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7x33 brass and bullets

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

Norway.375

Well-Known Member
New Sako-brass and 78g game-head seems to be delivered in January. Norway. Please send me a PM and I will help you with the shipping.
 
I have had a much better time finding brass and bullets and ammo than getting my hands on a rifle. I have done a lot of R and D and have had success shortening a Lee mold to the right weight in a 4 jaw chuck. i also had success swaging 71 grain .32 auto bullets to .286 diameter. I have just executed a trade and will soon be able to shoot some of my Hoard in an actual gun. I am inspired now that there are some 5.45x39 ak 74 reloadable brass out there. I have had some in steel case variety and they are dimensionally perfect for conversion. A lot of people don't realize there are 2 variations. One was based on the 7.62x39 case which spawned the PPC family, the other has rim and body dimensions of 9mm parabellum ammo, this allows the AK 74 a larger mag capacity than the AKM. This would probably be easier than .350 legend.

By being diligent and knowing where and how to look, I have accumulated a lifetime of bullets and ammo and cases so that I won't have to make from scratch. This also had a lot to do with luck. Many times I wished I had never seen or heard of the damn thing. It started with an old Finlander telling me a story about hunting Metso with a 7mm rifle in boyhood and was all but forgotten when, 20 years later, someone stuck a Kulta-Katrina coffee-can full of components and cases and Handloading tools in front of me and asked me to translate. I was stupified. Here it was, the cartridge the old man talked about.

I later found-out I could have had the old man's gun, but after years of not being used, it was given to a cousin in Finland who has now grown attached to it. And after coming close a few times, the gun has remained out of reach. Lots of guys on here are not even Finn and have 2 or 3 of them; but ammo is problematic. I finally have one coming by expedited parcel post and I am beside myself in anticipation Even though I have traded-it for the most beautiful rifle I own. Funny how things go. Ironically someone gave me a set of 26mm SAKO rings a couple of weeks ago and I remembered that I have a 26mm Kahles telescope downstairs that should fit the L46 nicely .It seems as though the obscure cartridge nightmare is coming to an end.
 
Great story!

I'm interested in how you swaged the .32 bullets down to .286. Could you give us a primer on that process?

I've found the .350 Legend brass (currently easy to obtain) to reform nicely into 7x33. It would seem to be less work and more available than the somewhat rare 5.45 brass.
 
I'm assuming the 32 auto bullets you are swaging down are jacketed. Wouldn't the jacket spring back somewhat from the interior lead? Have you sectioned any of these to see if you are getting jacket separation? Seems to me the two dissimilar metals would act differently to swaging. I know this can be an issue with rifle bullets. Just curious.
 
I'm assuming the 32 auto bullets you are swaging down are jacketed. Wouldn't the jacket spring back somewhat from the interior lead? Have you sectioned any of these to see if you are getting jacket separation? Seems to me the two dissimilar metals would act differently to swaging. I know this can be an issue with rifle bullets. Just curious.
That's what I've been told about swaging down jacketed bullets from a larger diameter and am curious how difficult the process is and whether any significant jacket/lead separation which impairs performance occurs.
 
I can't say as I have noticed any springing back or crystalization. I think these are hypothetical things that don't really apply to such thin jackets as found on 71 grain FMJs I believe the last ones were Remington bulk. They swage well, and pass through nose-first like little has happened. The Lee mold I shortened by a grease groove looks the most promising as without swaging came-out of the mold at .286. I haven't tried them in a gun yet myself but sent a mold and a swage to a member here, a few years ago and he seemed to have good results(old Buzzard Grey?) I think he was in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia.
 
In the time before all the neat stuff from Serbia, I had swaged 200 grain .338 to..329 for the 8x56 Hungarian and 150 grain .308s to .299 for the 7.35 Terni Carcano. Customers shot deer with these so I guess they worked pretty well. I also swaged 9mm 124 grain down to .338 for an auxillary cartridge for my .338 without incident.
 
I need my daughter to show me how to post pics on here from my phone. A picture is worth a thousand words. The key to making a swage to go from .311 to .286 is to have the .286 and .311 diameters on the ram(Male) with a .311 sleeve that goes in and out of the bottom of the 7/8-14 die body. An appropriate Tapered Pin reamer facilitates the transition from .311 to .286 diameter acting as a forcing cone or the Leade in a revolver but since the .311 diameter is in a.311 collar as the .286 /.310 ram is pushed through, the bullet is not allowed to bell or deviate as long as it is well lubricated. I used a half-inch counterbore in the bottom of the die with a half-inch by.311 bushing about 3/4 of an inch long to hold the .311 bullet and correctly center the .286 stage of the ram. I will be making a similar swage for .318 J bullets from .323 for my brother's dreilling and the best one I put together to date takes .357 jacketed bullets to .351 for my friend's Winchester .351 Common sense is key. Simple cup and core bullets lend themselves to swaging. I have had good luck with Hornady products because the copper in the jacket material is ductile. If you are stupid enough to try to swage a Nosler Partition or Swift A-Frame or a Barnes solid copper bullet in your press, you cannot be helped. Likewise steeply tapered jackets like in Nosler ballistic tips would be as problematic.
 
I think these are hypothetical things that don't really apply to such thin jackets as found on 71 grain FMJs I believe the last ones were Remington bulk.
Hornady makes a .311" 85 grain softpoint for .32 caliber revolvers. Wonder how that one would work if swaged to .286"?
 
Hornady makes a .311" 85 grain softpoint for .32 caliber revolvers. Wonder how that one would work if swaged to .286"?

Soft points sometimes don't end up as pretty, but you don't know until you try. The Tokarev bullets that are available are somewhat cheaper and start of at .307 instead of .312 they are 86 grain and the cores are soft. I think they will swage well as their jackets seem thin.
 

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