Mosin M-44 & Brown Bear 203 gr softpoint ammo...any experience?

[kmrcstintn]

I have a Russian Izhevsk M-44 Mosin Nagant 7.62 x 54r that I bought for nostalgia and some range use; I have since been thinking about using it as an open sight rifle to backup my Stevens M200 .30-06 (if the Stevens gets dropped, the optics may get jarred and lose the zero); I want to sight in the Mosin at 25 yards and plan on using the rifle out to 50 yards (hopefully this will give me + or - 1 to 2 inches of drop in trajectory)

There is a local shop that has a good supply of Brown Bear (Barnaul) 7.62 x 54r 203 grain softpoint new production ammunition and I have acquired some of it; I have not been able to shoot this gun yet due to the deep freeze in the northeast...

1) who has shot this stuff from their Mosin M-44 with the bayonet retracted ??? (if you mount the bayonet, the point of aim & point of impact are drastically changed: http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu27.htm ~see 2nd page of article)

2) what are the recoil characteristics with the shortened barrel of the M-44???

3) what were your accuracy results & what distances did you shoot?

 

[gp911]

While I haven't had the chance to shoot my Brown Bear either the bayonet deal varies by rifle. Originally they were designed to fire with the bayonet extended, and retracting it threw off the POI significantly. I have encountered a couple that were sighted in by someone in the past with the bayonet retracted, so the front sight is way off to one side. I'd try extended first, then retracted if the gun is shooting way off.

The short barrel adds lots of flash and blast, but little extra push. Heavy ball kicks harder, typically. You're probably in for a treat when you finally get to shoot that thing. I'm hoping this below zero crap is over soon, as I'd like to get back out there and blow through some of this steel-cased stuff I have lying around.


gp911

 

[pbhome71]

I have not try the Brown Bear in 7.62x54R.

However, you can get more information here..
http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinAmmo023.htm

I would love to get some to try out.

-Pat

 

[vzenmn]

I have tried a couple boxes of silver bear 203 grn sp in my 91/30. Accuracy was pretty good at about 2 1/2 to 3 inches but it shot 2 feet high.



P.S
If they do that in a 90/30, I wonder how high it would shoot in a 1891.

 

[Mikee Loxxer]

I have shot this stuff in a 91/30 before. Among observations made was that is was loaded pretty hot, some cases had splits in them after firing. Also the recoil seemed to be more than the rather thin 91/30 stock seems to like. After firing a few rounds I noticed that the stock rings were moving forward as though the recoil was encouraging the rilfe to jump out of its stock.

 

[_N4Z_]

I have used Barnaul 203gr softpoints in my M39. At 100 yards with iron sights they grouped well enough around 3.5 inches, but hit low by the same amount.

To date this is the only ammo used in this rifle that hits low.

200gr was the supposed loading for m39's so I was hoping to hit closer to poa when I tried this stuff out.

Outside of poa it functioned just fine.