c-g-designs

 To our friend SMALLER, to whom I promised the narration of the first and only time I annealed cartridge cases.

 It was at the time Philippe and myself were taking on Match Rifle . I was making for both of us endless reloading and testing  sessions  with the .308 and the then only available bullet, the Sierra 190 grains HPBT.    

I was spending long testing hours at my local 200 metres range (2,5kmx away from home), group trsting, velocity checks using a printed circuits chronograph, very accurate and reliable, but a pain in the arse with thise circuits to change after each shot …

 It is during those tests that I evidented that certains loads wete not stabilisad at 200 metres, but revealed excellent at Long Range. The reverse was also true, and I was unable to find out the exact reasons.

 I knew since long that Berdan cases were able to withstand much higher pressures than Boxers (the depriming of Berdans was not a problem witj the Prime Reloader) ; but I only had a handfull of quite good old SFMs and, if obtaining once-fires R.Gs at Bisley, their excessive weight was rendering them unsuitable for the project..  

 You have said ‘too heavy’ !!. The german 7,92IS cases were made LIGHT ,  with the war materials scarcity in view..It was possible to think about fesaibility.

 It happened I was given time ago german ammo boxes recovered on the battlefield and containing ‘Infanterie Patronen’ in perfect condition and of the same batch (P151 – RWS from 1938 !!). Dismantle them, trow the flake powder away in the fields around as ‘fertiliser’ and removing the corrosive primers with the Prime Reloader was just a question of time. I recovered then a quantity of ‘new’ cases of which I will not reveal the quantity to not generate jealousies !. The worst remained to be done…

 The ‘Infanterie Patrone’ case was 57mm long and was less ‘bellyed’ than the .308Ws 51mm.

 I will now number the operations stages  in their order :    

 --1°) Trim to lenght on the drill press with a good piloted cutter anf 51,5mm. Why 51,5 and not directly at 51 ?: Due to the belly expa,sop,, I feared some shortening on fire-forming.

   --2°) The primer pockets star crimps were removed by means of a self-made punch similar to the RCBS crimp remover.

 --3°) It was then time to proceed on the fire-forming. An old .308 barrel witl a slightly large chamber was fitted on a Mauser 98 rifle of the same origin as the cartridges . The camber coped for the bigger than usual new created collet. All was OK this side.

 --4°) The cases were resized with a shoulder slightjy longer than the chamber, but the good old Mauser bolt was perfectly able to cope with this/

 --5°) I was not confident to use the german flake powder, I used american powder coming from recovered 06 ammunition. All kinds of lead bullets were used (the more the barrel was leaded, the better the fire-forming !!)   

 --6°) I will only shortly mention the ‘shooting’ sessionsof this first fire-forming. Cartridges fed on stripper clips and firing as fast as possible in the stop butt. Continuous firing, just slowed down to allow cooling…Incredible the time spent to fire such a bunch of ammo !!.

 -7°) It was then necessary to uniformise the collets. Given the fact the new collet was  situated at the level of the previous powder chamber, the neck concentricity was necessitating attention and I decided to use the neck outside diameter as reference, instead as the usual inside. Conventional neck turning tools were then not useable. I decided to perform the operation on the lathe, using a self-made collet forming a false chamber and held in the carefully bored soft jaws . External concentricity was excellent and the necks were bored with a boring bar. After a few cases directed to the scrap bin and once the right bore dialeter found, the operation went uneventfully. A classic final case-trimming

 -8°) A few cases splits happening during the fire forming convainced me that an annealing, not a softening one, but rather a recristallisation annealing was necessary,bearing mainly also the age of the metal (some 40 years !). This annealing was done following the right protocol, in salt bath with protection of the case bottom.  This was I think the fjrst and only time during my reloader career that I annealed cartridges cases.

 --9°) The case now ready were weighed.Surprisingly lights, a batch of about 1500 was created at145-147 grains and about 10% slightly over were kept apart.

 This weight corresponded to an increase of some 8-10% in case capacity compared to most  .308 commercial Boxer.   We have used those cases in the course of the year up to some 10 reloads with great success. The only reason for discarding them was the wear and pitting of the anvils who couldhave provoked erratic ignition. The resistance to pressures of those cases was effectively far superior to any Boxer case.  

 I will have to find back some amazing reloading values and velocities obtained using those cases.  

 R.G.C  

03/2016