7.62x54R ammo question...

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light ball is for x54r is around 147 gr bullets and heavy ball is like 190? I don't recall the exact weights but basically one is 'heavier' - ie heavy ball. Ball refers to full metal jacket bullets.

Price isn't bad for what you ca find today. I bought 440 rounds for about 35-40$ at the beginning of 2007. But you can't find those prices anymore.

Oh yeah - head over to www.7.62x54R.net and you can find just about anything you want to know about M44 and other MN's
 
"Heavy ball" for 7.62x54R is usually 180-185gr, "light ball" is usually 147-152gr.

What little I've read about the types you listed, the Bulgarian is probably a better choice for shooting out of a Mosin Nagant.

jm
 
Bullet weights vary from country to country but anything in the 145-150 range is considered light ball and anything 170+ is considered heavy ball.

The Russian shoule shoot good in your gun. Light ball is what wa issued to the footsoldiers. Heavy ball was used as MG ammo. I'd get a case of the Russian light ball and maybe look at a gun show for a few packs of heavy ball to try out. If you can swing a case of both, go for it. Your gun will shoot either but the light ball will probably be more accurate and won't beat up your shoulder as much.

The Russian should be good ammo. I don't know much about the Bulgarian heavy ball.
 
Light ball will recoil less than the heavy ball, but both shoot well from a MN.

The Bulgarian heavy ball is excellent. I own about 5,000 rounds of it and it looks like it was made yesterday. I've never had a bad round. Getting it out of that ammo can ain't much fun.
-
 
I bought a 300rd tin of the Bulgarian heavy ball at a recent gun show for $50. My M44s like it just fine. Maybe I'm just getting used to my M44s, so I could be imagining this, but the Bulgarian heavy ball ammo didn't seem to kick me in the shoulder as hard as the S&B new factory ammo I originally shot through these rifles. I didn't do any scientific accuracy testing, but I had no trouble hitting soda cans and paper plates lined up against a dirt mound from my porch at about 50 yards. I know that's not exactly long range... and yes, I do use my M44s for plinking. It's fun to fire off 10 rounds from my two M44s and then switch to my 10/22.

"Did it go off yet?"
 
The "heavy ball" was originally machinegun ammo, for the SG-43/SGM and PK/PKM MGs; it will function just fine through the rifle, but it will have more of a curved trajectory than the sight settings show.
 
The only problem with Bulgarian brass cases is suseptibility to case-neck cracking. I've experienced it with 1952 Bulgarian Light Ball.
 
The heavy ball can go up to 200 grains. Some Mosins shoot one type more accurately than the other, but with very few exceptions (ie some prewar Finns) they will all shoot all standard 54R ball ammo. The light ball is the standard for PSL's and SVD's and works better with their actions, but that's another matter.
 
i think you may be thinking of russian ZP exploding rounds which SHOULD NOT be shot from a rifle. these are red tiped.
 
The ammo chart shows Bulgarian yellow tip as their standard "D" ball. Where are you getting the info that it was for machine guns?
Click to expand...

Several of my reference books on ammunition say that the Russians did this for the same reason that the UK produced the heavy Mk 8 ball for the Bren and Vickers; though the flat-based ball is not as accurate nor aerodynamic, it has more retained energy over a longer range, and it is also more likely to increase the cone of fire. In those cases where they required accuracy over anything else (eg. sniping with the 1891/31 or SVD), the issue ammo was always the light ball.
 
In Soviet parlance, the D round was not "heavy" but "long range". Heavy bullets were intended for machine guns and were intended to increase effective range over standard ball ammo.

Ash
 
I also experienced some cracked necks with Bulgarian light ball, but the heavy ball has been fine. Mosins like brass cases.
 
Surplus is just fine but my personal preference for shooting ammo is a commercial load. It is 203 gr. SP made by Silver Bear.
 
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