Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Mostly what I use for shooting my Swiss K-31's is Graf's brass. I have read one of the horror stories about a primer blow-out from a hidden seam in a case head of one of these.

Before I bought empty brass for loading 7.5x55, I bought loaded ammo which I then reloaded. The first batch was some of the Portuguese, but the manufacture of this ceased. Next, I discovered that some had been made under the Hornady label. This turned out to be made to order for Graf's, using Graf brass. The several boxes I ordered each contained a few defective cases, having folds in the shoulder area. Since I was buying these largely to reload over and over again, I didn't want to have these defective cases. I returned all of this ammo to Graf's and got a refund. I waited awhile, then decided to buy some empty brass from Graf's to see if it was any better. About that time, their initial supply ran out and there was a dry spell for a good little while.

In good time, Graf's got a new supply of 7.5x55 brass in from the factory in Uzice, Serbia. I took the plunge and ordered several hundred. Every one of these turned out to be visually good, no folds. I have used some of them for many firings, and so far no splits or other types of failures. These have a very heavy rim, and older shellholders listed for this cartridge will sometimes not fit. The newly made shellholder made by Lee takes this into account.

Somewhere along the line, I obtained a small supply of .284 Winchester brass and made the conversion to 7.5x55 Swiss recommended elsewhere. With their rebated rim, these don't appear to be as robust as the Graf 7.5x55. Nevertheless, they must be pretty sturdy as the ones I have used have been fired many, many times and to the point where I reannealed them just as a precaution. I have weighed the two, and the Graf cases weight 193 grains, while the WW .284 Win. weight 183. The difference of 10 grains could easily be in the extra rim on the 7.5x55. The .284 Win. has a SAAMI pressure recommendation NTE 54,000 lbs. and I have seen pressure limits for the newer 7.5x55 as between 53,200 and 54,000.