7.62X54R reloading concern

[Swiend]

Hi all, I've been wanting to press a bunch of rounds for my Mosin M44. I bought an older set of Hornady dies with the standard .308 expander. So I made up a couple of dummy rounds to see how a .311 bullet would fit after the brass was resized to the smaller dimension. Check out the pic and let me know if it would be hazardous to shoot these. You can clearly see the step where the bullet was pressed in. Any thoughts? I did slug the barrel and it mic'd at .313.

Just wanted to add that these were quite easy to press.

 

[mbogo3]

If it chambers ok it will fireform to fit the chamber.Phone Hornady and talk nice ,they'll likely send you the correct expander for free................Harold

 

[Ryan500]

From my own experience I can say that I did the same thing with my lee dies for about three months till I got the .311 expander. I had zero issues, a few range gods told me I would split necks, no such thing happened.

It's not proper but caused me no problems, but every rifle is different, be safe, enjoy loading.

 

[Splatter]

The only place you'll probably run into problems is seating flat based bullets, they'll be a bit tough to get started, proceed carefully when raising the ram, if it starts to feel "funny" lower the ram and have a look. I've wrecked a bunch of cases by crunching the neck in similar situations.

As for problems shooting the ammo? Nah, it'll be fine.

 

[Swiend]

Thanks guys, the dummy rounds cycle and chamber well. I'll try Hornady for a larger expander as well.

 

[donor]

You might want to look into anealing.It will extent life of your cases and prevent cplit cases to some degree.

It's very easy process and can be done using drill,propane torch and bowl of water.

 

[mbogo3]

Make sure you tell them what kind of dies you have as they have changed a few things over the years.they used to make Pacific dies. My Hornady dies for 7.62x39 came with both a .308 +.311 expander.My SKS will shoot both well..........good luck.........Harold

 

[Ganderite]

It will increase neck tension and improve your SD and Extreme Spread numbers. It is the preferred set up for match grade ammo.

But flat based bullets won't seat well.

 

[Swiend]

Just an update, I loaded about 30 rounds with a mild dose of H4895 and shot them this weekend. First time shooting my M44, it ate them up and spit them out without a problem. Pretty accurate as well.

 

[Ryan500]

Glad to hear it, reloading is almost as fun as shooting!

 

[Rocket Surgery]

It's perfectly safe man, but won't work well with flat based bullets. I've been meaning to load some 174g .311 RN bullets for my Mosin, so I use a .311 expander.