Reloading 7.62x39mm (AK-47) .. Worth the trouble?

[Flt Simulation]

For me, the best thing I ever did was to buy a Lee 4-Hole Classic Turret Press and start loading my own .45 ACP. I find it much much cheaper than buying .45 ACP at the store. And brass is plentiful for me.

Now I am in the process of buying an AK-47. Of course it shoots 7.62x39mm

I know nothing about this round. Is range brass plentiful like the .45 ACP? I am thinking much of the 7.62x 39 range brass might be steel, and I don't think reloading steel in my Lee press would work real well?

Can I save a lot of money by reloading my own brass like I do with the .45 ACP?

I would think buying new 7.62x39 (even cheap Tulla ammo) is still going to cost more than a box of cheap Walmart .45 ACP ammo. I haven't price compared 7.62x39 against the store price for .45 ACP yet.

Thanks,
Ron

 

[rcmodel]

An awful lot of the com-block 7.62x39 ammo is steel case.
And most of it is Berdan primed.

So you can't de-prime & reload it using conventional reloading methods like you can with Boxer primed American ammo.

If you can find boxer primed range pick-up brass, it would be well worth reloading.

Otherwise, it is not.

rc

 

[PonyKiller]

Really depends on your purpose for using it. The cheap steel case stuff will go bang, but At least in my experience with it is not very accurate. It's accurate enough for close range, but not much else. In our SKS wolf and the bears are 4 inch-ish at a hundred yards when white box Winchesters were half that.

If you get reloadable brass and want much better accuracy it'll be worth it to you, they don't use much powder, and quality bullets are cheap, the big hitch is needing "hard" primers like a garand.

 

[red rick]

I just bought 7.62 x 39 Brown Bear for $5.00 / 20 rounds. I will roll my own hunting rounds.

 

[Flt Simulation]

red rick Quote: "I just bought 7.62 x 39 Brown Bear for $5.00 / 20 rounds"
_____________________________________

.25 cents per round ... That's a good deal.

I can load my own .45 ACP 230gr FMJ for .18 cents per round using free range pick-up brass, but even the cheap .45 ACP you buy at Walmart cost more that the .25 cents per round 7.62x39 you bought.

Was that a very special price for the 7.62x39 you bought, or is it pretty much available at other places for $5.00 / 20?

Maybe one of those big "Spam Cans" of that Russian Army ammo is even cheaper?

 

[M1GarandDeerHunter]

For blasting ammo forget it. Theres tons of decent steel and brass cased stuff. I save the reloadable stuff for making hunting ammo. Its worth it for that. Use CCI military primers tho.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

red rick Quote: "I just bought 7.62 x 39 Brown Bear for $5.00 / 20 rounds"
_____________________________________

.25 cents per round ... That's a good deal.

I can load my own .45 ACP 230gr FMJ for .18 cents per round using free range pick-up brass, but even the cheap .45 ACP you buy at Walmart cost more that the .25 cents per round 7.62x39 you bought.

Was that a very special price for the 7.62x39 you bought, or is it pretty much available at other places for $5.00 / 20?

Maybe one of those big "Spam Cans" of that Russian Army ammo is even cheaper?

In the not so far past 7.62X39 ammo has been as cheap as $99/1000 rounds, then almost overnight the price doubled and you would have been hard pressed to find 500 rounds for $99. While $125/500 rounds is good in today's market it's still above where it should be. We are only talking about crappy steel cases ammo for goodness sake!

We will never see cheap ammo again because there were so many crazies out there willing to pay extremely overinflated prices showing the ammo companies what they were really willing to pay!!!

 

[Flt Simulation]

We will never see cheap ammo again because there were so many crazies out there willing to pay extremely overinflated prices showing the ammo companies what they were really willing to pay !!!

Thanks everyone for the info you have given me.

Just like all other ammo, that 7.62 East European steel ammo went way way up in price after the latest school shooting.

It does seem like now most ammo has slowly gone down in price a little. Give it a little more time, and hopefully ammo will go down some more as stocks become more available again and people stop the hoarding.

Since I am not going to be hunting with this new AK, I guess I just need to keep surfing the internet for the cheapest steel case surplus East European ammo for plinking ... and forget about buying a set of 7.62 dies ... Just keep reloading my .45 ACP and not mess with 7.62 at all.

Ron,

 

[carbine85]

I like rolling my own ammo. For plinking ammo I have plenty of the nasty Wolf stuff and the Yugo brass ammo. I have found that rolling your own for some AK's doesn't make a lot of difference. The accuracy of your typical AK isn't that great. The SKS is where I see the biggest difference. The comm bloc guns like the bigger bullets. I bought some AK bullets that are crap. Turns out they are.308. It never hurts to have a set of dies around for anything you shoot.

