Surplus 7.62x54r

[56FordGuy]

I just got a Mosin, and have been looking online at surplus ammo. I've found surplus from Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia, and they're all priced differently. I know it's all corrosive, but is there any difference in what country the ammunition comes from? The best price I've found is $69.96 per 440 round can when you buy two or more cans for Bulgarian light ball ammunition. Is anyone aware of a better price anywhere?

Thanks!

 

[rangerruck]

check ammunitiontogo.com for all your milsurp needs, even if it is not on their site, they have it, just call or email them and ask. I have found that the russian is the best, also another type I cant remember, either bulgy or hungy, can't remember which. also for new silver bear and brown bear is very good.
also the best weight for the mosins' is 172 to 175, if you can find it; this became the russians sniper loading, and longest range volley/artillery type round.
the silver bear and brown bear, in 185 and 205 grains, will both give exceptional accuracy, but the 205's will have about a 1 foot drop in point of aim, at 100 yds.
The russian stuff, may or may not be accurate for you, but man, that stuff is quite a load lemme tell you.

 

[_N4Z_]

the only way to know for sure what shoots best in your particular rifle, is to try a little of everything.

i did this with my finnish m39's, and kept a log of all results. my testing showed that hungarian lightball was the most consistant, followed by hungarian steelcore hb, and then bulgarian hb. the hung. hb could throw impressive groups, but were not as consistant as the light. (ex. 4 of 5 hits within 1" of eachother, with a flier expanding the group by another 1 to 2+ inches) also hit about 6-7 inches high @ 100 yards. bulgarian for me hits poa @ 100 yards, and pretty much all shots are always on the centerline.

with hungarian lb not readily available at the time, i loaded up on the bulgy.

also tried the russian lb, the czech lb, and a few others. in my rifles they didn't print as well as the the ones above.

store bought commercial top honors go to prvi partisan, followed by wolf bi-metal case. barnaul 203gr sp worked well enough, but brown bear 185fmj's were weak with 3 to 4 inch grouping. found out that all of the "bear" line use .310 bullets, which do not work well in my .311 bores. odd part is brown bear is barnaul -- same people. but the barnaul ammo is made with .311 diameter bullets..

anyway, like i said, try as many different types as you can and record the results before buying in bulk.

for me all this trial and error got me onto the trail of loading my own. just had to see how tiny those groups could get. they have gotten quite a bit smaller... but i'm still working on it.

 

[Kymasabe]

I've shot it all and the worst round in my Mosin was Wolf Gold believe it or not. For whatever reason, my T53 carbine hates it, shoots all over the place with it. Most accurate for me has been the surplus Polish stuff with Russian a close second.

 

[dispatch55126]

Both of mine love Hungarian followed by Czech. S&B SP's work good for hunting.

 

[jpwilly]

I have had Russian, Bulgarian, Czech, Brown Bear, Wolf regualr and Gold / Privi. Most of the surplus ammo shoot nearly the same and is corrosive. The new Wolf Gold/Privi shot the best. My handloads worked even better when I found the proper seating depth.

FYI I pulled apart some Bulgarian surplus weighed the bullets and found a couple of grain difference between them. I dumped powder weighing each charge again very inconsitant. averaged the powder charge dumped it into my powder thrower reloaded and had better results.