Best way to feed our Christmas toys?

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I'm not sure if this is the proper forum for these questions. Moderators, please move this as you see fit.
I pulled the trigger on getting the 5 pak special from TradeEx for myself, I mean my sons for Christmas. This means that we now require ammo for the beasts. 7.62x54R, 7.62x39, and 8mm Mauser. I have accumulated most of the equipment that I need for reloading but I think we will want to shoot these long before I have all the components assembled and put together. Any suggestions on which surplus to purchase? I have read that Czech is probably the way to go for the SKS ammo. How about the Nagants? Is it worth buying bulk surplus in the 7.62x54R or will I be wanting to load my own ASAP to try and calm the recoil? We have never fired this calibre before.
Which brass and primers do you folks like to load with? We will also be loading for the 8mm, 8x56R, .303, and 7x57. I'm going to start nosing around the reloading forum to try and find some of your favorite load recipes. Even after reading several reloading manuals I am still unsure of how to select a powder to load with.
Thanks, Paul
p.s. I would like to thank TradeEx and UPS for their amazing performance. I placed my order with TradeEx late afternoon on Dec.19. The order was processed with UPS late on the 23rd and the box arrived before noon on the 24th. Stunning, or were expectations too low?
 
I would reload for them right out of the gate, but I hate cleaning up after corrosive ammo with a passion. I would suggest PRVI brass for all the caliber a that you can use it for. Primers, semi auto I always use the hardest primers I can get. For bolt guns I've been using whatever I can get my hands on.

As far as powder goes, I usually go online and read what others are having good luck with and then start at a start load with that powder and a given bullet and work up from there.
 
I like the Czech surplus if I can find it for a decent price. For the 7.62x54, I got an 880 round case of Russian surplus locally for a good price. MFS is reasonably priced if you just want a few boxes for a test shoot, plus it's non corrosive. I use it when time is of the essence and I don't have time for a full clean. Compare the recoil of the x54 to shooting a 30 06 without a recoil pad. Not unbearable for an adult, but the young'uns might have a bit of a time with it.
Snoop around the milsurp forum for some plinker 303 loads the boys post from time to time. Somebody's likely cooked up a Mosin load as well.
And yeah, Tradeex is a great place to deal. Always prompt shipping in my experience.
 
Cleaning up after corrosive ammo in a bolt action is not any more time consuming. Just run some hot water through a funnel in the bore on the breech side, then carry on cleaning. I use it in my Mosins with no problems.
It's more time in the SKS because the corrosive salts will get into the whole action, but the price of corrosive is so cheap for the 7.62x39. So learn to strip it down, soak in hot water and clean as required. All part of the SKS and AK47 fun IMO. They've been shooting corrosive since their inventions.

There's no readily available surplus for the 8mm Mauser, so reloading is a great option. Buys some PRVI or S&B ammo and use the cases to reload after if you're in a hurry.
 
I guess that is the crux of the question. Do we jump right into reloading, buy some cheap surplus so that we can have some fun right away, or buy 2 or 3 boxes of each round in non-corrosive so we can play a little and still have brass that can be reused? Trying to figure out what makes the most sense by drawing on the experience of those that have been down this road before us.
 
Buy surplus for the Russian rifles and start to get componants for the others to handload. I have handloads and surplus for my Mosin, depends on what I'm doing. If I want better accuracy I use handloads. Blasting away hard to beat surplus. I don't reload for SKS, surplus way too cheap to consider it.

Trade Ex has good selection of componants. As far as powders go look in your manuals and see if one can cross over to multiple calibers. I use Varget and IMR 4895 for most of my reloads.
 
I should have signed into this a couple of days ago, but have been worked off my feet with cooking meals, visitors and the like. And everything is 3 times as hard because I have increasing trouble just standing up, but it has to be done. My apologies.

I would set up for reloading as quickly as possible. Include a Forster bullet-puller with collets for .30-calibre and .32-calibre.

Start with a couple or 3 boxes of fresh commercial ammo (or the brass) for the 8x57 and the 7.62x54. You can buy fresh Boxer-primed brass for the 7.62x39 as well.

Buy crates of the military surplus ammo and use it for COMPONENTS. Most surplus is surplus for a reason. The old corrosive primers were NOT stable. At 30, 40, 50, 60 years old, they are all past their prime and are getting more than a bit dodgy. So you replace them by tearing down the military ammo and loading the charges and bullets into new NC/NM/Boxer primed brass. The powder was properly made, as were the bullets..... and they do not deteriorate to any extent.

You get rid of the corrosion problem and you restore the military loads to their original performance, which, generally, was well under 2 MOA. A 40-cent surplus cartridge gives you a 30-cent or 35-cent bullet and a 25-cent powder charge. You can restore that to almost-match condition by replacing the primers.

