anybody doing it? how much per rnd? and what bullets to use?

I was using a lee classic loader and using imr 4895 powder and a 150 grain hornady bullet. Plan on getting some dies and using my single stage for it soon. Trying to find a large grain bullet for it as well.

I also use the Lee Classic loader, H4894 powder and a .312 Hornady 150gr SP bullet. Very accurate and around $9 a box.

I have actually just started development for my PSL.  I have 4 different loads worked up using BLC(2), Varget, H335, and IMR 4895.  Using a hornady 150 SP, .311.

Waiting for the temperature here to drop below 100 so I can get to the range some time.  Might have to Man Up and just go this week and sweat it out....

Easy to load as any .30 round. Privi ammo is reasonable in price and the brass is great for reloading. I use RG4895 and WC 844 and .312 bullets. Very accurate in my Model 39.

I imagine you're gonna have to resort to casting if you want a heavy bullet.

There's plenty of 174-180 gr 303 bullets out there. Woodleigh makes a 215 grain 303 bullet if you really want heavy.

Cool.

I've got a pound of IMR 3031 just sitting on my bench. Suitable?
 

Yes, it will work nicely. Try 40.0 grains or IMR-3031 with the .311" Sierra bullet.

I use 44 grains of IMR=4064 for my loads and it works well. But 3031 will work.

I reload 7.62x54R using Lee Pacesetter dies and a Lee Classic Cast press.  My go-to powder is usually IMR 4895.  With a 174gr or so bullet I'd probably start at around 40gr of IMR 4895.

There are some 174gr .312" bullets out there that are intended for use with .303 British or 7.7x58 Jap that work fine for 7.62x54R.  Just make sure you get spire point/spitzer bullets and not round nose as the latter doesn't always feel as well out of Mosin Nagants.

Here's one:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/797418/woodleigh-bullets-303-british-77mm-japanese-312-diameter-174-grain-protected-point-box-of-50

Here's a more reasonably priced bullet in .3105" that I've had good luck with in 7.62x54R:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/165542/hornady-bullets-303-caliber-and-77mm-japanese-3105-diameter-174-grain-full-metal-jacket-boat-tail-box-of-100

And another one I haven't tried, but should work:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1482205247/sierra-matchking-bullets-303-caliber-and-77mm-japanese-311-diameter-174-grain-hollow-point-boat-tail

I think the 54r reloads my buddy and I did were averaging about 40-50 cents a round, with CCI primers and H4895 although I am not 100% sure on the powder. If you go with Lee dies you will want to get a set of 303 dies as well. Lee uses .308" bullets for their reloads and re-sizes the neck to that size, thus a .310-.312 bullet will not sit quite right in the neck unless you use the neck re-sizer from the 303 dies. Bullet wise it depends on your gun, new manufacture rifles .311" will probably be your best bet. You can use .308" but it's not good for much other then plinking as your groups will be rather bad. Mosins you will want to slug the barrel as their bores can vary drastically, and then use what ever your bore diameter is for the bullet diameter. Brass, your best off just buying Privi loaded 7.62x54r as it is almost identical in price to buying the brass, or at least it was when we started reloading 54 last year. The other option is you can reload berdan ammo contrary to popular belief. It is suppose to be a pain and messy, but if you have a bunch of brass cased surplus sitting around it would be an option.

I do Norma brass, 174 gr .311 Seirra Match kings. with Federal Large Match Primers.

For my Mosins I do 50 gr of Accurate 4350.

For my super Mosin Nagant with a heavy barrel and all that I use 53.3 grs of H4350, I have achieved a .4 MOA group with that load.  That is a pretty hot load so I would work up to that from 48 grains or so.

thanks



 

yeah, 174gr is as big as you can get I think, and those work great in 54R, 7.7 jap, and .303.  I have heard good things on the hornady 150gr bullets as well.

