Is anyone loading 174gr bullets in their 7.62x39?

[jbmauser]

I was given over 200 174gr FMJ bullets pulled from military .303 British rounds and was thinking of using them for cheap target practice rounds out of my son's 7.62x39. It's a Zastava M85 mini mauser.

I'm not interested in getting top velocity or anything like that, just some mild loads that could be used to punch paper would be great.

 

[Ganderite]

Can you seat them deep enough?

You can probably make them go bang, but they are better suited for a 303 Brit, or a Mossy Maggot.

If you want cheap plinkers, buy some 150 gr lead RN bullets made for a 303. They would shoot much better.

 

[M1-Garand]

I was given over 200 174gr FMJ bullets pulled from military .303 British rounds and was thinking of using them for cheap target practice rounds out of my son's 7.62x39. It's a Zastava M85 mini mauser.

I'm not interested in getting top velocity or anything like that, just some mild loads that could be used to punch paper would be great.

I would trade you for 124 gr bullets I pulled from Chinese 7.62x39 ammo.

 

[MuthaFunk]

I was given over 200 174gr FMJ bullets pulled from military .303 British rounds and was thinking of using them for cheap target practice rounds out of my son's 7.62x39. It's a Zastava M85 mini mauser.

I'm not interested in getting top velocity or anything like that, just some mild loads that could be used to punch paper would be great.

I’ve loaded 200 gr lead bullets in 7.62X39 cases for my Zastava M85. They worked pretty good out to 100M. I was getting 2” group with them. The freebore in my M85 is rather large and would easily take 174gr copper bullets. The trick with those is getting your powder right. If you have 18 gr to start of 4198 or some AA1680 you can get them to work well to approx 1700 fps.

Use this data at your own risk. I assume no liability for these loads. I used quickload to map out a general starting point of 18 gr @ 35,000 psi.

 

[Andy]

I've gone as heavy as 230 grs in the 7.62X39, for the most part with subsonic loads using Red Dot, but some with 174 gr at about 1800 fps with H4895.

 

[nrut]

Been shooting 183 gr. cast in my CZ 527 using 23 grs. of H4895 = 2" ave. 5 shot groups @ 100m..
Very loud in the the short barreled CZ..

Hasn't been Chronyed in my rifle, but others @ the castbullet site are getting around 1850 fps with longer barrels..