7.62 x 54r

Don't know yet about brass life, but you really need to slug your barrel to see what bullets to use. Most barrels in this caliber are .310-.314, but some are .308 (such as the Finnish MNs). .310-.312 bullets for 303 Brit are most commly used.

My advice might upset you, but from experience, I would shoot brown bear or some other cheap FMJ ammo and forget about reloading for it. The time it takes to dial in a MN can vary greatly and you find that time better spent on a real rifle, not a piece of firewood!

After saying that, I have had good luck with IMR 4895 & Sierra .308 150 grain matchkings. Hornady .308 bullets keyholed with H335. Figure the cost to load triples the cost per round or better. Not a good experience for me. I have almost lost interest after messing with it for 6 or 7 years now. I may try again, but corrosive ammo can be cleaned out fine with Sweet's 7.62 liquid cleaner and is a lot cheaper...like the rifle.

4895, while the Mosin may be a decent choice for firewood if things get rough, it is still, in my opinion a good rifle! LOL

As to the OP, I have had great luck with surplus corrosive ammo. I have only used it for range practice, cleaning within a few hours after each range visit. M-Pro 7 will neutralize any corrosive residue. I have been doing this now for about 4 years, without the slightest bit of corrosion of my bore or any bolt surfaces.

For times when I will not be able to clean my Mosin within 24 hours, I normally shoot either wolf, or brown bear.

Corrosive ammunition simply means the primers leave a salt residue. Salt in terms of chemistry, not NaCl table salt. Which is a salt too, but you won't die if you eat it.

These salts attract water and when wet, corrode the heck out of metals.

They dissolve in water too. Won't dissolve in oil. You can use a standard bore cleaner, which is oil based, and they won't dissolve salt.

So the "trick" is to clean out your barrel with water. Like hot soapy water.

Stick the end of the barrel in a pan of hot soapy water, put a cleaning rod with patch down the barrel, and pump.

This is messy so expect to wipe off the water that gets in the action lugs.

After pumping enough times, dry the barrel out. You can clean it afterwards with bore cleaners, or you can simply oil the barrel and put away.

I have shot thousands of rounds of corrosive surplus and no barrel has ever rusted after the hot soapy water treatment.

Wipe off the bolt face with water. Windex is mostly water, you can spray windex on a paper towel and wipe down the metal parts.

GT, what rifle do you have? I have an SVT-40 and SAKO M39, and reload using anything from .310-.312". To mimic light Russian ball I use 150 grain bullets, and keep propellants in a certain range that I think is best for use in the SA SVT-40. IMR 3031, IMR 4895, TAC and AA2460 are what I have on my shelf to do this.

If exclusively loading the M39, I can go to the other shelf and grab H414, WW760, H4350, and IMR 4831. I couldn't care less if corrosive ammo is cheaper; I enjoy handloading more than shooting, so all ammo I shoot is coming from my benches and is a win/win for me... I do something I really like, and no corrosive primers means it's simple Hoppes and patches for clean-up. FWIW, and I can not vouch for it, but Hoppes states on their website under the FAQ's that their bore solvent will clean corrosive residue. As for brass, I use Privi and Norma, and the Norma brass is MUCH heavier than the Privi. Good luck to you.

old soviet & Com. Block rifles are hard on brass, due to them being designed for steel. +1 on the clean it with hot soapy water then do your normal oil clean.... Mosin's, SKS's, AK's, etc were made for corrosive ammo.

I load for my mosin because surplus is 10 bucks for 20rnds here. My bore sluged 310, and shoots .308 165s and 180s pushed by h4350 very well, it also ahoots the hornady .310 174fmjs well. Oddly enough the 174smks shoot the worst of any ive tried lol.

I partialy neck size and im on my 5 firing with one set of brass.

I've talked to a few that reload 7.62x54R, as I have been prospecting to do so. The biggest challenge is finding affordable boxer primed brass. It seems most of the stuff thats out there is Prvi Partisan and Winchester, which is more or less .50 a piece per loaded round. Which in the long run isn't that much, but compared to surplus, which is what, .18 per round?
Unless you're trying to do something like the video below, you might just be better of shooting good ol' surplus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2M1hC4c0tc

SlamFire1 said:

Corrosive ammunition simply means the primers leave a salt residue. Salt in terms of chemistry, not NaCl table salt. Which is a salt too, but you won't die if you eat it.

These salts attract water and when wet, corrode the heck out of metals.

They dissolve in water too. Won't dissolve in oil. You can use a standard bore cleaner, which is oil based, and they won't dissolve salt.

So the "trick" is to clean out your barrel with water. Like hot soapy water.

Stick the end of the barrel in a pan of hot soapy water, put a cleaning rod with patch down the barrel, and pump.

This is messy so expect to wipe off the water that gets in the action lugs.

