7.62X54R Manual Conflict Help!

Drachenblut

Drachenblut

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Hello All,

I own 2 loading manuals, 1 is the "Modern Reloading By Richard Lee" Latest date 2001. and 2 is "The Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading Third Edition"

In the Lee, it lists a minimum load for IMR 4350 as 44.1 Grns, and a Max of 46.0 for 180 grn jacketed .310 bullet. HOWEVER, it says "These are reduced loads from a near same size cartridge" What...the...heck?

In the Hornady, it lists for IMR 4350 a 47.2 grn minimum and a 51.5 grn maximum. This is for a .308 diameter 180 grn bullet.

Firstly, what is with the HUGE inconsistency?

Secondly, my friend and I have done a huge look over the internet, these manuals and common sence and have come up with the idea for 48.0 grns of IMR 4350 behind a 180 grain Remington Core-Lockt SP .310 bullet, in a Remington brass case, Winchester LR Primer. This will be shot from an M91 Mosin Nagant with a 30" approx barrel out to 100 yards on irons. IS THIS LOAD SAFE!?

Speedy reply welcome!

Thanks,
Drachenblut
 
I load Hornady .312 150 gr. bullets in the nagant with no issue using there data. Hornady's data will be for there bullets, Lee's Data could be any ones bullet, bearing surface of each bullet will give different pressure(amount of the bullet that is actually .310" vs over all length), also guilding metal compositon and core hardness will affect pressure. One would think that caution is king here so start low and work up. Do not go below published minimun data. Lee could have different lawyers than Hornady, who require more or less safety factor, if it turns into a law suit and they can say we publish data thats "x" % below actual max.
Good shooting

A
 
Shouldn't even need to be said but, start low and work up to max. No two guns are the same nor will the max loads be the same. Lee most likely did not use the same barrel/pressure setup as Hornady. Back to reloading 101
 
Drachenblut said:
Hello All,

I own 2 loading manuals, 1 is the "Modern Reloading By Richard Lee" Latest date 2001. and 2 is "The Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading Third Edition"

In the Lee, it lists a minimum load for IMR 4350 as 44.1 Grns, and a Max of 46.0 for 180 grn jacketed .310 bullet. HOWEVER, it says "These are reduced loads from a near same size cartridge" What...the...heck?
Click to expand...

It means they didn't even fire a 7.62x54R, they took some data from another similarly sized cartridge and made an educated guess. Probably a conservative guess, probably a good guess, probably a safe guess. But to be honest, it is a guess.

Your researched load of 48 grains is likely to be safe, especially since it seems to be in line with a Hornady manual (and it also passes my own smell test based on experience with .308W and .30-06, which bracket the 7.62x54R in case volume).
 
Yes, according to all data I have aquired, 48.0 grains is a safe load, with the bullet seated near the max for the cartridge. The Hornady and Lyman books are in agreement on the load data, and I know 48.0 is about 3 grains under max and 1 grain over.

Cheers,
Drachenblut
 
Why the huge inconsistency you ask? Well - Its a military cartridge from a foreign country, with rifles dating back to pre WW1, and barrels of varying sizes. So there are no prescriptions like modern cartridges... BTW - If you are going to depend upon the internet for reloading advice, then dont "cherrypick" the advice. It was suggested that you slug your bore - some rifles have 308 sized bores, and some have 311 sized bores. There is a big difference between trying to force a 311 pill down a 308 bore and a 308 pill down a 311 bore! This may be a contributing reason for the variance in load info above.
 
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