Thread: Handloading Ghosts

Greetings All,
I did a batch of handloads for a friend early in 1981 and finally some more are required. For the record I do not do handloading for others but do provide what I call handloading support for a few friends or interesting rifles. My friend had been talking about some more handloads. Finally the rifle, in .222 Rem, together with cases and three boxes of Super 55 grain projectiles. My records indicated that the projectiles in the original loads were 50 grains. A change of charge would be required. Fortunately one of the original loads remained hiding in the corner of one of the boxes. The 50 grain projectile actually weighed 51.1 grains and the 55 grain projectiles weigh an average of 54.5 grains. Powder charge was 20.5 grains of IMR4198, a go to load at the time.
For the moment case inspection and sorting is under way. This time the handloading will include a little load development with chronographing. This is the second time in well over 40 years I have loaded for the .222 and an oppurtnity not to be wasted.
Below sorting and initial cleaning in progress and a box of the projectiles.


Regards Grandpamac.

i am no means a pro, only been reloading for about 3 years now, and have developed a few mates rifles with great results. It is such a reward once you have found a great load! look forward to some results @grandpamac

On a slightly related note....are cases from 25-30 years ago still okay to use, or do they go brittle with time?
I have a bunch of cases from the mid-late 1990's, no corrosion as such just looking a bit dull. Some of them were loaded so I pulled the projectiles, the ones loaded with AR2208 were okay but the 308's loaded with AR2206 had gone fairly solid inside the cases so those may have internal corrosion.

You need to find some powder of the same vintage as those cases and projectiles for complete authenticity. (-:
Is the rifle by any chance a sako or brno and wearing a weaver k4 post and wire reticle scope.?

@Cigar that interesting regarding the different powders.

I don't think they will go brittle.

I haven't seen the old 2206 cake up in storage , I have seen old .303 bullets used. I don't think it can gain potency or create any more pressure than a fresh load

Originally Posted by Cigar

On a slightly related note....are cases from 25-30 years ago still okay to use, or do they go brittle with time?
I have a bunch of cases from the mid-late 1990's, no corrosion as such just looking a bit dull. Some of them were loaded so I pulled the projectiles, the ones loaded with AR2208 were okay but the 308's loaded with AR2206 had gone fairly solid inside the cases so those may have internal corrosion.

Greetings,
A lot of the cases are 40 to 50 years old and yes they do go brittle in the neck. The cases will be neck annealed after a thorough inspection. Some with neck cracks or external corrosion have already been tossed. Compressed loads often need a prod to get the powder to run out where it has been compressed in the neck, as was the cartridge I broke down, but the powder was fine.
GPM.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

You need to find some powder of the same vintage as those cases and projectiles for complete authenticity. (-:
Is the rifle by any chance a sako or brno and wearing a weaver k4 post and wire reticle scope.?

As it happens I have antique powder with the balance of the can from the last batch but I may use some fresh stuff in case it is another 40 years before they are fired.
GPM.

Sensible.

Greetings All,
It was a damp day yeserday (and today) so I gave all the .222 cases a clean to see what I had. Turns out there are 10 different headstamps and 235 cases after some had been binned for neck cracks and corrosion. Lately I have been weighing samples of case sand grouping headstamps by weights so a sample of 5 cases of each headstamp were weighed, with fired primer, and each sample averaged. Average weight ran from 87 grains for Imperial cases to 99 grains for Sako. That is a big difference. This is sure to have an effect on velocity. I have been meaning to test this in my .223 for some time but have not got around to it and wondered if Ken Waters had looked into it. It turns out that he had. For those unfamiliar with Ken's name he wrote an extensive list of Pet Load articles for Handloader Amunition Reloading Journal over a period of decades. In his 1977 article he compared the velocity generated by 20.5 grains of IMR4198 and the 50 grain projectile in 3 cases. The heaviest WW Super with a net capacity of 25.5 grains of water gave 3,290 fps, Remington at net 26 grains of water gave 3,209 fps and the lightest Federal with a net capacity of 26.5 grains of water gave 3,106 fps. This is way too much to be ignored. Using the weight of my friends cases and converting from brass to weight of water my results are in line with Ken's findings. The difference of 180 fps is equivalent to a change in load of powder of around 1.5 grains. Clearly some calculation and chronographing of appropriate powder charges will be required.
Now some and perhaps most of those that have read this far are thinking "That is a lot of busy work to use a few old cases" and you would be right but the object is to learn things about handloading varaible cases. For the moment there are 235 cases to neck anneal and, once some .222 dies are borrowed, full length sized before the fun starts.
Regards Grandpamac.