mosin ammo alert!

emmab

emmab

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I had my Mosin M44 out today at the range and everything was going well until I had a jam and couldn't open the bolt without pounding on it. To my surprise, when I did get it opened, I found the casing on one of the rounds had split wide open. After this I checked and found another casing that showed similar stress cracks. The rifle is almost new(for a 1951 polish) showing no use, with good rifling and a good fitting bolt. This was a different batch of ammo than the regular X54R that I usually use. I can only assume that there is something wrong with this lot as I had no problems with the other 20 or 30 rounds that I sent down range. Both the cases are out of the same box. Any ideas? Thanks Pete
 
Usually the Prvi Partizan ammunition is good. Cases can split on occasion; if it was made July 1967, its 39 years old.
 
If you look at the stamping, you'll notice that it is actually 1945 vintage (country code on top and two digit date of manufacture on the bottom). It is not true yugo ammo either - they just replaced the original primers with sealed ones (red color around edge), probably around 1967. I have shot the same ammo in a 1953 Polish M-44 with similar results. Had approximately 5 out of a pack of 15 split, usually at the neck or shoulder. This is the worst ammo for splitting that I have tried, but the Hungarian light ball (1951 vintage with Nicaraguan Ministry of Health stamps on the crate) produced about 10 out of 250 split cases. No such incidents with Igman ammo, but a lot more $$ to shoot and probably a lot more elastic brass.
Can anyone with Mosin experience also chime in on whether this is simply ammo deterioration or a sign of excess headspace (not quite willing to spend more on headspace gauges than the rifle just to find out it is bad ammo).
 
Thanks for the quick replies. So am I to understand that there is no real trouble with this stuff more than a stuck bolt? This is the first time I've tried this sort of ammo. I picked it up at a gunshow out here. I've had no other trouble with the M44. The rifle is a beaut., looks brand new with matching everything. So I don't expect a headspace prob. But you never know till you check I guess. Polar you're right on the money with the headstamp, 1945, w/ red sealer around primer and what looks like 188 at the 12oclock I just found the mosin site with headstamp guide and now see it's Russian.

http://www.mosinnagant.net/i3tro4.asp
 
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The package is Yugo - mine had a translated label from the importer on it as well (also "nny" is a Yugo armament stamp). My ammo was a mixed bag of nny stamped ammo and Soviet, both 1945 vintage. It is my understanding that sealed primers were not utilized with the ammo in the eastern bloc until the 1960s, so this is definitely retrofit. The rounds also appear to have been tumbled, as you will probably see with the beat up and barely legible stampings. I don't know if this has anything to do with the increased case failure. I've come from shooting primarily factory ammo in everything else that I own, so I can't really comment on whether such case failure is a 'normal' occurance with surplus (it would definitely be alarming in factory ammo). I hope others can offer more insight in that respect.
 
Stevo said:
Over the years I've had lots of steel cased ammo crack like that in various rifles. It's never bothered me.
Click to expand...
X2.
The old Soviet Era stuff is not exactly well made by modern or commercial standards. Some of it from various batches is known for having slightly shorter casings, that don't take the expansion from firing well. Splits at the neck and shoulder are relatively common on the old steel junk, but putting a number to it, like 1 in 100 would be tough (if you look closely at some of the steel casings you will sometimes see folds and creases in the neck and shoulder). In effect the old ammo in those 15rd boxes was never the best grade ammo, so don't sweat it if you get a few splits like that. If it turn into radial splits etc then thats different.
The MN is a fantastic design for casing failures, I usually only found mine when examining brass afterwards. Casing and primer failures are something MNs just seem to gobble up.
 
he Hugarian heavy ball does that all the time. Picking through the brass from my various mosins, it seems rare to find a case that's not split a little, although I must admit I've never seen one as long as the split on the right. I would't blame the gun though, Commie ammo specs are prob. to blame here...
 
Cyrillic "nny" is "PPU" in Roman orthography. Prvi Partizan, Uzice, Serbia. Headspace is a longitudinal situation and a head separation could result; a case split like these is on the circumference and will be unrelated to headspace. Less ductile case material, so it splits instead of expanding.
 
Look at the size of the reciever on the M44. Germans had TANKS with steel that thick protecting their crews.

Don'tcha worry, a little cracked case won't do diddly to a Mosin. I had one split on me a little while ago from my own Mosin. Didn't even notice it until I was picking up the casings.
 
OK, so if you were looking to buy surplus x54R ammo, what would you recommend?

The DIstricorp light or heavy ball, or the Marstar Czech stuff???
 
Districorp light and heavy work fine in all my mosins, your mileage may vary though. Some people think the Czech lacquered cases contribute to sticky bolt. I haven't experimented with the czech enough to say one way or another. I bought a case of czech for my SVT-40. The districorp light ball comes on stripper clips which come in handy if you like to use those (I do).
 
If you really want to see what a Moisin-Nagant will do, start handloading.

Some of them are 1 MOA rifles, although 1-1/4 is pretty good. But they shoot like junk if you shoot junk ammo in them.

US manuals recommend a .308 slug; we find that group sizes HALVE if you use a .311 or .312.

have fun......
 
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