Anyone reload 7.62x39?

I dont know if its a deal or not. Although Im thinking you must have a extra special x39 platform to reload because your really not saving any money or creating anything special with plain old soft points?
Still see steel cased fodder under .30 each and some brass cased options for around .41 each
IDK ? If your sitting on a boat load of x39 brass yeah tou can reload some good ammo. ? I dont ser x39 worthy of the effort.
Sks, mak 90 are minute of black of SR1 target with even some of that lapua expensive stuff.
Snuck in a good amount of groups under 3moa back in the days when I could see my sights.
So if your loading x39 post some results
I was just saying good deal since it’s cheaper than $21 per 100 but yes I agree. I don’t think reloading x39 is worth it.
 
i wanted to try loading 7.62x39. i don't want to fool around with berdan primers, you can get boxer primed from starline but it ain't cheap. $92 for 250 pcs. or ~.37 cents each. i just want to see if tailoring a load for my ak is possible in such a way that it would be an eye popping moment. gonna be pricey to start up getting dies, brass, bullets....
Could you swag the berdan casings?
 
Could you swag the berdan casings?
swaging the case is the least of the operation. i'm not quite sure about removing the spent berdan primer, you ain't gonna do it with your decapping die. and i don't know if a boxer primer will set off the powder charge. i imagine a berdan primer is a special order but i haven't looked online for any yet. just might be easier to buy boxer brass or brass cased ammo like hornady and save the brass. might not be a cost effective way to go. better to buy bulk steel cased ammo and just toss 'em.
 
now that i'm thinking about, didn't someone make a pronged decapping tool you could insert into the case and rap it with a mallet to decap the berdan case?
 
I've reloaded plenty of 7.62x39mm. The polymer steel-cased seem to be a bit more rust resistant, but I've reloaded Yugo, Lapua, Norinco, Silver Bear, Golden Tiger, you name it.
I've found most berdan cases will deprime quite easily with water. If you don't have a decent seal with your Lee 30 caliber punch (sans pin; you surely have a broken one lying around), just use a plastic bread wrapper. If really looking to burn the clock, neck size them before decapping. If you have a slightly larger diameter punch, you should do fine with fired cases with no plastic or sizing.
If you have a few stubborn ones, just cull them from the mix. Yugo 8mm and South African .308 tend to be stubborn. Forget French .30-06!
The RCBS decapping tool works okay, but adjust it properly, so you don't damage the anvil or snap the cutter. It isn't that cheap either.
The flash holes are quite tiny, so it would be hard to make a twin punch tool that would last very long, I suspect, let alone align properly with every brand of case.
Berdan primers are hard to come by in the USA. Murom makes them, but try to find a source for them.
I am not that ambitious to machine the primer pockets to accept a boxer primer, whether with glue or with a spent berdan primer reamed to spec.. I know some folks remove the anvil from boxer primers and glue them into the primer pocket. Most 7.62x39mm berdan primers are .217" diameter (boxer LR are .210" dia.).
I used to shoot matches with a couple that had Mini-30s and they only used Winchester ammo. They apparently made the big bucks, didn't reload, so they welcomed me to scavenge their brass.
Why reload such an inexpensive caliber? I guess, because I can. It's also fun using other bullet styles, cast, plastic, frangibles, sabots etc. try finding these at your LGS or favorite mail order house.
Cheers!

Oops! Left out the link. here it is again for the fifth or sixth time...

Also, in addition to the video above, you will also find some berdan cases with one flash hole (mostly Romanian 8x57mm, I think).
I've reloaded berdsan-primed .303 British, 7.5 MAS and Albanian 7.62x54R (brass and has a .217" diameter pocket). Romanian (steel), Turkish, German, Yugo 8mm.
GP11 Swiss decaps wonderfully. Not all of the aforementioned calibers use the .217" diameter primers, but those that do, you may find LRB primers for such uses.
In the past, Grafs and Powder Valley carried the LRBs, whether packaged under the Tula, PMC or Murom label.

Picture is not 7.62x39mm, but you get the idea.
 

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I made up a tool like this one to deprime GP 11 and some 7.62x54r brass. i used up the 1500 berdan primers I had and then they vanished. i bought 2500 primers just before the 2010 shortage but sold them to a guy who offered me much more than I paid. Have not seen any berdan primers since.
Another reloader i know tried getting some imported but the importer bailed on him. He was trying to get something like 200 5000pc cases?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6a3BOZxKdY&app=desktop
 
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