Help ID 7.62 x 54 ammo?

[Bill B.]

I have purchased some surplus 7.62 x 54 ammo. It came in brown cardboard boxes, sealed with a string, Head Stamp is 188 and appears to be an N or 11 on the other side of the rim. It has a silver tip painted on the bullet and appears that the case is a better quailty and might be reloadable. It also came in stripper clips. I do not know what grain the bullet is. Ideas anyone?

 

[Nugilum]

Does it look like this?

The ammunition was made in Novosibirsk Low Voltage Equipment Plant JSC, 30A Stantsionnaya St., Novosibirsk 630031, Russia

If the "N" looks backwards, then that signifies a manufacturing year 1955.

The Silver tip means 147 grain mild steel core bullet.

*http://cartridgecollectors.org/headstampcodes.htm & www.mosinnagant.net

 

[Bill B.]

Looks to be the same on the 188. The mark on my ammo on the other side is either an N or 11? Are these 180 grain and is this brass reloadable? Thanks!

 

[Nugilum]

Sorry, I edited the info into my previous post. It's 147gr mild steel.

 

[NCsmitty]

Here's a site with info that you can check out.
It appears to be Russian manufactured at Klimov/Novosibirsk arsenal.

Chances are it's corrosive and it's not normally reloadable because of the berdan primers.

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinAmmoID.htm

NCsmitty

 

[Nugilum]

Nice images at www.7.62x54r.net!

Do your shells look like this one?


*www.7.62x54r.net

 

[Bill B.]

You guys are good! That's my ammo! Thanks for the help!

 

[Nugilum]

OK, that's a picture of the "backwards letter N".

So, you have 147 grain jacketed mild steel manufactured in Novosibirsk, Russia in 1955. By the way, your ammo will stick to a magnet.

It's nice that it came with stripper clips!

 

[Bill B.]

Hopefully I am going to get a chance to purchase some more of it. Hope it been kept dry and it still fires all right. I had no idea when I bought it that it was 54 years old! Based on the boxes and the clips & ammo they all look like they were made yesterday. Makes you wonder where folks store stuff that comes out of the woodwork so to speak.

 

[Jeremy2171]

It's junk and rife with duds and hangfires..... only thing good about it is the clips and breaking it down for components.

This stuff was on the market in '98 or so and was bad then. But i bought a bunch of it for cheap. Wound up finding several cans of the same stuff in Iraq and won a few bets that it was full of duds with some guys who thought the ammo was good!
It turned a PKM MG into a staight pull! LOL