Hey all let me preface this by saying I’ve never had any experience reloading beyond casting musket balls and minie bullets. I’m looking at getting a .311 mold and die set to try reloading for my PU mosin. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this and if they had any advice for beginners or if it is even worthwhile as far as seeing a return on accuracy compared to commercial grade ammo. I’ve been reading up on this forum and others but would like to talk or hear someone with some first hand knowledge if at all possible. All I have for reloading gear right now is one of the chincy lee single stage presses. I would like to know if the juice is worth the squeeze financially, I don’t know how far I really have to go down the rabbit hole trying to break into reloading for the first time. Thanks to anyone who cares to respond.
Some questions getting into reloading via 7.62x54r
- Thread starter Kalinka
- Start date
BlackPowderBurner
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- the chesterfield
Do not go buying a .311 mold until you slug your barrel and measure the actual diameter you're loading for. Reloading 7.62x54r is very much worthwhile. Personally I hardly shoot any commercial or jacketed ammunition anymore it's 90% cast and 7.62x54r is one of my favourite calibres. The Lee single stage presses work just fine. Just because it's not a fancy Forster Co-Ax doesn't mean you won't turn out excellent ammunition. I would suggest that for the hobbyist, the press you use has one of the smallest impacts on your ammunition quality (assuming you don't have a complete lemon). Your powder measurement, die set up, and consistent bullet casing technique all matter much much more.
Here are the things I would suggest for you; read the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, read From Ingot to Target, buy yourself a lead thermometer, buy good callipers, slug your bore, and get a quality scale. The two books I referenced can be found for free online. If you have trouble finding them, pm me.
Here are the things I would suggest for you; read the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, read From Ingot to Target, buy yourself a lead thermometer, buy good callipers, slug your bore, and get a quality scale. The two books I referenced can be found for free online. If you have trouble finding them, pm me.
KotKotofeich
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Ottawa Valley
BPB is right about slugging the bore. If I might suggest, look into powdercoating bullets - you can build up your bullets to the right size from commercial (you will still need da sizer). I like pc bullets more than just cast for general cleanliness.
With excellent accuracy from Mosins possible with commercial ammo (like Barnaul or PRVI) and even with some surplus, I'm skeptical that it can be improved upon with cast bullets (at, say, 300 to 500m). Even with proper jacketed bullets I've had a struggle to come up with handloads that improve upon available ammo. One PU Sniper that I've worked with quite a bit finally responded to a specific load that had the neck resized and the shoulder bumped back a few thousands of an inch. Neck-sizing only did not see any improvement over full-length-resized. These loads are also close enough ballistically to the real thing to allow for decent calibration with settings on iron sights and the scopes.
milsurpo
milsurpo