When reloading, there are a number of factors to consider. Short barrels need faster powders. Military ammo generally is loaded with fairly-fast powders to begin with: less tonnage, less expense, less shipping, less load for the troopies. Powders such as 3031, 4064, 4895 will do for any fullbore smokeless military round. A quicker powder such as 4198, RL-7 will do nicely for the 7.62x39. You only need any of them after you have shot off your military stuff or a chunk of it..... or if you want to load hunting rounds which require soft-nose bullets.

With gas-operated semi-autos, always be sure that the gas or gas-bleed is set to just tip the fired casing out of the rifle. You get better accuracy, less battering of the action and less kick.

If you want to shoot a lot..... and do it cheaply...... consider the Harris Load with CAST bullets. You can load a full box of shells for $2.25 or less. That's for the 8x57, 7.62x54 but also works for 7x57, .303, .30-06, .308 and many others.

Good luck and good shootin'!
 
I'm a major supporter of reloading as well. I own and shoot more than a few military rifles. In 30 plus years I've never fired a single round of corrosive ammo. I've had excellant sucess in putting together accurate and economical cast loads for 8x57, 7.62x54R and 8x56 as well as most other mid bore military cartriges. Cast loads are easy on the shoulder, ears, brass, bore and wallet. What more can you wish for?
 
Each to their own on this topic. All of the above are correct. I use surplus for my Russians as it is cheap, fun and easy to get. My eyes aren't as good as they used to be so getting those 1" groups just doesn't happen any more. None of my Russians are scoped. If they were then I would reload. Cleaning after every shoot is something I do anyway so the corrosive ammo doesn't bother me. If you have an SVT40, stay away from the PRC (Chinese) ammo. A lot of the SVTs don't like it. None of mine do.
I reload my 303 as 50 cents a round is cheaper than buying new and it makes the evenings go by on a rainy day. I reload light to save the brass and very light for younger shooters.
 
Unless you pierce a primer, typically an SKS action doesn't get corrosive salt in the action. The worst deposits will be in the bore with some more in the gas tube and on the gas piston. I've never even gotten corrosive salts into the rear sight block - to doesn't migrate that far.

If you do pierce a primer though, yes, you will have to wash down the whole action with hot water, then spray with WD40 or similar to displace the water. Luckily these beauties field strip very easily.
 
I buy the corrosive ammo and clean up afterwards, part of the reason I picked up the SKS's and Mosins was for the good price of guns and ammo. It would be a good idea to stock up with all the ammo you can afford while its still plentiful. Eventually supplies will dry up.
 
Thanks for the reply's, I got called into work yesterday so I'm just getting caught up now. I appreciate the suggestions that, to so many of you must seem obvious.
I appreciate the idea of firing $0.17 surplus ammo, I could easily live with that price. What concerns me is my lack of experience in stripping down firearms. I was not raised with firearms in our home so I have always been fearful of stripping down a rifle for fear of damaging it or not being able to reassemble it. For this reason Smelli's suggestion of pulling bullets to reload the components into clean brass with boxer primers sounds less intimidating than breaking down and washing these rifles every time they are fired.
Any opinions on the Grip-N-Pull bullet puller as opposed to the Forster collet puller? It looks quicker and easier to use, set up time is nothing.
How do you safely dispose of the emptied brass with the live berdan primers still in place?
 
There are a lot of great threads here with good pictures as well as YouTube videos on stripping any rifle.

Take your time, don't rush. Take pictures at each step if you want, then you'll have a reference library of your own if you forgot where or how something fit.

I grew up like you, nobody collected or shot firearms. It's pretty easy to learn to strip a rifle and clean it. Good luck !!

BB
 
The hardest to field strip is the SVT but after a few times its easy too.

Mosin and mauser are a joke and sks is really easy.

I would shoot surplus out of all of them

I have fired 1000s of rounds of 762x54r, 762x39 and 8mm and not had one hangfire or dud. Maybe ive been lucky. I have had a hard primer where a 2nd strike was needed.

To me buying surplus for the parts is not getting you anywhere. You have to buy a crate of surplus $300 then new primed cases?? then your time to unload and reload, that time could just be spent cleaning, and you wouldn't have to buy new brass. If you want better quality i can totally understand doing it, but just for your average plinker.......i would just blast away.
 
I recently traded for some I.G. Canada DI Z 303 from 1944 and some Greek HXP surplus 303. The primers look like standard non-corrosive, but I'm just not sure. The Greek I'm quite sure is non-corrosive, but the Canadian is still a mystery. Can you guys help me out?



 
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You should learn how to strip down your rifles and clean properly.

The SKS uses a floating firing pin that if sticks can cause slam firing. I have witnessed this happen once at the range. Not a good thing. Check out you tube for videos on this.

Lots of info on red rifles forum on how to strip and clean.
 
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