After pumping enough times, dry the barrel out. You can clean it afterwards with bore cleaners, or you can simply oil the barrel and put away.

I have shot thousands of rounds of corrosive surplus and no barrel has ever rusted after the hot soapy water treatment.

Wipe off the bolt face with water. Windex is mostly water, you can spray windex on a paper towel and wipe down the metal parts.

Click to expand...

This sounds like a pain in the ass. I've shoot many surplus tins of ammo through my Mosin and have never had a speck of rust and all I do is run Hoppes 9 through it (usually takes a few patches to get a clean bore), then a patch with a light coat of Hoppes gun oil, and occassionally I'll run a few patches when doing my main cleaning of Hoppes Copper Terminator.

I suppose if you wanted to take your Mosin in the shower with you and scrub it down as suggested you could do that, but I wouldn't go that far. Just clean the bolt face, the firing pin, barrel, and other parts that would come into contact with gasses and enjoy your ~$100 gun.

Buy ammo for that thing in 440 round spam cans for around 75 dollars, shoot as much as you want, and then use Hoppes #9 cleaner generously to clean out the salts/powder residue. Hoppes #9 was made to clean up after shooting corrosive ammo back in 1903 when everything was corrosive.

Don't be worried about the corrosive ammo! Shoot that cheap stuff, and enjoy your rifle the way it was meant to be....by shooting it!

Cleaning after shooting corrosive ammo is not as bad as it sounds. Either water cleaning, Hoppes, or M-Pro7 will all remove the corrosive primer residue. It really is no worse than cleaning your rifle after any other ammo, just a different (if you don't already use any of these) product.

I load for my M38 carbine. I Bought some Prvi Partizan ammo to get some brass. Also found some S&B brass for $16/50 primed. I've had success with Speer .308 hot core SP over Varget. I also had success with Hornady .312" SP bullets and Varget. The .312" zip along about 50fps faster due to the tighter seal I suppose.

.308" Hornady FMJBT did not work well. Exact same velocity as the Speers, but we're all over the target. My bore is .312 but the .308 flat base Speers seemed to work pretty good. Have to use different sizing expanders, so that is a pain.

Have used some H4895 as well. Out of the short barrel, I've been sticking with 123/125gr bullets and 150gr bullets. The 150s should make a great deer load, 2538fps, 2145ft-lbs.

I don't seem to shoot surplus ammo any more.
If you are at the gravel pit with your buddies and blasting for fun, I can see it, because it is so cheap.
But these days when I pull a trigger I am either gathering data or trying to kill something.

Lapua brass, 47 or 49 gr bulk or canister IMR4895 , 180 gr. Sierra 2310 3.0" Over all length. [jammed into the lands]

The 47 gr with get ~ 2700 fps with the full length 29" 91/30 barrel.

The 91/59 and M44 rifles have shorter barrels.

Although I have got 3000 fps from the shorter barrels... but not with any accuracy.

I would like to find a boat tailed hunting bullet.

hot soapy water cleaning is a walk in the park..
thing to remember is use HOT HOT HOT water, to get the metal good and warm, then the last step is to boil a tea kettle full and pour it through the barrel and really heat it up..

the residual heat will dry the barrel, then just patch a protective film of oil on it, and yer done.

Don't believe me?
Ask someone that shoots a caplock, or flintlock bp firearm..

General Tso said:

I recently purchased a gun that fires this round. I'm nervous about corrosive ammo so I'm thinking about reloading it. A couple of questions:

What is the brass life like?
What bullet do most guys use? (308?)

Click to expand...

Why are you worried about corrosive ammo? Most of those rifles that fire the 7.62X54R cartridge were shot with corrosive ammo for Decades, much of the time without a good cleaning schedule. Letting the "salts" sit in the barrel for the time it takes for you to get the rifle home will not harm the barrel in the least!! If that scares you, you can shoot some Windex down the barrel at the range and do a good cleaning when you get home.

If you want to reload only because the ammo may be corrosive is not a good reason IMO. If it's for accuracy that's a whole other matter... When bought in bulk you can pay as little as $3.40 / 20 rounds for the surplus stuff. I shoot it all the time without any harm done to the rifle in the least... (147gr Bulgarian FMJ $74.95/440 rounds)

Brass life will be just about the same as most other rifles for the most part or maybe even better since that caliber is a fairly low pressure round compared to more current cartridges. BUT, finding reloadable brass might be a problem. Norma and Lapula make it but those are VERY expensive! Like said above, Prvi Partizan also makes the ammo but I'm not sure if it's reloadable brass. If it is that's probably the way to go to save money...

Depending on the barrel bullet diameter can be all over the place. Like said above the range can be from .308' to .314" but most barrels are probably closer to .310" or .311".

If you still think reloading is the way to go I suggest using BL-C(2). A few friends who reload for the Mosin Nagant have gotten outstanding accuracy with that powder and with it's surplus counterpart, WC846.