- Location
- Beaverlodge, Alberta
7.62x54R surplus reloaded
- Thread starter flying pig
- Start date
- Location
- Beaverlodge, Alberta
Well, things did not turn out at all like I had expected!
The surplus/surplus combo was all over the place, velocity and grouping. Like 6”+ at 120m and max spread was around 300fps. It wound up much hotter than the factory load too, 2825-3125fps. No pressure signs, but cooking on er.
The CamPro worked much better, 3.5” ish, but still horrible. MV spread was more manageable, max was 2675-2825. Still not great! And not nearly what I had expected. The switch from Berdan primers and the steel cases must make that much of a difference!
Could the primers be that much colder possibly? I have about 500 Ginex primers that often fail to ignite with our powders and with a firing pin that hits softer than the Mosin. Perhaps I should try another small batch using those primers and see what happens…only takes an hour to work some up.
Crazy thing about this is I have loaded these bullets and this powder (20% less volume) into PRIVI cases with normal LR primers for my 303s and they all print really nice groups with that load.
Back to the drawing board!
The surplus/surplus combo was all over the place, velocity and grouping. Like 6”+ at 120m and max spread was around 300fps. It wound up much hotter than the factory load too, 2825-3125fps. No pressure signs, but cooking on er.
The CamPro worked much better, 3.5” ish, but still horrible. MV spread was more manageable, max was 2675-2825. Still not great! And not nearly what I had expected. The switch from Berdan primers and the steel cases must make that much of a difference!
Could the primers be that much colder possibly? I have about 500 Ginex primers that often fail to ignite with our powders and with a firing pin that hits softer than the Mosin. Perhaps I should try another small batch using those primers and see what happens…only takes an hour to work some up.
Crazy thing about this is I have loaded these bullets and this powder (20% less volume) into PRIVI cases with normal LR primers for my 303s and they all print really nice groups with that load.
Back to the drawing board!
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At least now youve got fire formed brass. What powders do you have on hand for the next load out with the 311 speers? 4064 or varget might be a good place to start. 4895 worked phenomenal in every milsurp I loaded for (especially 303 out of a No 4). Do you have a collet die for 54r?
- Location
- Beaverlodge, Alberta
No collet die. But I have Varget and 4895 on hand. I think I have a handful of Speers. I have another 311 150gr flat based bullet as well, plus Sierra pro hunter 180s and the 174gr MkVIIs, and some Hornady 174 RN 311s.