 

[red rick]

Check your local Gun Shows, that's where I found mine for $5.00 a box. A month earlier they were running $6.50 a box, hopefully prices are coming down now.

 

[tyeo098]

See my sig...

There are methods of reloading the steel cases stuff, it just takes too much time for people to hassle with.

I, however, have plenty of time.

 

[FROGO207]

I have the dies and a fair quantity of boxer brass and .311 bullets. I have worked up a couple loads that are accurate in my SKS. BUT AS OF TODAY I would still buy cheap steel cased rounds for use as blasting ammo, and continue to do so unless the price goes up significantly in the future.

 

[Ifishsum]

I bought some brass cased x39 ammo with the idea that I would save the brass and maybe reload it somewhere down the line. But my SKS pitches brass a long ways, and I was lucky to find 75% of the cases and those that were found were pretty well beat up. Between the cost of the brass case ammo and how hard my SKS is on the brass itself I decided that it probably isn't worthwhile for me yet. That could change in the future, of course.

 

[savanahsdad]

if you do want to reload for it down the road make sure get 7.62X39 Russian Dies , AK's and SKS's use a .311 bullet , others like the Ruger mini use a .308 bullet

 

[Flt Simulation]

Thanks for all the replies ...

I am still happily reloading .45 ACP for my Colt Gold Cup, but for this Serbian 'Zastava Arms' M70, I am just going to look for the cheapest 7.62 I can find that's non-corrosive and not worry about saving the cheap steel 'Soviet Bloc' cases.


.

 

[P5 Guy]

Three US makers of 7.62x39 Remington, Winchester, and American Eagle. I forget which one uses LRP and which uses SRP.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

For an idea of prices go to www.jgsales.com

 

[hatwerinrednek]

i would definitely reload for it . i would still grab factory stuff if you run across it cheap and save the reloading for rainy days

 

[cfullgraf]

I have dies, boxer brass, and bullets for loading 7.62 x 39. I would not want to be without the capability if I have rifles that fire the cartridge, which I do.

That said, I have not fired a 7.62x39 rifle in a decade or more and have not reloaded any in a couple decades or more.

My SKS's are not accurate enough to be interesting rifles per Col. Whelen.

 

[boom boom]

I also reload 7.62x39 for an SKS. I have found Hodgdon 4198 in particular to be a good low cost, accurate powder. Also have used 1680 as well. One thing is that on an SKS, you can get a Murray's Gunshop firing pin and use std. off the shelf primers instead of CCI's military grade primers. It is springloaded and doesn't pierce primers nor cause slam fires. Don't believe that anyone has made a similar product for the AK.

Add Fiocchi and Prvi Partisan as other suppliers of boxer primed 7.62 x39 rounds. I believe that Remington brass uses the small rifled primers and Winchester uses the large rifle primers.

 

[ssyoumans]

My Saiga puts a nasty crease in the side of the brass, so I am not sure about longevity of 7.62x39 brass, perhaps others can chime in on that and any solutions.

For plinking, I buy the Wolf or WPA ammo at $250/1000 online. It seems to have a little higher velocity and consistency over the Tulammo (at least in my limited testing).

For hunting, I have 3 factory choices that are top notch:
50 packs of Hornady 123 gr SST in steel cases ($33)
20 packs of Federal Fusion 123gr (brass case), $22
20 packs of Prvi Partizan 123gr SP, $11. This stuff is on the very warm side!

 

[armoredman]

Yes, I reload for it. I also go one step, (maybe two or three), beyond the pale and cast my own bullets for it, too.



It did this out of my vz-58 at 80 yards, standing, red dot sight. Yes. a cast lead load out of a gas operated firearm. No leading



Using today's prices, not what I paid two years ago, to be a bit fairer, each round I fired cost me...a smidgeon over $.13 a round. Full disclosure - the lead was a gift. The lead pot costs about $.25 a hour to operate.
The last time I bought Wolf, it cost me $90 for 1000, I thought that was expensive. Wish that I had bought ten cases at that price! Could sell five and buy another rifle!
Bottom line, if you are just shooting for fun, AND you don't want to invest the time/energy into loading, then by all means, shoot the surplus stuff. It's there, now, so grab some. I reload not to save money but as a fun and productive hobby.

 

[Flt Simulation]

I just want to thank everyone here for all there input.

For just going to the range and playing around with this AKM ... I think I will just look to buy the cheapest 7.62 x 39 I can find and forget about reloading the cheap steel cases.

I just hope it gets cheaper that .25 cents per round like it is now