need help with a 7.62X54R

[Ash]

"My most serious concern is with steel-cased surplus. Even if it's laquered or plated, how do you know there isn't corrosion on the inside?"

If it were a problem, we would know it by now. The legions of shooters of the steel-cased ammo have not established any kind of pattern with it, save for tough extraction in some Mosins. However, buy an intact tin and open it up. If it is sealed, you will know it by the ammo inside.

Yet, it seems that the brass-cased ammo is more likely to be an issue, as the brass becomes hard after a time and can crack. Of all the milsurp ammo I have ever experienced, it has only been brass-cased ammo that was brittle enough to crack at the neck.

And, what ever you say about them Ruskies/Buglies/Hungars/etc, they knew how to store their ammo. Now, if it is coming out of a Central American depot, all bets are off.

Ash

 

[Cosmoline]

There's a ton of new production 54R as well as the surplus ball. Norma, Lapua and some other European outlets manufacture excellent hunting and match ammo for the chambering. A lot of Scandinavian hunters have custom rifles based on Mosin receivers. And indeed the Finns were making M-39's as late as 1971. Part of the problem is that the standard Mauser 98 action can't feed the big rims. If you didn't use a Mosin you'd have to use something closer to an old Siamese Mauser, and nobody makes anything like that now.

 

[FieroCDSP]

Most reputable dealers in surplus ammo list them as corrosive. I picked up 1300 rounds of 50's hungarian copper coat-steel case, wax-paper and string wrapped, in tins, for $40 bucks per tin. So far, I've had no duds, no squibs, little feed problems, and I ensure I use soap and water to get the salts out. My accuracy is probably worse than the ammo's, but it's a gun to annoy the guy a few stalls down, and to dig big trenches in the lawn, not to tap dimes at 100 yards.

 

[DMK]

There are a lot of surplus ammo naysayers, but I've definitely had more troubles with new commercial ammo (S&B, Winchester, Remington) than I have ever had with surplus.

 

[Hoppy590]

well i couldnt get a good picture. but the casing was cracked about 1/3 of the way down, with the top corner of this crack folded in on itself and the bullet sitting cockeyed in the casing.

this was S&B commercial production 9mm ammo.