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I shot my first 7.62x54R reloads today!

Sun Jun 25, 2017 8:01 pm

I decided to try my hand at reloading for my custom Mosin Nagant. It took me a while to get going, but before we had all the flood drama a week ago, I finally got the chance to load up a few rounds so I could see how it worked. I used some pre-primed brass I got from American Reloading, and loaded them with 51 grains of H4835 with a Speer 180 gr jacketed bullet (straight off of the literature for the Lee dies). I only loaded 10 rounds because I didn't know what I was going to end up with, but I was quite pleased with the results. The rounds performed almost exactly like the PPU 180 grain factory rounds that I had also brought with me, and the recoil wasn't so bad that my shoulder was dying. We'll have to see how it goes tomorrow with the shoulder though.

I've got another 90 of the pre-primed brass I can load, and should have the same number of bullets left in the Speer box. I have a bunch more brass that needs to be deprimed and sized, as well as another bunch I got recently that just needs to be primed to be ready to use.

I also got a chance to dial in my (new to me) RCBS powder measure and check it with my (new to me) RCBS magnetic scale.

My dog got a chance to break in my powder funnel. Couldn't figure out why the powder wasn't dropping through it like I expected, until I realized that his teeth marks had actually restricted the funnel's mouth. Have to put another one of those on order, or maybe just ream this one out a bit so the tooth mark no longer indents it.

This is fun!

Re: I shot my first 7.62x54R reloads today!

Sun Jun 25, 2017 8:08 pm

Nice. For me, it's far more satisfying to reload for the milsurps than the modern rifles. It's pretty cool to be able to make low-price, effective, non-corrosive ammo for guns like the Mosin!

I don't remember . . . is the brass that you have boxer-primed? Or are you going to need to deal with Berdan primers?

Re: I shot my first 7.62x54R reloads today!

Sun Jun 25, 2017 8:20 pm

MadPick wrote:Nice. For me, it's far more satisfying to reload for the milsurps than the modern rifles. It's pretty cool to be able to make low-price, effective, non-corrosive ammo for guns like the Mosin!

I don't remember . . . is the brass that you have boxer-primed? Or are you going to need to deal with Berdan primers?


When I ordered from American Reloading, it was for Boxer primed, but came with a handful of Berdan primed shells as well. Since they gave me more Boxer primed shells than I paid for, I wasn't upset about the Berdan primed ones. Everything else I've got is Boxer primed.

My goal was to get enough brass to be able to be reload without cracking open my spam can, which I may now put up for sale. I think I've got about 250 pieces of reloadable brass now, which should be more than enough. I haven't done a cost break down, but I imagine I can reload for less than half of what I pay for factory brass cased ammo.

Re: I shot my first 7.62x54R reloads today!

Sun Jun 25, 2017 9:13 pm

Nice to see someone else loading for the 7.62x54R.
I have been having fun with 17 grains of Trail Boss powder. It's lots of fun to shoot. Makes a very low recoil round that seems ridiculous out of that long gun.
If anyone wants to share some of the 1,000 pieces of berdan primed steel cases I just purchased from Hi-Tech Ammo hit me up.

Re: I shot my first 7.62x54R reloads today!

Mon Jun 26, 2017 9:50 am

since it's a mosin, and a bolt gun, you should work up a mild load with 50bmg powder for the slowest burning most fireball producing reloads you can. At least that's what I remember being a teenager and shootingMmosins was about. :AR15firing: :cheers2:

Side note, can anyone substantiate the claim that the rifles shoot better with the bayonet? :anyone:

Re: I shot my first 7.62x54R reloads today!

Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:21 pm

I love reloading for my 54R. I re-barreled one with a modified R700 barrel so that it has a true 308 bore and now I can use pretty much any 308 bullet I like. It really likes 220gr Bergers, and I can use the 4895 and Varget I have for other rounds. Trail Boss is a fun one to use as well for this rifle as it takes hardly anything. Experiment a bit and have fun, it's what milsurps are for!
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