I'm shooting the same stuff now without the silver tip (light ball Polish) in my PSL and it seems to do all right. It really liked the 174 grain Hungarian yellow tip. It hated the beautiful-looking Yugoslavian 183 grain brass cased stuff, but my Mosin Nagant loved it. I think it depends on the gun.

54r surplus evaluation

I believe that's an exaggeration that's been passed around. I think people noticed that the heavier (200gr.) projectiles produced a greater recoil and assumed that this greater recoil could damage the gun in some way. In time, I'm sure it could, but for a civilian owned rifle, I don't think it will ever be a problem. I don't make it a point to shoot the heavier stuff anyway, but I'm not afraid to try it.

The 183gr. Yugo had a slightly heavier recoil than th 147/148gr. stuff I've shot in the past, but the 174gr. Hungarian had no noticeable difference. The 203gr. Silver Bear SPs that I shot a single mag through it with had much heavier recoil, but like I said it was just one mag.

I don't think it would hurt it if you fed it a steady diet of the 174gr. ammo, but I wouldn't go much heavier for an everyday load.

Quoted: I believe that's an exaggeration that's been passed around. I think people noticed that the heavier (200gr.) projectiles produced a greater recoil and assumed that this greater recoil could damage the gun in some way. In time, I'm sure it could, but for a civilian owned rifle, I don't think it will ever be a problem. I don't make it a point to shoot the heavier stuff anyway, but I'm not afraid to try it. The 183gr. Yugo had a slightly heavier recoil than th 147/148gr. stuff I've shot in the past, but the 174gr. Hungarian had no noticeable difference. The 203gr. Silver Bear SPs that I shot a single mag through it with had much heavier recoil, but like I said it was just one mag. I don't think it would hurt it if you fed it a steady diet of the 174gr. ammo, but I wouldn't go much heavier for an everyday load.

Do PKMs and PSLs shoot the same loads, I know that they both shoot 7.62x54, but is "heavy ball" and other loads ment specifically for the PKM? I'm aware that there are several other bolt action rifles which also use this cartridge, but is ammunition universal between all of these firearms?

dupe

The Polish 182 grain yellow tipped stuff shoots very well.  3" groups at 150 yards in my M44.

The Hungarian 148 grain shoots slightly better.

Do what I did, get both.

Do what I did, get both.

That's my kind of thinking! Go to a gun show and pick up maybe 40 rounds of all the different surplus '54R you can find, take it home to 7.64x54r.net and identify it, than see what you like the best at the range. For the $0.07 a round this stuff goes for, what do you have to loose?

Do PKMs and PSLs shoot the same loads, I know that they both shoot 7.62x54, but is "heavy ball" and other loads ment specifically for the PKM? I'm aware that there are several other bolt action rifles which also use this cartridge, but is ammunition universal between all of these firearms?

I honestly don't know. My guess is that the heavy ball (174gr.-183gr.) is for longer range work or for use against vehicles and the like. The Mosin Nagant is a very strong action and will take whatever in-spec surplus loads you can throw at it. But I beleive it was usually issued with the light ball stuff and the machine guns the heavy ball stuff. I'm sure there's someone on here who can chime in who knows a hell of a lot more about it than I do.

sorry, I figured the tests he showed on speed and drop would suffice. It would be up to you and your gun to be accurate.  Albanian has been the best for me in accuracy for my Mosin carbines and Hungarian has shot the best in my 91/30s and M91s. But the Polish light ball shoots the best in my Fin M91s and 91/30s. S&B gives me really good groups out of my SVT 40 and SSG......

Ive got some Polish 80's maufacture light ball, and some Czech silver tip if you want to try them out.  Of course you waould have to take me along as well as a witness.