New Years Noise-Makers

[MN91311]

For the last several years, I have been using one of my "four fer $100" Turkish mausers to ring in the new year. Here in suburbia, live ammo is not a good
idea, even if fired carefully only into the air. So I had a case of Egyptian surplus 8mm blanks, which have hollow wooden bullets for pilots in the chamber.

(I got these from Paragon, many years ago, thinking they were 7mm Mauser, but they sent 8mm instead. Since I did not try to use them for some time, I decided to not send them back.)

Using the same rifle throughout, the first few years I had no misfires. Then one year I got a few, maybe two or three out of thirty. Each year, the numbers
of misfires went up, until last year about half were duds. Not good.

Thinking that the primers were going inert with age, I came up with a plan of action. I have a supply of WW2 era 30-06 empty brass, SL 43 and SL 4,
sooooooooooooo---

I removed the primer crimp, cleaned, and formed new 8mm x 57mm cases using an RCBS trim die. (I read on a thread on this site that if you used an RCBS trim die, there was no need to also run them through a standard sizer.)

Cleaned off the lube, removed the burr inside and out, and installed new primers. About fifty cases.

I then pulled the wooden bullets from the old Egyptian stuff, and transferred the powder and the wooden bullets to the newly formed/primed cases. I used a
Lyman 8mm die set, with a slight belling of the case mouth, and a very slight roll crimp, just enough to remove the bell.

In essence, I transferred the old Egyptian powder and wood bullet into a new primed case.

Tomorrow night is New Years Eve, so we shall see how well it all works.

Anyone ever try something like this ?

[I'll Make Mine]

Can't say I have, but there seems no reason it shouldn't work. Did you test the primers left in the old Egyptian cases to see if that was in fact the problem? Verified the firing pin and spring in the rifle are okay?

Now you have me wondering about loading plastic or wood bullets over charges of Bullseye or similar in my .357 revolver -- I like the idea of making noise for New Year, just don't like the idea of sending bullets into the sky to come down somewhere. For tomorrow night, hmm, maybe I can sneak a few .22 power loads out from work to fire in my Sentinel Deluxe...

[MN91311]

Yes I did pop the primers on all 40 empty Egyptian berdan cases. Some fired loud and snappy. Some were weaker pops to varying degrees. Some just seemed to quietly sizzle a little. Some were completely dead.

I did notice that the original primers were harder than the new modern primers I reloaded with. Shallower indentations on the outside.

All 40 of my reworked rounds fired just fine, very uniform in sound. No kick with the lightweight wooden bullets. No pressure signs on the new primers, looked moderate to me.

The wooden bullets were hollow all the way through, to just inside the tip. Not just hollow base or partial. I fired all into the air, so I have no idea what they looked like after leaving the barrel. I have read elsewhere that the stresses of firing and the rifling shreds the hollow wood projectile, but no way to know that yet. Maybe someday I will set up a cardboard target and fire the blanks against it from varying distances. I know that they are still dangerous to anything in front of the barrel, and proceed cautiously.