6.5G + 300BLK + 7.62x39 = win win

[alligator]

Why not win win win, well, one of them gets dissected.

Edit: I am not a professional reloader or a manufacturer of ammo nor do I have expensive testing equipment. I am just a hobbyist that wanted to tinker and I like to think I am smart enough not to blow myself up. If you do any of this stuff, do it at your own risk. BE CAREFUL. Think about what you are doing before you do it. If you think it might be dangerous, STOP.

I started shooting and reloading 6.5G not too long ago. The only brass I have is from factory Hornady 123SSTs that I shot first. Brand new brass is too much, I would rather buy complete Hornady rounds and shoot it and get the brass. I have read about converting 7.62x39 brass to Grendel brass. Not wanting to buy $24/box Hornady ZMax x39 I waited on them.

Last weekend at a gun show I bought what I thought was brass 7.62x39 Golden Bear. Guy had 5 boxes and sold them to me for $6 per box. I was planning on re-sizing the primed cases and using them that way. When I got home and opened a box to pull I found out they were brass washed steel cases. I do not have a 7.62x39 gun. I figured I could not re-size them or fire them thinking they would crack. I went to Google. I found a thread from a few years ago where a guy successfully reloaded some steel cases. So I pulled a few bullets and got to work. They re-sized easily. Easier than I thought they would. I trimmed them a few thousandths off of them to square them up.

I am planning on using the 6.5G for hunting this year. Most of the places I hunt are swampy or have a lot of tall grass or both. Not a good place to search for fired brass. So I figured I would use the brass steel cases for throw away cases for hunting if they were fairly accurate. I started low and worked up for 100gr Nosler hunting and 129gr Hornady SSTs. These will be perfect for throwaway cases.

Here is where the win win comes in. I pulled 40 rounds. I made Grendel cases with the brass steel cases. I saved the powder and projectiles (123 gr hollow points). I also shoot and load 300BLK. I read about guys firing thousands of .310 bullets in the 300BLK without sizing down to .308. I worked up a load using the pulled powder and projectiles (measured .310). I use a Palmetto hammer forged heavy chrome lined FN 300 barrel. I am not really worried about the extra .002 even with the steel projectiles. Sure I might wear my barrel out 1000 rounds early if I ever even shoot it out. Ill buy a new one if I do. I have loaded a few hundred Hornady 150gr FMJ 300s. The projectiles are $26/100. H110 I have was $30/pound when I bought it. Primers were $38/1000. That is roughly $37/100 loaded rounds. Still cheaper than factory ammo and excellent quality at that.

So the way I see it for $30 and some loading time I can make 100 throw away Grendel cases and 100 300BLK rounds with left over powder. Cheaper=win to me.

So how was the accuracy of the throwaway cases? I shot them at 100 yards off of a bipod and no rear bag just to confirm zero. Firing 3 rounds in approx 10-15 seconds got me an approx. 1.25in group. Good enough for deer and pig this weekend coming up. My farthest shot will be 100yards or less. I did not shoot for accuracy today using the 300s. I did not have the time. All the fired steel cases looked good except 1. It had a small crack on the top of the shoulder/bottom of the neck. That happened on one of the smaller work up loads.

I know, this thread is worthless without pics. Sorry, I did not take any. I will try to take some tomorrow. I dont have any of the fired cases. I used them as designed.

For the TL;DR people. I purchased 100rounds of x39 ammo for $30. I can make 100 300BLK rounds with the projectiles and powder and have 100 primed throwaway Grendel cases.

[bwaites]

Nicely done!

[VASCAR2]

Good to see you were thinking out of the box, thanks for posting. I have contemplated pulling a few bullets from the Wolf steel cased 6.5 Grendel ammo and replacing the 100 grain FMJ with 100 grain Sierra 100 grain Varmint HP or Nolser 100 grain BT. I was going to use the original powder with the new bullets, I think it would be interesting to compare accuracy between the 100 grain FMJ and Nosler BT. I also wanted to load the 100 grain pulled bullets from the Wolf into brass cases with CCI 450 primers and about 29 grains of H-335. Just curious if these bullets would still be 2-3 MOA?

[LRRPF52]

Sounds like you have trilateral economies of scale with these three calibers. What do you do to mark your magazines for differentiation?

Could you also post some pics of the 7.62x39 powder, and measure the charge weights?

[bwaites]

Good to see you were thinking out of the box, thanks for posting. I have contemplated pulling a few bullets from the Wolf steel cased 6.5 Grendel ammo and replacing the 100 grain FMJ with 100 grain Sierra 100 grain Varmint HP or Nolser 100 grain BT. I was going to use the original powder with the new bullets, I think it would be interesting to compare accuracy between the 100 grain FMJ and Nosler BT. I also wanted to load the 100 grain pulled bullets from the Wolf into brass cases with CCI 450 primers and about 29 grains of H-335. Just curious if these bullets would still be 2-3 MOA?

