85 Grain .308 Bullet

[mkl]

Before you toss that old Soviet block ammo with the dead primers...

I opened a "tuna can" of very old Bulgarian 7.62x25 ammo last week and found that about 50 percent of the primers (corrosive) were dead.

I pulled one round and discovered that the 85 grain bullet was exactly .308 inches in diameter. Pulled the rest, and now I have over 1000 85 grain FMJ bullets for plinking purposes. Used a collet puller; only took about three hours.

I'm thinking of driving one at about 1800 fps in my single shot 30-30 for a turkey load when I can't call him into shotgun range. Conversely, perhaps a varmint load when driven to over 3000 fps.

That old Soviet block ammo is dirt cheap, and you get what you pay for as far as the total cartridge is concerned. The bullets, however, may be reclaimed if they happen to be in a caliber you can use.

 

[rcmodel]

Are they steel or copper jacket?
Check with a magnet.

They might be too light to get good accuracy out of most .30 cal. rifle barrels.

Be interesting to see how they shoot at 3,000 FPS.

rcmodel

 

[ReloaderFred]

They might also be usable as a .30 Carbine bullet. Data may be hard to come by, but not impossible.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Eb1]

Use Unique pistol powder or Trail Boss.
I don't know the exact grains, but someone might come back with a starting load. Actually on http://home.comcast.net/~parslowb/blogger.html (Shooting with Hobie) he has some data about shooting a Hornady 86 grain using pistol powders.

 

[mkl]

The Bulgarian bullets I pulled were copper plated soft steel with a lead core.

I also doubt the accuracy at 100 yards will be spectacular if I drive them over 3000 fps. If something astounding happens, and I get groups under 3-inches, I will post a follow up.

 

[tom1200]

Shooting a thousand steel jacketed bullets out of my sporter barrel doesn't sound like any kind of savings to me.

 

[CBS220]

How so? If it works, it works.

 

[mek42]

I think tom1200 is thinking about wear and tear on the barrel. A steel jacket at pistol velocities is a bit different than a steel jacket at rifle velocities.

 

[CBS220]

There is plenty of steel ammunition out there in many surplus calibers. I wouldn't be too concerned about it.