I have found that standard light ball Russian or Czech (mild steel core) will get you a decent group at 100 meters for an old Soviet war horse rifle.
First off I consider myself an average shot. I won't make any claims to have shot a 1 inch group at 500 meters with irons on one foot with a SKS
I have hit a medium sized steel plate easily and consecutively (about 24" x 24") at 300 meters with an M44 carbine using surplus Czech Mild Steel Core ammunition and iron sights from the prone with an old duffel bag for a rest
( my standard target shooting set up lolol )
I have not pushed it out further than that
yet. But I believe you could easily hit a man sized target well out to 600 meters and maybe a bit further, which is what they were intended to do.
I have also used S&B 7.62 x 54R brass cased ammo and found not very much improvement. This was in a Soviet M44 carbine with a near mint barrel however.
I have never had a stoppage with either brand of ammuntion surplus or consumer brands in the Mosin. She is rock of reliability.
I just picked up a $100 Mosin 91/30 in great condition. Next time I can get to the gun range I'm going to start at 100m and push it back to 600m with surplus and see if I can still hit a figure 11 target.
The longer barrel of the 91/30 should significantly improve accuracy with the higher quality S&B ammo I have. I am curious to compare the two. Of course, in my mind I'm hoping it's a tack driver lol but I have come to realize that most military surplus rifles are not meant or were not designed to all be sniper rifles/tack drivers I have no delusions that I will be "keyholing" shots with it.
I have found in any surplus rifle that merely swapping surplus ammo for high quality stuff does not drasticaly improve accuracy unless the rifle was designed and renowned for tack driving. Case in point, the SVT-40. My tuned Norc M14 with match ammo doesn't even shoot as tight a group as my SVT-40 with Russian surplus ammo lol
Such is the whacky world of shooting milsurps I suppose.
