Had an unusual primer failure today

[StrangeRanger]

 1983 Romanian surplus, an atypically bad lot, very hard primers.  Had a fair number of dented primers that failed to ignite on the first hit but went on the second. This one popped and blew itself all over the breech of my M49/57 but didn't ignite the powder charge.  I haven't pulled it down yet but I suspect that the flash holes are either missing or somehow bl ocked

 

[StrangeRanger]

Pulled it down.  No flash holes

[Rekraps]

Interesting, all is shoot is Cold War surplus 7.62x25 and have yet to have a misfire. All mine are hard primers also.

[StrangeRanger]

I think it's probably just this lot.  I ran through 1600 rounds of Bulgarian with no misfires.  It was crappy ammo but it was reliable.  The last lot of Romanian I shot ran perfectly. I have hopes for another 1224 round lot to work normally.  I also have 840 rounds of Yugoslavian shrink wrapped around the original boxes and five 1280 round sealed "kielbasa cans" of Polish that I expect will run flawlessly.

When all this is used up Tokarev ammo is going to get stupidly expensive especially if PPU stays out of the US market which seems likely

...and reloading won't be an option since PPU was the only source of inexpensive 85 gr, FMJs.  I shoot Sierra 90 gr RN projos in my Broomhandle (semi) but at $.40 per round just for the projos that won't work very well in a 1000 RPM M49/57.  (PPU projos were $.15)

Edited March 26 by StrangeRanger

[Rekraps]

13 hours ago, StrangeRanger said:

I think it's probably just this lot.  I ran through 1600 rounds of Bulgarian with no misfires.  It was crappy ammo but it was reliable.  The last lot of Romanian I shot ran perfectly. I have hopes for another 1224 round lot to work normally.  I also have 840 rounds of Yugoslavian shrink wrapped around the original boxes and five 1280 round sealed "kielbasa cans" of Polish that I expect will run flawlessly.

When all this is used up Tokarev ammo is going to get stupidly expensive especially if PPU stays out of the US market which seems likely

...and reloading won't be an option since PPU was the only source of inexpensive 85 gr, FMJs.  I shoot Sierra 90 gr RN projos in my Broomhandle (semi) but at $.40 per round just for the projos that won't work very well in a 1000 RPM M49/57.  (PPU projos were $.15)

Which is why I stockpiled plenty of surplus 7.62x25 years ago. 

[Frank I.]

On 3/26/2026 at 5:59 PM, StrangeRanger said:

I think it's probably just this lot.  I ran through 1600 rounds of Bulgarian with no misfires.  It was crappy ammo but it was reliable.  The last lot of Romanian I shot ran perfectly. I have hopes for another 1224 round lot to work normally.  I also have 840 rounds of Yugoslavian shrink wrapped around the original boxes and five 1280 round sealed "kielbasa cans" of Polish that I expect will run flawlessly.

When all this is used up Tokarev ammo is going to get stupidly expensive especially if PPU stays out of the US market which seems likely

...and reloading won't be an option since PPU was the only source of inexpensive 85 gr, FMJs.  I shoot Sierra 90 gr RN projos in my Broomhandle (semi) but at $.40 per round just for the projos that won't work very well in a 1000 RPM M49/57.  (PPU projos were $.15)

Back when 7.62x25 was impossible to find, I made reloadable cases out of .223 brass. I shortened the cases with a pipe cutter and sized-trimmed them. I had to ream the inside the necks because the brass was too thick in that area. I had a local lead bullet caster resize 85g .32 caliber bullets to .311. Worked perfectly in Tokarev pistols and a PPD40 I had at the time. The problem was recovering the (labor-intensive) spent cases, which the PPD would eject pretty far. 

"Necessity is the mother of invention."    

[StrangeRanger]

Cases aren't the issue.  They're readily available from Starline for $.25 or less a pop.  Projos are the issue.

Unrelated (sort of) is that PPU was the only source of .268" diameter bullets for the Carcano.  They will be missed.

[68coupe]

I'm learning to cross my toes, in addition to my fingers, hoping for PPU to begin exporting again SOON. They are currently the only company I'VE found that makes 7.92x33 Kurz and/or it's reloading components. There are other companies that USED to make them, but, sadly, no more. I currently only have about 100 pieces of brass and 450 bullets. Furthermore, I only have 200 bullets left for reloading 30 Mauser for my Broomhandle. I bought a case of 1,000 of loaded 30 Mauser before the drought started, so I have plenty of brass. I tend to lose at least 1, each time I go to the range. I think I saw another company that makes a similar 85-90gr round nose .308 that might work.

Karl, 68coupe

[StrangeRanger]

Both S&B and Fiocchi make loaded ammo and Sierra makes (expensive) bullets.

Edited March 30 by StrangeRanger