The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

I've got 2 Mosin's and would like to reload for them as I load for all my other guns. I have 20 once-fired Winchester cases. I bought the Lee 3-die set since Midway was giving me "birthday pricing" on it. Anyway, I know the die set comes with the .308" button and I'd have to acquire the .310" one from Lee. Anyway, I am curious. In the reviews for the die set, 2 folks said they use .308" bullets and have good success. Both say 150 grain Hornady Spire Point, one guy says flat base works good as it has more bearing surface. He reports 2" groups at 100 yards and that the rifling engagement on recovered bullets is plenty deep and equal around the circumference.

So, what I am asking is for those that reload this cartridge do you bother using the .311" bullets, or use .308"? And for whatever diameter you use, can you elaborate on the accuracy? I am also curious if anyone has tried both diameters and if they tell if there was much noticeable difference on paper. That would be a good experiment. Obviously BC will probably be different, but using a 150gr .308" and a 150gr .311" with roughly the same speed would probably be the best control.

Looking forward to replies. At this moment it looks like I will go with the .308" bullets as there are millions of varieties of them around. Also, it's hard to find .311" bullets. As always, MidwayUSA is out of stock on virtually every bullet, guess it's not just Midway though... Thanks.

JUN

its best the slug the bore in these old Russian rifle's, you can as much dia as a .315 on the Russian bores,
the only Mosin's with a 308 bore is the Fin.

NORM

Norm, I've slugged it before. It is around .311-.312" in the bore.

jun
I think I use a 312 bullet in it then

NORM

If I can come up with some .312" bullets, then I may try them. However, I am asking if anyone has reloaded .308" bullets for their rifle and had good results. It seems that it's been done. Like I said, finding .312" bullets is fairly difficult. Everywhere is sold out of them. So, if I could find some flat base .308" bullets, load them, and have them shoot fine, then that would be great. They are available practically everywhere.

I am aware this is a year old but, here are some .311 and .312 bullets. Both are good sites that I have ordered from before.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ItemList ... catid=1366

http://www.natchezss.com/bullets.cfm?co ... tegory=219

I have a Romanian PSL that shoots 1/3" groups at 100yds with Wolf 150gr. It may just be what my rifle likes but that is a pretty good load.
I am also curious about the use of .308 diameter also because that would make things much easier when I get around to loading rounds for that rifle (I'm only loading .45s and .308s right now).

Might look for British .303 bullets. I think they run in the .311 dia.

wyo-man

I am aware that I would have to use .311" (.303 Brit/7.7 Carcano/etc.) bullets to reload with if I want them to be what my bore slugs at. All I want to know is if anyone has used .308" bullets to reload with and if they had good success with them. In the reviews for the Lee die set on Midway, 2 guys on there said they use it with 91/30's which would be in the .311/.312 or more range. They report good accuracy. Neither of them did say they slugged their bore, one guy said he didn't bother with it and didn't want to know. This isn't about what I should use, it's about what I could use. Thanks for trying to help fellas. Looks like I'll just have to try it out. If it works, I'll let you all know.

JUN

you can use any dia. bullet you want to use , but your accuracy will suffer , if you don't use the right dia. and you won't get velocity and the bullet will skip down the barrel , but shoot what you want

NORM

Junious, what is this birthday pricing that you speak of from Midway? My birthday is june 27th. and there is plenty that I want from MIDWAYUSA, Inquiring minds want to know! Please elaborate for us all!
GR

Got this email that someone commented. Figured I should update. I tried some 150 grain .308" boat tail bullets and they didn't work out well. I still want to try flat base. The .312" Hornady bullets are EXCELLENT. I get excellent accuracy.

Now, for gunney's question. If you register on MidwayUSA's website, there is a spot that you put your birthday on your profile. Every year when it's about your birthday, they send an email to you stating that you can get special pricing. You click the link in the email and sign in to your account on their website. You will see updated prices on most all items. Been that way for the past couple years that I've been registered with them. I wish I'd have taken snapshots of it, but when you're looking at an item, it will say Birthday Price. Just make sure your birthday is correct on their website and that your inbox receives emails from them.

Junius

Junius, thanks for the heads up, been a member for several years, guess I never read the emails.
GR

I have got to say, the Hornady bullets are fantastic bullets, the #3120 ones. I had good luck with them and H4895, but I think I've found a pet load. I wanted to try something different by using IMR4064 as it was listed in Hornady 7th Edition with their 150 grain .312" bullet. I used 49 grains which should do around 2,750 FPS. However, I know I don't have pictures, so for most folks they may not believe it happened. But I shot 3.5" 3-shot group at 355 yards and wanted to try for 500 yards and I shot 2 shots just to see where they'd hit and they were 2.5" apart and this was with my '37 M91/30 with iron sights. Used CCI #200 primers and COL was 2.9".

However, I am looking at buying more bullets and experimenting yet again. Prvi Partizan makes a 150 grain bullet that Graf & Son's sell for around $21 / box of 100. They are .311" bullets. I am also curious how the Prvi Partizan .310" 123 grain bullets like you'd shoot from an AK/SKS would do. The .308" Sierra 150 grain SPBT bullets did not shoot well at all, so I'm not sure how 0.002" would affect accuracy. I thought a light zippy bullet would be neat and they're $18 / 100.

But... (sorry) Cabela's is selling the #3120 bullets for around $18 / 100 so I think that's going to be my best bet is to pick up a couple hundred of them while they're on sale so have in my stash. They're just such good bullets.

Any thoughts on the Prvi bullets in the 150 or 123 grain varieties. Anyone tried .310" bullets?

As a side note... Front sight adjuster tools can be bought for $18 from this feller:
http://elby.yolasite.com/
(Very good tool, I have one for my M91/30 and currently am waiting for one in the mail for my M38, very nice man to deal with.)


I am interested in the services of this guy... he makes adjustable front sights that you can either buy from him, or send in your front sight, and he modifies it to work. I know its something I can do myself, especially the "Po' Boy" model as that mod is on the internet. However, he sells a fiber optic version that looks dang cool.
http://www.smith-sights.com/

My favorite 7.62x54R load is:

Graf brass
46 grains of H4895
150 grain .311 Hornady SST (seated to the cannelure)
CCI 200 primer

Accurate as can be, and dropped 2 deer in their tracks from the PSL! Here's a pic of one of the groups...don't mind how low it is...had the scope set on "0"...
Note: Also accurate in 91/30 sniper!