.50 caliber ammunition

[WilliamG]

Anyone on the Canadian prairies reload .50 caliber ammunition ???

More specifically I want to resize three .50 caliber F-86 Sabre aircraft cartridges and reseat new bullets for display purposes only.

Suggestions welcome!

Bill

[deltaenterprizes]

You only need to neck size the brass to hold the bullet. Mic the bullet, I think they may be .501'', measure the thickness of the neck of the brass casing, double that and add the bullet diameter subtract .005'' for a press fit. Drill/bore a hole in a piece of 1/2'' plate, or a drop of 1'' stock the size of the answer to the above equation. Chamfer OD and ID of mouth of brass case, put a little lube on the neck of the case and tap it into your "neck sizing die"
Take a 3'' piece of 1/2'' aluminum square/round/hex stock and drill a 3/8'' hole lengthwise generously bevel the edge. You now have a "bullet seater"
Place neck sized brass case mouth up place bullet in mouth of case, put "bullet seater on top of bullet and either tap or press into place.Finished.

[Steelmaster]

Whenever I need to resize the neck of fired brass, I make bullet (rifle cartridge) pens and sometimes use fired brass, I use a suitably sized ER25 or ER32 collet and close it on the neck of the brass. Then press in the projectile.

[WilliamG]

Thanks deltaenterprizes

Understand your comments only because I have experience with reloading. Actually I had thoughts along the same lines although my biggest fear was distorting or collapsing the shoulder during neck resizing. The three inert rounds were given to me by an armourer friend while stationed in France during the late 50's and it would be a shame to see them lost. Clearly two of the brass were fired as their rims show evidence of this. The third was not and had it's projectile pulled - primer removed. As long as it doesn't take me another fifty years to get this done. Sheepish grin!!

Top of my do list for the new year.

Bill

[deltaenterprizes]

Thanks deltaenterprizes

Understand your comments only because I have experience with reloading. Actually I had thoughts along the same lines although my biggest fear was distorting or collapsing the shoulder during neck resizing. The three inert rounds were given to me by an armourer friend while stationed in France during the late 50's and it would be a shame to see them lost. Clearly two of the brass were fired as their rims show evidence of this. The third was not and had it's projectile pulled - primer removed. As long as it doesn't take me another fifty years to get this done. Sheepish grin!!

Top of my do list for the new year.

Bill

I do some reloading also and a friend wanted some inert 50 cal cartridges to make paper weights. That was the solution I had come up with based on the Lee handloading kits.

[mcskipper]

I do reload the 50.
It's called a 50 BMG (Browning machine gun)
the bullet is .510" Dia.
The bullet is in the 800 Grain range.
The powder charge is in the 265 Grain range.
7000 grains to a pound.
If you are looking to make the weight right.
The brass is strong, use a good lube on the neck & go for it!

[deltaenterprizes]

I do reload the 50.
It's called a 50 BMG (Browning machine gun)
the bullet is .510" Dia.
The bullet is in the 800 Grain range.
The powder charge is in the 265 Grain range.
7000 grains to a pound.
If you are looking to make the weight right.
The brass is strong, use a good lube on the neck & go for it!

What is the thickness of the neck?

[mcskipper]

I checked one fired case I had laying around.

The brass thickness was between .020" to .023"

The specs say .560" Max. Dia. on a finished round.
5.450" Max. LOA
5.400" Min. LOA

Useless info:
The 50 BMG is the small arms ammo everything else is compared to.
30-06 Springfield, energy 2,800 Lb-Ft. @ muzzle
50 BMG, 14,000 Lb-Ft @ muzzle