I'm getting into reloading soon, and I'm going to focus on these 3 calibers as I just got into jap rifles, I have a PU I want to load for and a hungry Enfield

Hello,

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o560/Smith-Sights/HRN3130G%20Hornady%203130G/HRN3130G.jpg

51.2grns H4350 under 174grn Hornady BTHP Match.

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o560/Smith-Sights/Targets/June2360yardsmeasured.jpg
I new about the flier that ruined the group, but I didn't call it.  Open sights.

http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o560/Smith-Sights/Targets/June1Sierra311measured.jpg
My coyote load.  Open sights.

45grns Varget under Sierra 150grn Sierra soft-point.

Regards,

http://www.smith-sights.com/resources/llc%20sig.jpg

You can get up to 215 grain bullets for the 303/54r, but only Woodleigh makes those. Remington, Sierra, and Speer make 180 grain bullets though. I tend to stick with the 150 grain bullets for my 7.62x54r reloading, Hornady .312s preferably.

wow thanks! so i guess its not possible to reload at surplus prices lol

IMR4895 powder behind a 123gr Hornaday bullet.  Very accurate, softer recoil, economic and I use the same bullet for my 7.62X39 loads.

I'll second that. I've used this bullet over Varget for a surprisingly accurate load.

Also, the 174 SMK over Varget. Start at about 43 grains and work up to about 45. That has seemed to work extremely well for me. Don't discount the Sierra .311 180 grain Pro Hunter bullet, either. It's a flat base soft point that's worked very well for me in 54r, .303 and 7.7 Arisaka. For a hunting load, that would be my bullet of choice. My main powder of choice is usually Varget, but I've also had success with IMR4895. For the heavier bullets,  IMR4831 (slower burning with nice case fill) has worked very well for me, also.

Don't overlook the Lapua 200 grain D166, either. They're expensive, but have always shot extremely well for me, especially in the M39 (match load is over 43.5 grains Varget in Lapua brass seated to the top edge of the crimp groove with a light crimp. Shoots just over .5 MOA at 200 yards for me).

Something else to consider is the huge variance in freebore in these rifles. Be sure to measure it on every rifle. My Lee manual shows a spec length for this caliber of 3.037". However,  I have a couple throats that are far shorter than you would imagine, like 2.965" and even shorter (depending on the bullet). So, the short loads work well in them, but the long ones will jam into the lands and can pull bullets out when ejecting live rounds, if not crimped. On the flip side, the really long ones (off the top of my head, I have one that's 3.088") don't seem to be as consistent with the shorter match loads that I run in the tight ones, logically.

Nope.... About the closest you can get is to buy a bunch of surplus, pull the bullets and then use those bullets to for your reloads, still twice the cost of surplus but you don't have to clean the rifle every time you shoot.

I use brown bear in my Mosin for deer.  203 grain bullets and amazingly accurate.  I dont know how youd get your hands on those bullets but aparently they exist.

I've found that those 203 grain bullets fragmented when I shot a deer with them. I prefer my deer bullets not to fragment because I don't like eating lead. They killed the deer pretty good though.

This is what I did.

The 215gr .303 bullets are used to duplicate the old Mk. I-VI specs. There are a number of makers, but most of them don't sell the bullets here in the US (Aussie/UK/ZA only).

I need to acquire some and load up some Mk. IIC copies so I can finally shoot my Long Lee.

What if he scrounged lead and cast his own?

My reloads for 7.62x54r are not .50 a round. But I cast my own bullets, intial cost is high because of the molds, gas checks, sizer,  and brass($30 for 1000) but it comes out to .25-.30 cents a round after the 2nd reload. I get my lead from the berm at my local range, I sort out the cast bullets from the jacketed bullets and the hardness runs around 15-17 bnh, it's not linotype (3.00 lb with a hardness bnh 22). Main problem is that it takes TIME, so if your time is valuable not the way to go.

Where do you get your brass for 30$ a 1000?