a host of Asian nations to the tune of around 15 million rifles, and has featured in many major armed conflicts. The rugged and forgiving construction of the rifle, ease of maintenance and affordability and abundance of ammunition means it will be around for a while longer with insurgent, rebel and militia factions all over the world. It’s also these three factors that keep it popular among sporting users such as hunters, plinkers and those prepping for the zombie apocalypse.

Benefits of milsurp ammo for the modern shooter

$$$ Military surplus ammunition is cheap and plentiful. If you live in the USA where importers bring in entire containers of disused Soviet arms to sell on to a willing public. Otherwise, it’s about as cheap as the cheapest commercial stuff.

Hungarian 7.62x39 from 1961 (copper wash) and 1971 (lacquer)
Hungarian 7.62×39 from 1961 (copper wash) and 1971 (lacquer)

Long shelf life If you’re storing ammo for “one day” the long shelf life of milsurp ammo probably gets you all excited. I’ve put some Hungarian ammo through my SKS that was head-stamped with 1961 and 1971 dates of manufacture. It went bang.

Steel casings This is a plus or minus, depending on how you look at it. If you’re after some cheap and cheerful time at the range, steel casings keep the cost of your ammo down (whether commercial or milsurp ammo) and also mean you don’t have to scour the range looking for your brass (which the SKS happily ejects in every direction known to man). Of course you’re a good range user who cleans up after themselves anyway, right?

Drawbacks of milsurp ammo for the modern shooter

It’s dirty But then again, if you’re looking at surplus ammunition, chances are the only other stuff you feed your SKS or AK is the cheapest factory fare, which is not much better.

It’s corrosive Well, no need to freak out about that one – we all know that military ammo in 7.62×39 is corrosive. So is 7.62x54R and a lot of 303 British too. Anything that’s been around as long as your father is probably corrosive.

However, all is not lost for the milsurp shooter on a budget. The chrome-lined bore of your rifle protects your barrel from nasty corrosive primer detritus. But the action, gas tube and magazine should still receive a thorough birthday after shooting corrosive ammo.

It’s FMJ Full metal jacket ammo is fine on the range, but it’s no good for hunting. It won’t create enough of a wound channel to quickly and humanely dispatch your game. Species commonly hunted with this round include small deer, goats, wild sheep and pigs. You don’t want an angry boar charging you down because you’ve put a pin hole through its lung. For those that keep spam cans of milsurp ammo next to their crate of SKS rifles ready to arm the family when the rebellion starts, FMJ isn’t your go-to either for the same reasons.

It’s tracer or steel core Tracer is sure fun to shoot, but the novelty wears off after you’ve emptied one or two mags. It’s also very hard to shoot because most ranges (quite reasonably) don’t want you to set their butts on fire. Same goes for forests or other hunting areas – not a good idea. Steel core again, is shunned by many ranges and also causes over-penetration on game and targets. If you’re buying milsurp ammo, try and avoid these two types of ammunition.

Conclusion

For hunting, plinking or “target shooting” with an SKS or AK-style rifle, milsurp ammo doesn’t offer many benefits that make the extra hassle worthwhile. I still have some lying around and will definitely let rip on a range trip if it’s just taking up room in my safe, but I wouldn’t go out to buy milsurp ammo specifically. If you look around and do some digging on the interwebs, chances are you can pick up some cheap commercially produced ammo for the same price as ex-military stuff. While it won’t be any more accurate or clean, it won’t get you in trouble at the range or rust out the gas tube on your rifle.

7.62x39 on stripper clips, ready for use in an AK47, NHM90 or SK
7.62×39 on stripper clips, ready for use in an AK47, NHM90 or SKS.