LR1955 did that with Wolf Gold and found that with 120 Sierras that it was MOA or better ammo. He said the powder weights were incredibly consistent, as good or better than hand loading achieves. I'm going to try a few also, though I will probably reload some steel for "lost brass" matches as well, if the steel case isn't accurate enough to run for three gun in my 16". So far it's averaging around 2 MOA at 100, which is probably good enough.

[lamrith]

I love the recycling you did, well done!

One question though, how did you know what powder you were working with to come up with a safe power charge for the 300blk?

I have a 6.5 and need more cases to work with, and have been looking REALLY strongly at the 300blk. I could see snagging bras cased *39 as I see it on sale and being set-up for both! I already have a few thousand 223 brass I can convert for the 300 as well.

[alligator]

I will take some pics tonight of powder and cases.

I dont not know exactly what powder is in the 7.62x39s. I do not know what the powder in the other brands of x39 looks like either. I will run to Academy and Wallymart this evening to pick up a couple boxes of cheap steel ammo to see. I do know the projectiles are very similar as well as the performance of both. I also know you can use some of the same powders for x39s and 300blk like AA1680. I have used 1680 before in some loadings for 300. I figured it had to be similar to 1680 type. So I started real low because it was unknown and worked my way up to what I thought was safe. These 300s are intended to be plinking rounds and I do not care if I get max velocity. I plan on trying some subsonics with the same powder.

I would rather not post exactly which charges I am doing. I would rather someone work their own loads up for whatever they are reloading. I will say that the 129gr SSTs I am using IMR 8208XBR and for the 100s I am using H322. I also want to experiment with H335 and Lever soon. Maybe some Varget too.

As for keeping ammo and mags seperate. In .223/5.56 I ONLY use Pmags. In 300BLK I ONLY use metal USGI type mags. In 6.5G I ONLY have FDE ASC 10round mags. I also make it a habit to check the ammo in the mag before I stick it in the gun. I also dont let just anyone pick up my guns and ammo and use them.

[lamrith]

Alligator - Thanks for the additional info. I would not expect or want you to post a load up either, to much risk. I was just really curious how you went about it. I got criticized once for reusing powder for a same bullet/round as original MFG once, so thought re-using powder was taboo.

Well done!!

[LRRPF52]

Be careful with 8208 under the 129gr SST. That's a potential combo for problems, as it is a bit fast for that bullet.

I would recommend CFE223, W748, BL-C(2), Varget, AA2520, TAC, and RL-15 for the 129gr SST.

26.2gr of 8208 is the max load listed by Hornady for the 129gr SST, and I wouldn't consider going over that. With the 123gr A-MAX/SST/SMK/NCC/Scenar, 28.5gr is the ceiling, and it will spike on you after that.

[alligator]

Be careful with 8208 under the 129gr SST. That's a potential combo for problems, as it is a bit fast for that bullet.

I would recommend CFE223, W748, BL-C(2), Varget, AA2520, TAC, and RL-15 for the 129gr SST.

26.2gr of 8208 is the max load listed by Hornady for the 129gr SST, and I wouldn't consider going over that. With the 123gr A-MAX/SST/SMK/NCC/Scenar, 28.5gr is the ceiling, and it will spike on you after that.

Thanks for the heads up. I saw what Hornady had listed for that bullet. I decided to keep the Satern barrel I posted about months ago. I had one with the short chamber. I sent it back and got the throat "scraped." Before I sent it back it was jamming the factory Hornady 123s into the lands. Now it does not. Now I have an out of spec Grendel or the Grendel2 they tried to call it. I suspect the longer throat is keeping the pressures down. I am not sure what it is doing to the velocity though. Which reminds me I really need to get a chrono to see how fast all my reloads are flying.

I was ready to get out of the 6.5G all together. I finally got around to shooting it after it was sitting for so long. Im glad I stuck with the 6.5G.

[alligator]

Sorry, not the best pics. My wife and kids are out of town with the good camera. These are from my Iphone4. Hey, it still works.

The powders for all 3 look the same. They are the same color and size. I did not mix the powders. The Monarch and Bear both say Barnaul. The Tula says "The Ulyanovsk Cartridge Works." I did not see any Wolf.

The case picture starting on the left is a fired Hornady Grendel case, factory Hornady 123SST, x39 case 100gr Nosler, x39 case 129gr SST and the 3 new re-sized cases. The Tula case seemed softer than the others.

[alligator]

[LRRPF52]

I was expecting a ball powder, but they are all extruded. Interesting.

[Buster]

VERY interesting finding....nice job!

[lamrith]

Last weekend at a gun show I bought what I thought was brass 7.62x39 Golden Bear. Guy had 5 boxes and sold them to me for $6 per box. I was planning on re-sizing the primed cases and using them that way. When I got home and opened a box to pull I found out they were brass washed steel cases. I do not have a 7.62x39 gun. I figured I could not re-size them or fire them thinking they would crack. I went to Google. I found a thread from a few years ago where a guy successfully reloaded some steel cases. So I pulled a few bullets and got to work. They re-sized easily. Easier than I thought they would. I trimmed them a few thousandths off of them to square them up.

What die did you use to resize? Most of the resizing dies I have seen are also deprime, just curious how you set-up to resize and not deprime.