Swampman
Old Fart
I've still got a case and a half of the Czech silvertip, it's amazing stuff! Years ago I lived on a pig farm and killed a LOT of wild hogs with an old M44 Mosin. At the time, the only reloadable cases available were Norma and out of my reach financially, so I used surplus for most of my hog shooting. The Czech ammo killed far better than the others I tried, even though it wasn't super accurate in the .316 bore.
It's odd that the "7.62x53r" M39 wouldn't chamber surplus 7.62x54r, since to the best of my knowledge, they're the same thing, it's just that the Finns used (and still use) a different name. I have heard that some of the Finnish rifles were built with .308 barrels for target shooting, that might explain why you couldn't chamber regular 7.62x54r, although I thought it was the M-28's that were usually found with .308 bores.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge of Finn Mosins will weigh in with a better theory.
It's odd that the "7.62x53r" M39 wouldn't chamber surplus 7.62x54r, since to the best of my knowledge, they're the same thing, it's just that the Finns used (and still use) a different name. I have heard that some of the Finnish rifles were built with .308 barrels for target shooting, that might explain why you couldn't chamber regular 7.62x54r, although I thought it was the M-28's that were usually found with .308 bores.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge of Finn Mosins will weigh in with a better theory.