Milsurp After Hours

It's a more a case of buy them if they are there these days - they are not flooding the market!!

Over here primers are difficult to come by!

Primers have now arrived and fit the cases perfectly.
RCBS 5620 5.5 mm Now waiting for the 32/8 mm collet for the RCBS Bullet Puller and we can start reloading!!

OK, now for a technical question. I am, currently pulling the bullets on 50 cases of 8 x 58 RD using an RCBS puller and collet. The powder and primers are past their bang by date!
Some bullets will only come out using a kynetic hammer but that is not the question.
In this collection I had 2 cases with red paint/laquer on the base and when I pulled the bullets the were much longer than the normal military ones (SEE Photo's). Although they are 38.7 mm long as opposed to 31.5 mm for the normal bullet they only weigh 2 grains more - 197 gr as opposed to 195 gr.
Soooooooooooo,what are they?

Informed responses appear to favour Tracer...................

The concave rear of the bullet would seem to say tracer..... just a guess here.

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I have reached an impasse in the prep of ammunition for my Danish Krag and would very much appreciate some help.
I currently have 50 8 x 58 RD cases which have had their bullets pulled and all primers fired in the rifle to make sure they are safe to remove. Only 2 gave off a little smoke but none went crack.

They are military rounds from the 1920s and 30s, H&L and Norma.

I have read up on and YouTubed methods of depriming them and to date have failed miserably.

I have tried;
1) Removing them hydraulically with water and plunger. All I got was wet!

2) I have tried drifting the primer out using a small drill bit and then a pointed punch. I got broken drill bits , an obscenely shaped punch and distorted primer pockets.!

3) I went looking for a purpose made tool such as the RBS one - no one has it in stock and there isn't a second hand one to be seen either.

Once I deprime these cases and reload them with new Berdan primers that are not military crimped in they should come out much easier so my question is:- Does anyone have an old tool that will do the job and that I can borrow - with a security deposit if required OR one that is no longer required................. I really would like to get this rifle shooting again.

Worst case..... try a Dremel tool.

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Duncan,
Here’s a sure fire way that we used on .303 military brass.
Admittedly we were not short of sacrificial actions but any old action that will accept the case will do as the Danish has a rim.
The chamber could be drilled out as the rim will act as a seal.
Machine out the bolt head to accept the primer when it blows out [or a number of primers if it’s big enough].
Cut the barrel off and thread to suit a hand pressure pump, insert cartridge, fill system with waster, pump up pressure till primer pops out; can be used with live primers, we never had any go bang of the few we tried.

Thanks Eoin, will file it for the future...............
I am actually going to make my own RCBS Berdan Depriming tool.
I have found a head and decapping pin for sale and the rest of the tool should be a doddle to make.

The rest of the tool seems easy to produce - famous last words

Duncan,
I’ve also machined out the old primer on .303 brass, likewise the fixed anvil, drilled another small centre hole then put in a Boxer primer and centred it using epoxy glue.
Works well with black powder and low power smokeless loads, haven’t tried it with anything near hot.