As a case form challenge I once turned a 30-06 into a 7.62X39. Not really worth the effort, but was doable.

Good job on the Mauser brass and on that 30/06 to 7.62x39mm conversion. My oddest conversion was .38 special to 7.62x25mm. Sizing was easy, turning the rim and cutting an extractor groove with just a file and a hand drill in lieu of a lathe made it interesting. Made 5 as a test, worked fine in a CZ 52. After that I reformed .223 cases into 7.62x25

The simplest conversion is 9mm magnum, just neck it down and trim. My Brother made his own 7.62X25 cases out of .357 or Spokane PD .38 brass with his own home made dies and rim cutting tool. My most needlessly labor intensive case job was reloading steel case 7.62x39. Started by resizing and tossing the split case mouths. Then decapping the Berdan caps, either with the RCBS decapping tool (which works fine, but the spur keeps breaking) or a small wood screw set in a vice and impailing the cap onto it, then use a claw hammer to lift it off. I then coated the cases in vegetable oil and baked them until the oil had polymerized to a fine hard glaze. Then recapped them (this was when Old Western Scrounger still carried Berdan caps) and then reloaded them, mostly with cast zinc bullets. All this was early on when reloadable brass was iffy and I was determined to reload everything I shoot.

Something disturbing I found while looking up .43 spanish chambered rolling blocks.

Have you done a chamber cast?

Apparently, in the 1950s a bunch of rolling blocks hit the market, and as .43 spanish ammo was not readily available, but 11mm Mannlicher was, they were rechambered to that caliber.

Most were marked to indicate this... But a fair number were not.

On top of this, many rolling blocks in .43 spanish were converted to shoot 11mm mauser instead.

And apparently there were quite a few other caliber alterations, which were never marked on the gun on the assumption that if you had the gun in your armory, you had the right ammo for it.

When sold on the surplus market, this info was often forgotten about, or never known in the first place.

So the advice on the black powder cartridge shooter' forum was a strong warning to chamber cast before making cartridges.

I don't remember if you said you had already slugged the chamber, so I thought it might be a good idea to mention it.

I also assume you're using 300 win mag brass because you have it already?

.348 winchester is recommended for case rim size.


-Badger-

I haven't cast the chamber but am confident is is as advertised. But I will do a fire forming test, ironically with a .348 I just converted, as it needs to be fireformed, not enough shoulder when first run through the die. It is also a bit more hairy to expand the .348 case mouth. I was using the mag brass because it didn't need the case mouth to be expanded, just cut off at the shoulder for length, and the case body was already about the right size. The .348 needs to have the case body either heavily swaged or turned down towards the base as it is over-diameter there.

An easy chamber cast can be done with wax. I've done it a few times with my .50/70 and a few other old cartridge guns. Plug the bore close to the start of rifling with paper towels. Melt candle wax and some old crayolas in a soda can in hot water - double boiler. Pour carefully into chamber - let cool and push it out with a cleaning rod from the muzzle. Not as good as Cerosafe butyou can get a good idea of the chamber and throat

I want to have another Kar 89... I loved that 7.92

Very nice (and educational) progression pic.

Damn neat!

But this *IS* art!

I will find for you, the company that produces straight walled, rimmed, brass, (usually for shotguns), that can be formed into old Black powder cases. There is a pipeline for getting this brass, and forming it into .577 snider, or .577/450 for Martini Henry cases.

THis should help
https://www.youtube.com/results?sea.....mp;sp=eAE%253D

this is for .577 Snider

Magtech brass 24 Gauge makes for wonderful .577 cases.

I tried to get brass for 7.5 x 55 Schmidt Rubin from Buffalo Cartridge and they sent some odd caliber casings necked out to .30 caliber. The case head size was still of the .30-06 family.

Which size of bore? The type came out with two bullet sizes. My book of cartridge conversions suggest using 7.62X54r for a start while Cartridges of the World suggest 284 Winchester brass.

Sounds like you have Donnelly's Manual too. I've used that and a copy of COTW #6 for years for reference for oddball rounds. Still have some .32/20 brass turned into short 7.62 Nagant revolver cases. Did the .348 to 50/70 conversion till I scored a good amount of Dixie brass and some Bertram brass (had to turn rims on those ones - bit oversize )

.284 Winchester brass. Has the right body diameter for 7.5mm Swiss but the rim is rebated to /06 size. Its a standard conversion for that round if you don't want to find Norma or PPU brass or loaded ammo for the 7.5 Swiss.

Suggestion for art:

Do a piece of you refurbing the rifle...

(Gags: remember that molten silver melts aluminum bullet molds and coffee grounds put out small kitchen fires...*Smirk!*)

That was a bit of tall tales. Didn't use hot molds and instead took advantage of the Ledenfrost (sp?) Effect

Do I spy a Bertram box in the background? Were some of their cases the brass you started modifying?

No, the box is full of 43 Mauser cases. The brass for the conversion was cheap once-shot range pick up I got at the local gun shop.

Ah, I see. Was just a bit curious seeing one of his boxes in your image. I drive by his operation at times in my work travels and had been a little surprised that some of his cases had made it over to the US.

His is the only ready source for a lot of old/obscure cartridges, so any number of us antique shooters have them.

Huh, well, I'll be jiggered... I knew it used to be difficult to export ammunition/components overseas so I had not expected his reputation to have gone that far or widely... nice to know a decent bloke's hard work and skill are respected wider than I imagined.

Hope the hard work pays off and that your freshly refurbished antique and you have a good test outing soon.