pulling 7.62x54R FMJ bullets

[hdbiker]

My M44 Mosin Nagant bore slugs at .312,all the military and factory ammo I find measures .310.Has anyone ever pulled the military FMJ bullets and just reloaded with .312 SP bullets.Hornady lists a spitzer soft point hunting bullet at .312 diameter.If anyone has done this,I'd like the details.Thank You hdbiker

 

[MErl]

Have not done it and I'd guess it is more trouble than it is worth. If going to that much effort I'd use good brass & powder as well.

Only advice I can give on that route is to set back the bullets a little bit to break the sealant before knocking the bullet out.

 

[Sunray]

Doing it is called 'Mexican Match' ammo. Downside is you have no idea what the powder is and most real milsurp uses steel cases. Steel cases are not reloadable. Mind you, you'll have to resize the necks on factory anyway so you might as well change the powder too.
You space bar doesn't work.

 

[bainter1212]

Yep, might as well change the powder with your own while you are at it.
Nothing wrong with reloading steel cases. Just be aware that they are much harder on your dies, don't last near as long as brass casings and bottleneck cartridges are prone to get stuck easier in your sizing die.

I have reloaded straight wall steel pistol cases with few issues. Some of them will crack after one firing, some of them after several. Just clean and inspect them as normal.

Your 54R steel cases are probably berdan primed, so just discard them after the first firing. Berdan primers are too much trouble to change out.

Don't be discouraged from "Mexican loading". Nothing wrong with it at all. In fact it is a great way to get good accurate ammo with little money, and the practice is as old as reloading itself.
And please post your results. I am always up to read range reports.

 

[melbr00ks]

I'd never thought about this before. All 3 of my Mosins slugged .312, but they shoot fine with surplus and PPU commercial softpoints. I bought .312 bullets for reloading but haven't gotten around to it. I wouldn't hesitate to pull fmj's to replace with SP's of the same wieght and seated to the same depth. The .002 larger diameter would preclude the neccessity of resizing, one would think.

 

[joem1945]

I pull them when I need to load for my SVT40. I have boxer brass so it's not a problem. I don't want to shoot corrosive in a gas gun. Much cheaper than buying store bought.

 

[Toprudder]

I don't know, so I am just asking for my own knowledge. Do you need to resize if you are replacing a .310 projectile with a .312?

 

[GBExpat]

For the same weight/type replacement bullet I don't see any problem with that, hdbiker.

I do that to create SD 7,62x25 pistol ammo and it works fine. I have a bunch of boxer-primed, n/c, commercial S&B 7,62x25 that I acquired years ago when it was cheap. It is FMJ, so I use a collet puller die and replace the FMJ with a Sierra or Hornady SD bullet.

Only advice I can give on that route is to set back the bullets a little bit to break the sealant before knocking the bullet out.

Excellent advice!