Boxer primed Radway????

[K. Funk]

I aquired a fair amount of casings with an "RG" and "90" with a NATO cross headstamp. The cases are boxer primed. I was not aware that RG made boxer primed cases. Any comments??

krf

[K. Funk]

Any info on this stuff appreciated. I tried to re-size it, but, the flash hole seems quite small. It keeps stripping my de-cap pin out of the stem. Has anyone else tried working with this stuff?

krf

[BUFF]

K. Funk:

I am not sure that anyone else has seen RG 90. Where did you get it?

I have read about, but not seen, Berdan primed ammo that has one flash hole in the center of the primer pocket. I can't figure where the anvil would be if this was done, unless there area around the flash hole is raised and is the anvil.

Anyway you could photo this or scan a deprimed case?

I would try to get a Lee's decapping tool set, cheap, about $5.00 delivered from Midway and others. The tool for the .223 would have a smaller decapping pin, I guess.

This is interesting.

Where are you? I used to know a Ken Funk in Utah.

BUFF

[K. Funk]

I got this stuff in a large lot of range brass on ebay. The primer pocket looks normal except for the small flash hole. I cannot digitize yet, so I can't send a pic, but I would be happy to send you one if you want. I have set it aside for now. I thought maybe I could drill out the hole, but there's too much else to do and too little time to mess with that right now.

PS-I'm located in PA near Harrisburg. No relatives in Utah that I Know of.

krf

[BUFF]

K. FUNK generously sent me a pair of his RG 90 fired cartridge casings.

They ARE Boxer primed, and seem to use a standard Large Rifle primer, as that is what fits the primer pocket. The primers are not crimped in place, so the primer pocket does not need to be swaged after decapping.

The spent primer looked like any regular boxer primer in construction.

The only funny thing about them is what K. said, the flash hole is really, really small, and while you can decap with a small size decap pin, it will probably stick in the decapped case's flash hole.

You could decap these with a hand decapping tool for the .223, like Lee sells, using the regular .30 cal's decap base.

I would imagine that the flash hole could be drilled out, or expanded with a flash hole uniformer tool from a benchrest supply outfit like Sinclair International, but I have never used these tools and have no idea what time or expense is involved.

I seated a regular W-W Large Rifle primer in one of the cases, it fit fine. The fired primer's diameter measured about the same as spent primers from other large rifle-primer using cases.

I am curious as to the origin of the ammo the brass came from. The case head, body and rim were in nice shape, like they were fired in a manually operated weapon like a bolt gun. Ammo for machine guns usually have crimped primers to keep them from backing out. I wonder if this is sort of like their version of match ammo intended for their bolt action sniper rifle or something?

I don't know what the effect on the small flash hole would be if the cases were reloaded and fired with standard components.

Thanks for the look-see, K.

BUFF

[This message has been edited by BUFF (edited January 25, 2001).]

[Arby]

K. Funk:

Where did you get this RG, if I might ask? Is it generally available?

Buff:

Thanks for the report. BTW, some of the Hirt has small flash holes, too. I've had no trouble decapping the Hirt with Lee dies. Midway makes a flash hole reamer that brings the Hirt holes to standard dimensions. If you do any more experiments on the Boxer primed RG, please post the results. Thanks!

[Wadman]

Century was running specials on Radway Green ammo last Fall. Lots of people got tons of the stuff. I still see it on sale at the shows and it was a big seller at the Knob Creek Machinegun shoot. I saw pallets of the stuff for sale. Century might refer to it as British .308.

================================================== ======

So have we actually managed to buy up all that RG ammo? Wow.

[This message has been edited by Wadman (edited January 25, 2001).]

[ricochet]

Hey Wadman,
I called Century earlier today to order some of their "new listed" British .308 (160rd cans@$22.87) and the sales rep told me this is different from Radway.The price is right, but I backed away till getting some info. Don't know the headstamp, said it is sealed cans. Anybody able to shed some light on this. Is this OK ammo? I'll buy some of this or some Argy, my Hirt has almost gone away. Any better deals?

[Arby]

Wadman,

I should have made my question more specific. I was asking about the RG marked "90". I've got plenty of Radway, and I know there's quite a bit out there. I was just curious as to this batch that is boxer primed. First time I have heard of Boxer primed Radway.

[BUFF]

Arby:

If you are talking about the "Deluxe Flash Hole Deburring Tool" (item number 559-829) that isn't quite what we mean.

We mean the size of the flash hole itself, the diameter, is really, really small, small enough that the smaller of the two sizes of standard reloading die decapping pins won't freely pass through it.

The primer pocket itself seems to be of standard dimensions. What would be needed is some sort of flash hole drill to widen the hole, increase it's diameter, not to just deburr the inside-the-case end of the hole, which the deburr tool does.

If there is a tool to open up flash holes to a larger diameter, and I am sure there must be, does someone know where and how much?

I am speaking for K. Funk now, who told me that he got some of the RG 90 brass in a large lot of once-fired range brass he bought. There was only a small amount of the RG in it, he said.

BUFF

[This message has been edited by BUFF (edited January 26, 2001).]

[K. Funk]

Buff, you may speak for me at any time (within reason of course). The brass was aquired in a large batch of range pick-up from somewhere in the great state of Texas. Many calibers, many makes. I got about 50 cases of this particular type of .308. Since I am up to my eyebrows in brass right now, I won't take the time to fix 'em up, but I will get around to it sooner or later. I don't have a de-capping tool where I can put in various sized pins, but I'll figure something out.

krf

[Arby]

Buff:

That was the tool I was talking about (Midway #559829). The end of the tool is figured like a drill bit, and will actually ream out the hole on Hirt ammo to 0.08". As I said, I can decap the Hirt with the standard Lee .308 dies, so the Radway flash hole may be smaller than the Hirt flash hole. If that is the case, then this tool may not work. If you know anyone with one, it might be worth a try, though. I imagine there is a way to enlarge the holes on the Radway, but if it takes too much work, then it is hardly worth it, with all the Hirt around.

I still find it very interesting, and appreciate the info that you and K. Funk are providing. Thanks!

[BUFF]

I have found that the best decapping tools to use for crimped-in military primers (Boxer, that is!) are the decappers made by Lee. They make them in two flavors, one for .30 caliber brass like .30-06 and .308/7.62, and another for .22 caliber brass like .223/5.56. The set consists of a hardened steel punch and a steel base cut to accept the brass case sitting on it's base, with a hole in the base for the spent primer to fall into when whacked out. Put case in base, insert punch, whack punch with hammer or mallet.

The.223 punch's tip is just small enough to fit in the flash hole in the RG 90. It is just a bit smaller in diameter than the smaller of the two sizes of decapping pins sold by RCBS for their dies. RCBS dies usually have the smaller diameter decapping pin in dies for cartridges that use small primers, and the thicker pin in dies for cartridges that use large primers. The pins bend when used to decap crimped-in primers, so I tried the Lee.

Midway sells the Lee decapper sets for about $5 each.

If one had a large enough quantity of the RG 90 cases, it would be worth it to drill or ream out the flash hole to a larger size. I think that using it as is may work, as it did end up as fired brass, but I don't know how that would affect the loading data you would use.

BUFF