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gschwertley
veteran member
Posts: 344
(2/27/05 11:28 pm)
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Re-sizing Turkish 8mm bullets
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Since I bought a large quantity of the Turkish 8mm to break down for components, I am still experimenting. I decided that I would get a .311 sizing kit from Lee so I could squeeze some of the Turkish 8mm down to that size. That way, I could use them in the 7.7mm Jap and the 7.62x54R Russian. I know, "making" 7.62x54R is the reloading equivalent of "carrying coals to Newcastle" but I do it anyway.
I had good luck re-sizing .338's down to .330 in a Lee sizing die, so I had hopes that I could go from .323 down to .311. As it turns out, that extra .002 of size difference shows up in extra force required to resize, given the same lubricant. In fact, I was unable to re-size some .32 Winchester bullets in the Lee sizer. Even though the .32 Win is .321, which is smaller than the Turkish .323, the .32 Win is a round nose design with a longer bearing surface. That long bearing surface is just too much friction for the sizing die. Unless you are re-sizing something under .010 oversize, I recommend staying away from resizing round noses.
So the Turkish 8mm's re-sized very nicely down to .311. The first few were a little rugged until the die got properly coated inside. After that, they pushed through fairly easily.
I must mention the difference in material used in the Turkish 8mm bullets. These are cupro-nickel, or Copper-Nickel alloy. They could be from 60% copper and 40% nickel to 87%/13%. This makes them different from the usual so-called gilding metal that is often used in bullet jackets. Gilding metal is a copper/zinc alloy. Good bullet jackets are around 95% copper/5% zinc, and jackets with a smaller percentage of copper are made.
I have noticed that a magnet will stick to the Turkish bullet jacket. I thought previously that they must have some bit of ferrous metal in the jacket for that to happen. I have said in previous posts that I am not a scientist, chemist, nor am I a metallurgist. I do come up with questions relating to these subjects in the course of my reloading. Questions like, "what is this made of, why did they do this" and so on. I have found a web site (there are probably others) that is run by a ballistician and she answers most of my questions of this type on her site. It is interesting stuff, if you ignore the many misspelled words. The site is:
www.aeroballisticsonline.com
In her explanation of materials used in bullet jackets, she talks about cupro-nickel, like the Turkish ones. She says, in part, "In Europe, mild or soft steel was pressure bonded to copper or Cupro-nickel in a lamination that has been used as a jacket material for many years." This was done to reduce nickel fouling near the muzzle end of the barrel.
Now I know why the magnet sticks to the Turkish bullets; apparently the mild steel coating is very thin. When I re-size the Turkish bullets, no doubt this lamination is removed on the bearing surface of the bullet during the process. I'll have to see if any fouling results; many of the Russian barrels are a loose fit to begin with, so this may not be a problem. I have Russian barrels from .312 to .315, although the .315 shoots like a champ with .311 and .312 bullets. None of my Mosins are the nominal .310 size.
I replaced the .308 sizing ball in my Lee sizing die with one sized .311. This eliminates the slight neck bulge when using .311 bullets in the Lee die-sized brass as the set comes from the factory for use with .308 bullets.
The mild steel outer coating may be why the first few bullets go through the sizing die so hard; perhaps the sizing die needs to acquire a coating of bullet jacket steel inside before it works more smoothly on all the following bullets being re-sized.
yockey5
Coffee Pot
Posts: 4401
(2/27/05 11:38 pm)
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Re: Re-sizing Turkish 8mm bullets
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When I first started into resizing bullets, I thought there is no was! After a lot of hard work pushing some thru, it eased up and now is like cutting butter with a hot knife. Maybe the die has to polish it's self in the first few bullets we resize?
Don
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