Any 6.5x55 Shooter Out There? PLEASE REMOVE POST

[SteveR]

I just bought some "blanks" from Sarco, they are actually wooden bullets with a light charge behind it, meant to be shot with an adapter that breaks up the bullet as it exits the barrel.

But the reason I bought them was to pull the wooden tip and save the powder, and use the case and primer for my own loads. They are cheaper than primers alone, and you get the free brass and pistol powder.

I need to work up some kind of load with the pulled powder, I am thinking along the lines of 38 special loads.

Steve

[Mescalero]

This would require someone with more capability than myself.
Can it be determined wheter or not the primers are corrosive, and could the burn rate of the powder be determined?

[Pete44ru]

Please do not use factory-loaded blank cases for regular bullet loads - in ANY cartridge !

AFAIK, the flash holes in blank/specialty cases are much larger, to enable the light projectile to make it out of any barrel, and will play hob with the rifle under any other kind of loadings - like giving full blowback through the flashhole upon firing, blowing out the primer & God knows what else.

Sort of a homemade Polish rifle/handgun, that fires both forwards & backwards at the same time.

Sure, they're cheap - How much are your eyes, etc, worth ?



.

[Mescalero]

I did not know that.

[SteveR]

Please do not use factory-loaded blank cases for regular bullet loads - in ANY cartridge !

AFAIK, the flash holes in blank/specialty cases are much larger, to enable the light projectile to make it out of any barrel, and will play hob with the rifle under any other kind of loadings - like giving full blowback through the flashhole upon firing, blowing out the primer & God knows what else.

Sort of a homemade Polish rifle/handgun, that fires both forwards & backwards at the same time.

Sure, they're cheap - How much are you eyes, etc, worth ?



.

They are spec made Swedish rounds, not the crimped one you see here.

Steve

[SteveR]

This would require someone with more capability than myself.
Can it be determined wheter or not the primers are corrosive, and could the burn rate of the powder be determined?

I think the Swede's use non-corrosive berdan primers for these, but I will do the primer test, pull the bullets and powder, fire the primer on to clean iron, and see if it rust in a day or two.

These primers are spec berdan, so I have no worries about reusing them for the 6.5x55, and the 6.5x55 is a nice low pressure round anyway, under 40,000 psi as opposed to the 3006 at 62,000+ psi.

Steve

[Mescalero]

That is pretty disturbing what Pete said about the cases.
I shoot 6.5x55.
A lot, I like it, have a thousand factory loads and 2 thousand cases for reloads.
AWP101 shoots it also.

[6pt-sika]

Just buy 100 pieces of Winchester or Remington brass and be done with it !

No questions about safety factor that way !

I realize in this day and time one needs to save where you can . But 100 pieces of brass for a 6.5x55 is pretty inexpensive compared to the deductible of ones medical insurance ,to say nothing of a couple bucks a 100 for primers .

I shoot a couple 6.5x55's and when I got the rifles I got new Winchester brass period .

[2ndovc]

I've had three or four. All have been very accurate.

Save the wooden bullets for the vampires!

jb

[6pt-sika]

Save the wooden bullets for the vampires!

I can deal with the Vampires a h...e...l...l of alot better then I can with the ZOMBIE BS

[SteveR]

That is pretty disturbing what Pete said about the cases.
I shoot 6.5x55.
A lot, I like it, have a thousand factory loads and 2 thousand cases for reloads.
AWP101 shoots it also.

Yeah its always good to be safe before sorry. I have pulled a couple of the wooden bullets and they are standard military berdan primed. I will of course work up slow and look for primers getting loose and other pressure signs.

The powder is a flake type, looks like Unique or similar, but it definitely is not a rifle powder, I think careful work up in my 357 using 38 loads, I will be fine.

Steve

[Hobie]

I hope you've poured the powder out back in the yard. I would not use that blank brass for full power loads even at "only" 40K psi. The wooden bulleted loads are fun to shoot as they are BUT we always cleaned as if they were corrosive primers BECAUSE I've never known one way or the other which they were.

Now this bothers me personally but I read your post as asking for advice and then later as saying you know that the advice to not use the brass wasn't any good.

#1

But the reason I bought them was to pull the wooden tip and save the powder, and use the case and primer for my own loads. They are cheaper than primers alone, and you get the free brass and pistol powder.

I need to work up some kind of load with the pulled powder, I am thinking along the lines of 38 special loads.

#2

I have pulled a couple of the wooden bullets and they are standard military berdan primed. I will of course work up slow and look for primers getting loose and other pressure signs.

The powder is a flake type, looks like Unique or similar, but it definitely is not a rifle powder, I think careful work up in my 357 using 38 loads, I will be fine.

Look, you have NO IDEA what that powder is so you have no start point to "work up" to anything. That powder was used to push crappy wooden bullets through a shredder and for no other KNOWN purpose.

[SteveR]

I wasn't really looking for advice, just wondering if any other 6.5x55 shooters knew about this. The cases are staked, military, berdan cases, (case headstamp is 586 Imported to Sweden from Hirtenberger, Austria.)

