30 Luger Cartridge Conversion

[sheepherder]

30 Luger Cartridge Conversion

This has come up a couple times, so I thought I'd write up what we old fudds did back in the '70's, when there was no 7.65mm Luger, 7.63mm Mauser, or 7.62 x 39 Russian [SKS/AK-47] ammunition available...

We'd make it, using Donnelly's Handloaders Manual of Cartridge Conversions as a guide. For the pistol cartridges, we'd start off with a suitable pistol and a box of new unprimed .223 Remington cases.



We would cut the cases down, on a lathe with a mandrel, or in this case, with a mini-pipe cutter, to ~.010" overlong.





We would face off the cutdown case to length [1.175" here] in a case trimmer.



The sharp edges would be broken with a deburring tool.



Full length sizing in an RCBS resizing die to form. Lube case well.



Case is now trimmed to desired length, either with or without a pilot, whichever works best.





Case is also neck reamed w/.308" reamer.



Full length sized once again with neck expander attachment in sizing die.



On to the bullet. I used a FMJ 30 Carbine bullet back then, 110gr weight.



I made up a jig to hold the 30 cal bullets, and drilled them out to whatever weight required (93grs here, using a 5mm drill). Jig is simply two strips of aluminum clamped together and drilled for the bullets. In use, you insert the bullets and clamp the jig in a drill press vise.





Weight is now 93 grs. RCBS has chamged their scales a bit over the years; took me a while to figure this one out...



Cases are now primered. Small pistol primers used.



For this presentation, I only had Hercules Blue Dot powder available, so I decided to use 5.0grs of Blue Dot for my starting load.



The drilled-out bullet is seated to an OAL ~1.170", with a crimp on the case mouth. This takes a bit of experimentation to get it just right.



Loaded cartridges ready to shoot.



They will fire-form to final shape in the chamber, and can be expected to have the same lifespan as any other reloaded cartridge.

I've found that military cases have thicker bases and thicker walls than commercial cases, and require more reaming/sizing.

They also will hold less powder without compressing than the commercial cases. The extended carbine bullet also cuts down on case capacity, so a powder that takes up less space is desirable.

Note: For historical use only; I take no responsibility for any data posted. Always start with minimum loads, and wear eye and ear protection.