Making 7.5 M.a.s. brass.

C

Chainsaw.

New member
Anyone have experience making french 7.5m.a.s. brass? Ive read one post on some random site that said a fellow used 30-06 brass to good affect. But one post leaves me wondering a bit. What say you?
 
I took loaded boxer primed 6.5 X 55 brass and fired it in my MAS 36. I would recommend you lubricate the case, such as bench rest shooters do, when fireforming the case. Bench rest shooters do this to make perfect cases, what the case lubricant will do is that it will prevent the sidewalls from stretching and the case will be perfectly formed to the chamber.

There will be no accuracy when firing 6.5 X 55 brass in a 7.5 X 54 chamber. I was 25 yards away from the berm and bullets aimed at the middle of the berm would hit the bottom, than the top. But the cases were fireformed.

You will need to trim case necks as some of the Swedish case necks were a bit long, but after trimming, these cases will be 100% useable for your French rifle.

It is my opinion that American 6.5 X 55 ammunition has a different case rim width than European. My Swedish surplus ammunition has a wider diameter rim than my American cases. This may cause extraction issues in the MAS 36.
 
The 7.5×54 MAS has a CIP rim diameter of 12.39 mm or 0.4878" max. The CIP rim diameter for 6.5×55 Swede is 12.23mm or 0.4815" max. The SAAMI number for the Swede is 0.4803", so it is 0.0012" smaller than the CIP standard for this cartridge. The 30-06 has a SAAMI rim diameter 0.473" max. The CIP uses 12.03mm or 0.474" maximum rim diameter for 30-06. This is why the Swede is closer to the MAS round on paper.
 
The wider rim and head is what you want, but American brass will usually work. Remington seems to usually be the largest spec brass. There is so much new 7.5 brass available now that I don't see the reasoning behind forming. You did not say what type of rifle you had. I have a couple of the semi autos (44, 49, 49/56) and you will have other issues if you reload for them. The bolt guns are not a problem. I have two converted to .308 and these did need extractor work. I never owned an MAS 36 converted to .308, but there are plenty around (A California importer) and I never heard of extraction problems.
 
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It should have MAS and the model number on the left side of the receiver. Some of the later models had the grenade launcher on them and were marked MAS 36/51. There were also a few conversions thrown in (German and French) but the main bolt action was the MAS 36.

I bought new PRIVI brass through Graf & Sons just a few months ago.
 
Like Uncle Nick says, the .30-06 case head is more than 10 thou smaller. The 6.5 Swede is only 6 thou smaller. 6.5 is 2.165" long vs 2.126" too.
Mind you, Graf's wants $58.99 per 100 for the Prvi brass. $55.99 per 100 from Midway.
 
My Mas36 looks unfired and only has one scratch where a French soldier dropped it. I paid $60 at BIG5 in Dec 1999. I want to keep it authentic.

MASManIVsmall.jpg


But my friend, Roger [a fellow retired EE], painted his, with his wife's help. He said I could use his pic.
 
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