The original loading was a 212gr bullet, roundnose I believe. So far I've only used Hornady .311" 150gr soft points.in my handloads for X54R. I haven't been able to produce a load that beats PRVI/PPU factory ammo. Both their 150 and 182gr loadings shoot right around 1-1.25" 5 shot groups for me, but with differrent points of impact. My Mosin isn't "straight out of the crate" though. I've tuned the trigger (I wouldn't recommend just anyone do this), glass bedded the action, and relieved some material in the barrel channel of the stock. It was about a 3-4 moa rifle, using the lot# of 147gr Russian surplus ammo that I have, before working on it. Now it'll do 2 moa, with an occassional flyer, using the same lot of Russian surplus. It's not a tack driver by any means, but it's good enough for a poor-man's hunting rifle. One of these days I'm going to order some 180gr soft points and concentrate on finding a good load for it. But my rifle shoots surplus ammo well enough for range work and the PRVI ammo is cheap enough and shoots well enough for whitetails, it's just been hard to find the motivation to work up a better load for it.