CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

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Weetabix
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Re: CZ-52 loads

Post by Weetabix »

CombatController wrote: Man, that's the load for 230 grain ball for .45!
IIRC, Box Of Truth said the 7.62x25 out of a Tokarev was the only handgun round that would penetrate a kevlar helmet. Must be a velocity thing.
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Netpackrat
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by Netpackrat »

Still plugging along... The custom reamer from Forster finally arrived, and I fired up the lead pot the other night. I need not have worried about the RCBS ".308" mold, because it casts a .310" bullet, which sizes down to .309" nicely. Haven't had a chance to fool with the case trimmer/reamer yet.

I also discovered today that the gun store just down the road from me has finally started carrying the Wolf Gold 7.62x25 instead of their usual surplus crap, so I picked up a couple boxes of that while I was in there. It'll be nice not needing to handload or special order ammo just to feed this thing.
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Darrell
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by Darrell »

Once upon a time Wolf Gold was reboxed Prvi, which is good stuff, IMO. You might look at the headstamp on the cases for a PPU or the cyrillic equivalent.
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HTRN
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by HTRN »

Netpackrat wrote:I'm also actively looking for a bullet mold, so I can cast my own bullets for this.
Mountain Molds will do custom molds around 80 dollars. NOE has a variety of molds. Acccurate has a 30 caliber 80 grain mold...

Look beyond the likes of Lee, RCBS and Redding - they'res a large number of custom bullet mold makers.
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Netpackrat
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by Netpackrat »

Darrell wrote:Once upon a time Wolf Gold was reboxed Prvi, which is good stuff, IMO. You might look at the headstamp on the cases for a PPU or the cyrillic equivalent.
Yup, that's exactly what this is.
HTRN wrote:Mountain Molds will do custom molds around 80 dollars. NOE has a variety of molds. Acccurate has a 30 caliber 80 grain mold...

Look beyond the likes of Lee, RCBS and Redding - they'res a large number of custom bullet mold makers.
Too late, I already bought the RCBS. It seems to make good bullets. With such tiny cavities in iron blocks, it took a while to reach a good casting temperature, but once it got hot enough, it worked well.
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Netpackrat
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by Netpackrat »

Continuing on.... Removed the standard base from my case trimmer tonight, and installed the short base, .302" reamer, and the power adapter. The reamer seems to do what I need it to do, and I set the trimmer depth so that it reams and trims to length in one step. My Sierra manual recommended a trim length of .985", but comparing some of the brass I have on hand, this seems to vary a lot, so I settled on .980" since that is what seems to match what I've already got. If I accomplish nothing else with this project, getting the power adapter has been worthwhile. Can't believe I've been using the hand crank all this time. Best $13 I have spent on reloading in a while.

Image

Here's some of the finished cases with the 85 grain bullets I cast up the other night:

Image

I did run into one small snag tonight; I had discarded all of the obviously military cases because thinner civilian brass is more suitable for re-forming, and I didn't want to deal with crimped primer pockets. I should have looked at the primer pockets more closely, because those made out of Winchester brass did have crimped pockets anyway, which I discovered when I tried to prime the cases. I was able to chamfer the pockets with a countersink and get them to take primers, but it's something I'll need to watch out for if and when I re-form more cases.
Last edited by Netpackrat on Fri Mar 22, 2013 7:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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JohnOC
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by JohnOC »

So just for grins to get back to the original post the 7th Edition Hornady handbook has the following data for the 7.62 x 25mm TOKAREV.
762x25mm.png
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Netpackrat
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by Netpackrat »

Yeah, I have that manual now. :lol: Funny that I didn't end up using any of those powders, but maybe next time I can get XTPs I will work up some loads with H110. Have to raid my brother's H110 that he has for his .500 though. I don't think I have seen any of the listed powders available for a while around here. There's lots of useless stuff like red dot and clays around though, and nothing but shotgun primers. I will most likely run out of small pistol primers, or maybe Varget for my rifle loads before I run out of anything else. Yesterday I saw that one store had a bunch of red dot in the old cardboard packaging, and some IMR4350 in the metal tins (that I briefly considered buying). Stashes are coming out of basements and going back on the shelves.
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free_me
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by free_me »

NPR: from where did you acquire that cool .302" inside neck reamer?
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Netpackrat
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Re: CZ-52 loads ... Grapes of Wrath edition

Post by Netpackrat »

free_me wrote:NPR: from where did you acquire that cool .302" inside neck reamer?
It was custom made for me by Forster Products.

Ran into a bit of an annoyance loading up some of the cast bullets in once fired Win (non-reformed) brass last night... on a typical 7.62x25 load, the bullet sticks out quite a ways. Overall length of the factory FMJ rounds I have on hand is in the range of 1.360"-1.365"... The .30 Mauser mold I bought casts bullets that are obviously meant to be seated a lot deeper than that. I'm not sure what effect that would have on feeding, and powder space becomes an issue as well. Seated out to a more normal OAL of 1.350", the forward lube groove is exposed, and I end up just barely able to crimp in the space between grooves. I'm not real happy with that, but it seems to feed and chamber from the magazine just fine. Pics to follow.

So maybe HTRN's suggestion of a custom mold is really the best way to go, after all. I also did some more searching, and I found this place that sells what looks to be a good cast bullet for the Tok.
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