Albanian 7.62x54R, or why you wear eye protection

[Dave Markowitz]

Last Monday my dad, Ron in PA, and my brother went out the the range to shoot his new M-1938 Mosin-Nagant carbine. The ammo they were shooting was Albanian 7.62x54R surplus ball, but with the powder charge replaced with 13 grains of Red Dot (see Ed Harris's article "The Load").

As my brother was shooting it, he got a bunch of gas back in his face. Since he was wearing shooting glasses no harm was done. However, it was evident that the M-N action doesn't handle escaping gas as well as a Lee-Enfield.

Upon ejecting the empty he noticed something was rattling about inside. After getting home, my dad sectioned the offending case, as well as a normal fired case, both of which are in the attached photo. The bad case is on the left, and you can see the portion of the case head containing the primer pocket which detached on firing, letting out the gas.

 

[BigG]

Better find another load.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

13 grains of Red Dot with the issue projectile is a reduced load. It cronographed at about 1540 fps out of the carbine.

The load wasn't the problem, a faulty case was.

 

[Gewehr98]

Glad it was a reduced load!

A good bit more gas, and maybe something else, would've gone back towards the shooter with the original full-patch load.

 

[No4Mk1*]

I had a primier rupture while shooting Albanian 7.62x54R. I was wearing glasses and only noted a warm, bad smell. No damage to the glasses. The bolt is enlarged on the end where you grab it to activate the safety. I believe this redirects gas away from your eye.
Of note, I have not measured firing pin protrusion, only "eye-balling" it and it does not seem to protrude more than other Mosin Nagant rifles i have seen.

 

[Chipperman]

Glad he's ok.