Cheap .30 loads
 

Used Lee dies, hornaday 90 grain xtp .309, remington cases, winchester primers, and unique powder. They feed and shoot without fail in my luger. It is much cheaper to buy 9mm cases and form them than to buy the expensive .30 luger cases.








http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/dscn0002.jpg

What kind of failure rate do you get necking them down?
Do you anneal the cases before the neck down?

I have never done this, but would .30 carbine brass be useable for forming 30 caliber Luger brass... if my memory serves me correctly, the head sizes are about the same... and the neck would be pretty darn close to the right size... of course there would a lot of trimming necessary... but at least the brass is fairly common.

If someone has both types of brass handy along with a caliper, could you report back here please... I am sure lots of folks would like to know.

So far no failures necking down. You do have to lube the cases. Just a dab of vasoline or other grease on your fingers and rubbed on the case. There is very little support for the bullet, don't no if this will work with cast bullets. Still a cheap alternate to buying .30 luger. Also I am shooting these in a p block commercial. Using an old DWM magazine. Seat the bullets as far out as possible.

New WW 30 Luger brass is often on ebay at pretty cheap prices.

Necking down caveat
 

When necking down a case from one caliber to another, pay attention to the outside neck diameter of the loaded round. The neck walls get thicker and you may run out of neck room in the chamber. This will cause the bullet pull to go up and can lead to over pressure.

I first ran into this converting 9.3 X 74R brass to 400-360 Purdey. Both have about the same bullet diameter but one has to shorten the brass and squeeze then squeeze it down. This makes for thick neck walls. The 400-360 Purdey has rather thin neck walls to start with so I had to thin the neck walls with a neck reamer.

This may or may not be a problem with the conversion here, but be sure to check and KNOW it's not a problem. Easier to check neck space than to glue your Luger back together.

To date, I've been using once fired brass from factory loads. As I recall Starline makes 30 Luger brass, might be worth while checking their prices. I've also bought Winchester brass on eBay pretty cheap.

Hi guys, just checked starlines price on .30 luger. Close to .18 in thousand quanities. 9mm can be had for .02 with shipping on ebay. You be the judge which is cheaper. My loads with .309 bullets fall into the chamber and fall out when inverted. It is very easy to check if neck diameter is too large. In my pistol I can not load the correct size cast bullet because of this.

Please someone explain how to post a picture so the picture shows. I followed the copy and paste instructions and my picture did not show.
Thanks, John

You have to copy the URL that says where your photo is stored into your message using the IMG button in the ADD REPLY mode... you can't do it in the SUBMIT REPLY mode unless you know how to use "tags"