turning surplus into hunting ammo

rhino519

rhino519

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can’t find any hunting 7.62x54R anywhere but have plenty of surplus, should i decap the casings after pulling the bullets or just use them as is? what is the chinese surplus powder equivalent too, does anyone know? i don’t have a problem swapping it for a modern one but if it’s good why not use it
 
Pull the bullets, dump the powder, saving it for use. Neck size to get rid of the crimp. Load the powder. Seat new bullet. Those are the basics.

Chinese? Primers are no doubt Berdan, corrosive.
If you simply replace the issue ball projectile with a hunting bullet of the same weight, and with the original powder charge, the pressure may or my not be similar. You might want to reduce the charge, try a few, looking for pressure signs, and work back up.
Years go, the NRA took US issue .30-06 ammunition, 150gr bullets, and replaced bullets with 150gr hunting ones. Used 10 different commercial bullets. In all cases, pressures increased. Not dramatically so, pressures were within limits, but still higher.

Converting military issue into hunting ammunition has been done for a long time. Just be a bit cautious.
 
Further...
I have converted 5.56 issue to competition ammunition using the above method. The issue ammunition had a 62gr projectile and something over 25gr of powder. Prep the case neck, measure 25gr of powder (slight reduction) and seat 69gr Sierra MatchKing. Excellent ammunition. Not me, but ammunition prepared this way was used to win the NSCC Service Rifle Championship.
 
Those primers are quite hot and depending on the rifle you're shooting it from, which I assume will be an M91 Mosin, or a variant of, they should be just fine. REMEMBER, they're corrosive.

The powder used by the Chinese is quite consistent, but it burns "dirty" and leaves a lot of carbon fouling in your bore.

I made up some very similar ammunition as to what you want to do and when I weighed the powder, then did an average, so I could keep the charge weights consistent. Chinese 7.62x54r bullet weights, from the crate I had on hand, averaged 147 grains, +-1 grain.

The powder charges, over 50 cases, averaged 46.3 grains, from my records, which would put its burn rate very close to IMR4895, which would be appropriate.

I didn't change the average powder charge, primers(Berdan), or case. I substituted the .310, 147 FMJBT bullets with .311 SP, flat base, Privi hunting bullets, with lead tips and cores.

One thing I did do, was to resize the case necks, using a .311 expander ball, from a 303 Brit die set, to get proper tension on the bullets.

The rifle I used them in was an M91/30 sniper, with a PE scope. This rifle is quite accurate with ammo it likes.

It liked the mix of Chinese/Privi components.
 
Lol, just cut the tip off. Seems to work, my neighbour does it with his 7.62x39. Is it the best hunting round out there? Probably not, but people have been doing it for decades.
 
Have done this Norinco .308 FMJ ammo retrofit with Hornady 130gr SP groups not too bad.

Example of so-called mexican match ammo. https://www.theboxotruth.com/threads/educational-zone-177-mexican-match-ammunition.532/

9nmFOD3.jpg
 
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The chicom surplus x54r will be berdan primed and corrosive, I pulled apart a bunch earlier in the year and made some Mexican match with S&B once fired brass cases and federal Lrp’s. I reused the powder and projectiles, I pulled 80 in total and weighed individual powder charges as well as total powder weight for the 80 pulled.

For the most part charges we’re close, I divided total batch weight’s by 20 and my final charge was 43.7gr. Results out of one rifle were quite good, the other I suspect will do better with a bigger dia bullet.

If I were you and wanted to keep it simple I’d pull the bullets, weigh the total powder dumped and find an average powder charge. Then use a new sp bullet and the new powder charge and see how they shoot, they will still be corrosive primers but at least you’ll have a proper sp hunting bullet.

Fyi, between the crimp and sealant on the bullets they are pretty tough to pull down. I used a collet puller and it was still tough, I seated them deeper to break the sealant/crimp and that helped some. Using an inertia puller would be a real pita…

Here’s a couple pics of my x54r Mexican match.
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Heliian said:
Lol, just cut the tip off. Seems to work, my neighbour does it with his 7.62x39. Is it the best hunting round out there? Probably not, but people have been doing it for decades.
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"cut tip off" - FMJ bullets have lead core inserted from rear - therefore bullet jacket is open at rear end. If you cut the front tip off to expose lead, you have probably created a jacket "tube" around the lead core. Is very possible for that jacket "tube" to get left behind in the bore - an obstruction - while the lead core exited the muzzle - might have been done for decades - does not make it a "smart" thing to do.
 
Potashminer said:
"cut tip off" - FMJ bullets have lead core inserted from rear - therefore bullet jacket is open at rear end. If you cut the front tip off to expose lead, you have probably created a jacket "tube" around the lead core. Is very possible for that jacket "tube" to get left behind in the bore - an obstruction - while the lead core exited the muzzle - might have been done for decades - does not make it a "smart" thing to do.
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It was done in the 20s in Canada by a commercial company, the testing showed how dangerous it was so they had to stop it. They were suppose to dispose of all the ammo but my grandpa ended up with 1, which I now have.

They cut the tip off and then used a mold to make a round nose exposed lead bullet, but ya, the core could blow through and cause deadly problems.

If the FMJ was a solid base then I could see it but most are hollow base, which is very bad.
 
Have a handful of old ww1-ww2 .303brit, a couple of the cupronickel bullets have had the tips cut off. You can see the steel core iirc, no way would I hunt with that.

I remember looking at a thread of site with a bunch of surplus x54r bullets that had been cross sectioned, depending on origin of country there was a steel jacket with a lead core if I remember correctly. Can’t say I would want to cut the tip off those and hunt with them either.
 
Fox said:
It was done in the 20s in Canada by a commercial company, the testing showed how dangerous it was so they had to stop it. They were suppose to dispose of all the ammo but my grandpa ended up with 1, which I now have.

They cut the tip off and then used a mold to make a round nose exposed lead bullet, but ya, the core could blow through and cause deadly problems.

If the FMJ was a solid base then I could see it but most are hollow base, which is very bad.
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That was remanufactured Mk. VI ammunition. Yes, it was dangerous.

Every now and then this business of cutting the tips of fmj bullets off surfaces. Someone will announce that he did it, and nothing untoward happened. No guarantee that the core will squirt though the jacket, no guarantee that it won't.
Foolish stunt. Not only foolish, but unnecessary.
 
Heliian said:
Lol, just cut the tip off. Seems to work, my neighbour does it with his 7.62x39. Is it the best hunting round out there? Probably not, but people have been doing it for decades.
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Like about 50 years ago Epps near Orillia had a few split barrels on display from guys who were cutting the tips off fmj bullets. The core would blow out and leave the jacket behind for the next round.
 
thank you for the input guys,

bearhunter, yes its a MN 91/30

I presume that those that decaped the x54 had no issues with primers? don't want to break my decapping rod like is did on .303 surplus
 
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