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Nagant Cartridge Reloading

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Webley MkIV
GEW 98
Questions have been asked on the Curio and Relics maillist regading those of us who purchased the Midway/Lee Nagant die sets and components from the December 2000 catalog.

I purchased the die set, the .32-20 brass and 100gr. .32 SWC bullets to see if I could actually build some affordable cartridges for my Nagant. I measured some factory Nagant ammo which averaged out at 1.513" OAL. I then loaded four different lengths of cartridges so I could see if there was difference with pressures. I used a "scoopful" of Bullseye with all of these cartridges (scoopful appears to be 2.9gr with the .05cc measuring scoop that came with the die set).

Pictures shown below allow you to see the different OALs of the cartridges that I reloaded.

It seems that the 1.440" length fired the best in my DA Nagant. I didn't have a chance to fire and measure groups, as I was intending only to check the lengths and operation of these first loads. I tested these loads during an IPSC practice session, firing offhand about 50' from an IPSC cardboard target. Considering the 48# trigger pull, I was happy that all of the shots actually hit the target. And, as a .45acp shooter, those .32 holes are really hard to see from 50 feet away!




Components from Midway: Starline .32-20 brass and .32 SWC bullets.
View of the relative depths; Cartridge on the right is an original nagant cartridge.
Yet another view of the relative depths.
Various sizes and lengths of loaded cartridges.
Make sure that your brass has been expanded to allow the bullet to fit... Or this is what happens! It doesn't fit in the chamber like this either.


Last updated 5/12/2001
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