I guess I should not have said anything about reusing the powder and cases here. I apologize and will not bother the board with such silly ideas about how to save a bunch of money on cases and primers, and by the way no haz-mat fee.

Steve

[Pete44ru]

I would like to apologize, for not posting a reply you wanted to read.

FWIW, the 6.5 Swede is only one of over 25 different chamberings, I've been using over the last 50 (or so) years, and have personally witnessed the results of ignoring what I posted about does.


Good Luck with your project.


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[jh45gun]

Buy US brass and go from there. I cannot verify this but I thought I read somewhere that the brass for these wooden bullets were not up to snuff for regular loads.

[wolfdog]

Come on, every website needs a guy they can call "3 fingered Louie".
Try pulling one and dumping the powder, then weigh the case.Then do the same thing with a regular Swedish military round.

[Old Shatterhand]

DON'T use that blank powder for ANY sort of reloading. It have been some severe accidents here in Sweden with stupid people who reused it and got injuried. It is really fastly and unpredictably burning - any gun loaded with it will with a great certitude go into smithereens.

The cases should be standard military cases - but they have berdan primers.

Pete

[SteveR]

DON'T use that blank powder for ANY sort of reloading. It have been some severe accidents here in Sweden with stupid people who reused it and got injuried. It is really fastly and unpredictably burning - any gun loaded with it will with a great certitude go into smithereens.

The cases should be standard military cases - but they have berdan primers.

Pete

Thanks Pete,

I found the case head stamps to be from Hirtenberger, Austria made for the Swedish Military. They are standard military berdan cases, with NO enlarged flashhole(s).

I was hoping to post results and let folks know if it worthwhile to re-use the brass and primers, but it seems people know so much more than I, I do welcome advice, but I don't think this situation is one that applies to the warnings, considering the warnings were for BOXER primed brass, and if not, then that should have been said.

Steve

[J Miller]

Steve,

Since this post has not been deleted I'm gonna post my two bits.

I have reloaded many hundreds of Berdan primed 303 British cases. I used the appropriate primers that used to be available from RWS and standard American book load data.
Other than the normal short case life common to the 303 Brit I had exactly ZERO problems with them.

If your cases are mil spec and the flash holes are the proper size, there is no reason not to load them as you see fit. I've done this too with 303 Brit cases and the only extra precaution I took was removing the decapping pin from my sizing die.
After that I cleaned my rifle as if I was using corrosive primers. They probably were.

I do agree with the others that say dump the blank powder. If you had pressure test equipment you'd probably find that powder much faster than Bullseye. Not worth the chance of injury or rifle damage.

Joe

[Ji in Hawaii]

I wonder how these wood bullet loads would perform on vermin or small game?

[SteveR]

Steve,

Since this post has not been deleted I'm gonna post my two bits.

I have reloaded many hundreds of Berdan primed 303 British cases. I used the appropriate primers that used to be available from RWS and standard American book load data.
Other than the normal short case life common to the 303 Brit I had exactly ZERO problems with them.

If your cases are mil spec and the flash holes are the proper size, there is no reason not to load them as you see fit. I've done this too with 303 Brit cases and the only extra precaution I took was removing the decapping pin from my sizing die.
After that I cleaned my rifle as if I was using corrosive primers. They probably were.

I do agree with the others that say dump the blank powder. If you had pressure test equipment you'd probably find that powder much faster than Bullseye. Not worth the chance of injury or rifle damage.

Joe

I am reusing the primed brass, just pulling the bullets and dumping the powder. They are standard berdan primed, no extra widened holes or anything. Also the primers are staked in, so that is a huge sign that these are standard brass made to spec.

I was going to save the brass, even thoght it is berdan, I can if I find some berdan, eventually reload if I need to, but these are so cheap, its not worth buying boxer brass and boxer primers, and paying haz-mat.

Steve

[SteveR]

I wonder how these wood bullet loads would perform on vermin or small game?

Ji,

The bullet pretty much breaks up as it leaves the barrel, the wooden bullets are hollow also, which helps break them up too.

Steve

[wolfdog]

Hey, I just made a joke, maybe in poor taste, but just a joke and a sugestion of one way to check brass. Sorry if I offended, I was justrying to lighten the mood and one way to check cases.

[SteveR]

Hey, I just made a joke, maybe in poor taste, but just a joke and a sugestion of one way to check brass. Sorry if I offended, I was justrying to lighten the mood and one way to check cases.

I wasn't upset, but with the amount of nay sayers, I thought it would be better to remove than get into it with "experts".

Steve

[harry]

Steve just remember there are some guys on here that still have the "do not remove" tags on their mattresses and pillow cases. But do be carefull.

[Mescalero]

I do
still have the tags

[El Chivo]

I wonder how these wood bullet loads would perform on vermin or small game?

might be good cockroach killers

(but wear eye and face protection in the house)

[Sixgun]

Hey! This is gettin' good!

You want to get the post deleted?

OK, dump all of the cartridges in a very strong iron pipe, cap off the ends, then get a fuse, a very long fuse.........................