Reloading 30-06 Blanks

[fuzybum]

Our local American Legion Post Honor Guard is having trouble with the surplus blanks for their drill rifles (hard to eject and misfires). Does anyone have info on loading blanks. Would appreciate any and all info. Thanks

Information

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[Jack Leslie]

Last fall, for no good reason, I was thinking about reloading some blanks. Eventually, I decided that, given the way that the presidential election was going, my money was better spent on a new AR-15 lower.

However, here is what I learned (with help from people on the old CSP forum):
1) None of the powder makers that I talked with will offer any suggestion on powders or loads for blanks.
2) US Army TM 43-0001-27 (available on the web) has specs for M1909 blanks using SR4990 powder. This powder is obsolete, but another Government document lists two powders that it claims are similar (http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc...c=GetTRDoc.pdf).
3) CH Tool & Die offers dies to star crimp several calibers of blanks, including .30-06 (http://www.ch4d.com/), but they explicitly say that they won’t offer load data.

Like I said, I was gathering data to try this and after having read the above documents, I had some ideas on what to try, but I never saw anything official or that was listed as safe. Check the above documents and anything else you can find, use your best judgment, and BE CAREFUL.

Jack

[Bruce McAskill]

Our local American Legion Post Honor Guard is having trouble with the surplus blanks for their drill rifles (hard to eject and misfires). Does anyone have info on loading blanks. Would appreciate any and all info. Thanks

It sounds more like a rifle problem and not the blanks. When was the last time the chambers were scrubbed out and the bolts cleaned and well lubed? This is the first thing to do before trying to make blanks. The army still offers the blanks for only the shipping charges to American legion and the VFW.

[Sunray]

"...When was the last time the..." And the gas system if you're using M1's. In any case, most .30-06 blanks are corrosively primed. That may be an issue too.

[Curt]

I loaded blanks for m1 with C&H die years ago, I believe it was W-W296 about 10 grains? I did alot of testing in a Springfield with a unrestricted muzzle, before moving to a garand, I used a Parade rifle with a pipe plug screwed into the barrel we started with a huge hole drilled into the pipe plug and worked are way down to the standard used by re-enactors. Very tricky and I ended up with a trigger group in my hand several times. Approach with caution.