.308 dia in Mosin Nagant and SKS?

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Northman999

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Fellows,

Some of reloading manuals (Sierra) list .308 bullets for thier MN and SKS loads, and my Lee dies do as well. How are you guys finding this, or are you even trying it. I'm tending to lean towards .310 and .311 bullets, as I'm sure that's what these rifles are, but with reputable data suggesting .308's work fine, maybe I'm being too anal. My Sierra manual, for example, stated that they found no practical difference when interchanging .308 and .310 bullets.

Obviously using .308 bullets for my rifles offers a greater array of bullet choices. So...who's shooting .308 in their red rifles and how is it going?
 
I have used .308 for my Mosin a M39 Finnish. I measured the bullets from factory ammo( Igman and Bell) and .308 is the dia on those 2. Depends on the gun you have what will work better for accuracy. The Finns were tighter bore's than the rest. Some manuals like you said do list .308 bullets as the ones to use. Results may vary though depending.
 
I have been reloading and shooting 130 HP and 150 grain .308 diameter bullets out of my Polish M-44 carbines and Russian 1891/30 long rifle for over 20 years! They shoot deadly accurate out of my guns so I never bothered getting the larger diameter bullets. Now I suppose if the bore was worn quite a bit, it may get a bit sloppy in the accuracy department but trust me, they shoot fantastic through my excellent condition rifles and if your bore is still in good shape they should in yours. Hope this helps.
Al
 
Thanks fellows. My bore looks basically new. I'll give it a try with both some 311 dia 180's and 308 dia 180's and see what I get. I was kind of worried about gas erosion in the bore with .308 bullets, but it may be a non issue. Might be nice to be able to load some Hornady 220's in .308 dia for a bear load as well.
 
Don't buy in bulk before you find out if your dies will size and crimp the shell down tight enough on those smaller bullets enough to hold them in.

My lee loader won't. It loads them fine with virgin brass, but leaves the little .308 pills just gently held in the cases, and they come loose in the box if they get banged around on the way to the range, or in full recoil in the magazine when shooting.

As for shooting, they work ok, but with no crimp I doubt I'm getting good pressure and velocity.

So...I'm back to .311 bullets for my mosins (i've got a carbine and a 91/30 both)

*Note* I can't really fault the lee loader. After all, the specs DO say... .311 diameter.
 
The 28's had .308 bores and some others were also rebarreled by Tikka,Sako and posibly Steyr.Bore sizes vary slug and measure..........SKS should all be .310..........Harold
 
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