VII. Reloading Information

D. Reloading Information by Calibre

5. CZ-52 7.62x25 Czech Brass Manufacturing

In my area, DFW, reloadable 7.62x25 brass is hard to obtain or very costly. Consequently, I worked up a procedure for making brass from 223 cases. These are readily obtained at many ranges by simply picking them up off the ground. In my case I reload for the 223 and can use cases that have dinged case mouths that are suitable for full 223 loads. While you might not want to use range pick-ups in your match H-bar these cases are by and large very suitable for 7.62x25 pistol brass. I have also used the same procedure with 222 and 222 Rem. Mag. brass with equal success. This procedure takes a lot of time but only has to be done once to obtain a batch of reloadable brass. Cases can also be made from 9mm magnum brass at somewhat less trouble but higher brass cost.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Cut-off the 223 cases to .99" with a tube cutter (available from your favorite hardware store).
2. Form the bottle neck by running into 30 mauser resizing die (Lee) Since the time I bought my dies, Lee has come out with a 30 Tokerev die. This should be even better but the 30 Mauser die works well enough so that I haven't invested in a "real" 30 Tokerev die. These cases need to be run up into the die as far as possible so that the neck is in the proper place for functioning. My brass had previously had the primer pockets reamed so this was not required with this batch of brass.
3. Trim cases to proper overall length (I use .975")
4. Run the cases into the 30 mauser expanding die
5. Outside neck turn to a wall thickness of 0.010". It's real important stay off the shoulder with the neck turning tool. I stuck the neck of a broken case in my chamber like by cutting into the shoulder which resulted in a ruptured case. It would also be possible to inside neck ream the cases but I haven't the tooling for inside neck reaming.

In any event I can report on results with AA#7 and three different bullets-a 110g .308" dia. Rem JSP presumably designed for the 30 carbine, a .312" dia. 95g lead SWC which I use in 32 S&WL, and a .312" dia. 85g LRN bullet also for the 32 S&W long. The groove diameter in my barrel runs .3115" so 32 bullets should be OK in my gun. Proper jacketed 308 diameter bullets are availale from Old Western Scrounger but run more than $0.12/ea. All lead bullets were tumble lubed with liquid alox in addition to the wax lube and I used Winchester Small Pistol primers. Velocities are as follows:

S&B Factory Ball	1517 fps
110g JSP 7.0g AA#7	1140
85g LRN 7.0g AA#7	1224
95g LSWC 7.0g AA#7	1072
85g LRN 7.5g AA#7	1280
95g LSWC 7.5g AA#7	1198

I detected no pressure signs with considerable amounts of test firing for these particular loads. Every load functioned the pistol OK, however, the LSWC bullets will not seat properly with my die set and I intend to discontinue using anything except round nose bullets. The 85g LRN is my basic plinking load. The velocity on the 110g JSP is somewhat disappointing and I don't think I will buy any more. I was able to duplicate the S&B velocites with AA#9.

Grennell's CZ52 also functioned with old REM 30 Mauser factory loads. Mine would not function with loads made up from Remington 30 Mauser brass. He also got better velocities than I did. This suggests to me that each CZ52 is a law unto itself. Numerous people have pointed out that 7.62x25 brass can also be made from 9mm magnum brass more easily than 223 brass. While this is probably true, 9mm brass runs about $0.25/case and is hard to find without mail ordering.

Mandatory Warning: Slug your bore before using .312 lead bullets in a 7.62x25. Do not use these loads in the Tokarev pistol. These loads are near or at max. and appear to be safe in MY pistol. Work up for your pistol and verify these loads in the Accurate Arms manual before proceeding.