7.62x54R Question

[Eric70]

I am getting ready to order my first 880 round crate and am thinking of going with either the Bulgarian Silver tip or the Russian military surplus from Factory 188. Both were made In the Mid 70's. Is there much of a difference? Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Skip]

Not sure BUT, if you can, get the kind that is Boxer Primed. Save your cases for the time when you reload them for yourself.

Privi Partisan has some that are in that range, I am not sure just what they are, I bought them for the brass. Reloading for the old Mosey is a blast! pun intended!

p.s. If you don't want the brass and it is boxer primed, I will be glad to take it off of your hands! For a fair price!

 

[johntheplinker]

I haven't seen much difference. Some of my rifles prefer one, others prefer the other. Your best bet would be to get a small quantity of each and see what your's prefers before buying a bunch. Also, just in case you weren't aware, both are corrosively primed.

 

[Cerberus]

I've shot a good deal of both over the years, and I can say with some surety that I've seen less defects in the Russian ammo

 

[Mortblanc]

All the Warsaw Pac ammo was made to specs just like the NATO stuff. The Soviet were not cave dwelling barbarians and they knew what production specs were and expected them to be met. Every can I have opened shot to the sights on my rifles with no adjustments or recalibrating necessary.

I have been through several spam cans in the past few years and am constantly amazed at the quality of the products. Not like we were hyped during the cold war at all.

To my mind, there is no sense in paying 3x the price for boxer primed ammo and reloading! I am buying the spam cans at 18 cents per round and the commercial slugs, powder and primer to duplicate the military load will run 28-30 cents at the very least.

You lose 10 cents every time you reload a Mosin round!

Neither are you going to improve the accuracy much. I am getting 1 1/2"@100 out of my scoped Mosins, which is about what one would get out of a comercial rifle and factory ammo.

 

[treeman22]

They are both the same load, with FMJBT bullet, steel core and jacket.
The only difference I've found is the Russian is noticeably more accurate at 100 yards compared to the bulgarian. That is, 5" groups compared to 7" groups. However, I've only shot groups with 2 mosins. And like john says, each mosin seems to like a different type of ammo. So your luck may vary.

 

[treeman22]

Neither are you going to improve the accuracy much. I am getting 1 1/2"@100 out of my scoped Mosins, which is about what one would get out of a comercial rifle and factory ammo.

Are you shooting a Finnish mosin or a russian mosin? I've never heard of a russian mosin being that accurate. If it is russian, what's your secret??? I wish mine were that accurate.

I've been thinking the same thing about reloading. For practically the cost of projectiles, you're getting a fully loaded round! thats hard to beat.

 

[Mortblanc]

Are you shooting a Finnish mosin or a russian mosin? I've never heard of a russian mosin being that accurate. If it is russian, what's your secret??? I wish mine were that accurate.

I've been thinking the same thing about reloading. For practically the cost of projectiles, you're getting a fully loaded round! thats hard to beat.

It is Russian. This one is an Izzie, 1943, and the two shots are before and after I cut 7 inches off the barrel last week.

The trick is a good trigger rework and mounting a scope.

The shot off to the left on the last pic is a spotter shot, I adjusted the scope off that shot and made the 3 shot group.

The first group is .96 center to center. Cutting the barrel opened it to 1.25 out of the roughly squared muzzle with no additional crowning.

 

[Skip]

Well, yeah, I can, but not by much!

And if reloading was all about saving money, no one would be doing it!

This was shot out of our #2 son's Mosey that is in a sporterized stock, scoped and has a bi-pod on it.

I will have to dig around for the load though. Didn't come up with it right away. Need a better filing system!

 

[treeman22]

It is Russian. This one is an Izzie, 1943, and the two shots are before and after I cut 7 inches off the barrel last week.

The trick is a good trigger rework and mounting a scope.

The shot off to the left on the last pic is a spotter shot, I adjusted the scope off that shot and made the 3 shot group.

The first group is .96 center to center. Cutting the barrel opened it to 1.25 out of the roughly squared muzzle with no additional crowning.

I must say, that's remarkable. I will have to look into doing a trigger job and a scope when I can afford it. Is there a link to the trigger re-work you did or was it something you came up with? BTW, what ammo were you using?

 

[Broom_jm]

I reload for the 7.62x54R, but I don't get accuracy like that! Cost is a subjective thing, but I don't want corrosive primer residue and I DO want a lead core, soft-point bullet that can be used for hunting, so reloading is the best way for me to go. YMMV

ETA - Your accuracy should not have gotten worse by shortening the barrel. You might want to consider having a good smith fix the crown on it for you...or maybe work on the "timing" of your load recipe. Shortening the barrel changes the harmonics, which means if the load stayed the same, the bullet may be exiting the barrel at a more fluid point in those harmonics. You can try tweaking seating depth and/or charge weight to gain back the accuracy lost...or, you may really need to have the crown cleaned up.

 

[Mortblanc]

I must say, that's remarkable. I will have to look into doing a trigger job and a scope when I can afford it. Is there a link to the trigger re-work you did or was it something you came up with? BTW, what ammo were you using?

This particular rifle is combined with a 2-7 NcStar LER mounted on the barrel rails. Cost of the scope was $50. You can sell blood and cover the cost in a couple of weeks.

I am not certain what ammo was used. It was Romanian, Polish or Russian, can't remember which. I threw the spam can away.

Keep in mind that the Warsaw Pac standard for their designated marksman rifle, the SVD, is only 2.25" using the issue ammo. You are looking at several photos from me and others that are well inside that parimeter using $100 guns.

My view is that anything one does that still allows these old rifles to stay inside the Soviet sniper requirements has harmed nothing.

I have done several trigger jobs on the MN rifles. This one was a minimal rework involving only polishing the sear/striker surfaces and lightening the spring.

New Mosin Scout Build

This linked thread is not over so you might want to reference back to it over the next few weeks.

I have done other trigger reworks and the best involve drilling for a set screw into the trigger body to change the fulcrum piviot on the trigger and the rework shown above. What I was doign in this build was a minimal cost kitchen table rework that anyone could accomplish and stop at any point they desired in the process. No gunsmith required.

The "hacksawed" rifle now has a proper crown and is waiting to be test fired this afternoon. Having a "gunsmith" cut a new crown would be more than the cost of the rifle. Besides that, I am a better machinist and gunsmith than 99% of the jacklegs out there today.

I reload for a dozen different calibers with accuracy as the primary goal. I enjoy the MN rifles due to the cheap surplus. I might be able to cut the group in half, but it would cost me 30 cents per round to do so.

18 cents per shot and 1 1/2"@100 is a cost effective sacrifice I will make. Theoretically I would still be inside that paper plate at 800 yards using spam can ammo.

 

[treeman22]

Ok, interesting. I'll have to give it a try because 5" groups at 100 yds just isn't that much fun. Now if I could cut it down to 2.5" or even 2" I'd enjoy shooting the mosins more often.

 

[elemonator]

Dunham's has silver tip spam cans for $99

 

[jtmason15]

I would go with the Russian ammunition. I believe both of those are still corrosive powder in it but if you can find the non corrosive stuff you will be paying out the wazoo and could not afford to shoot anymore. Bulgaria along with other countries over the years have just copied off of the russians on several items. Including ammunition and weapons. I would say buy the one that made it first. But like someone said earlier you can always order a couple boxes and test them out and then make the big purchase.