The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Myself and a few mates download 7.62x39 for our indoor range, I mexican match with steel cases and the other guys just load up Lapua cases, none of us mess with flash holes etc, I use 6gr Red Dot and a .303 cast bullet, it's a similair load / case volume to .44 special. As for accuracy, it groups the same as my Winchester.

What weight bullet are you using. Is it a .311 or .312 boolit.

There is absolutely no need to drill the flash holes Dave.

Harris only suggests this if you want to avoid the shoulder moving back over multiple firings, he does not say it is at all necessary for the round to function well or be safe.

I never drill out primer pockets and just FL resize the case in the event of any shoulder movement. Looks like you took a Mohamed Storey interpretation of old Harris's writing there Dave.

The boolit I recommend and use for all this indoor 30 calibre shooting is the 115 gn Soupcan (Lyman 311316/311008 styles, NOE do a very good version of this mould PB or GC in 311, 314 and 316 diameters) gas checked, unchecked and plain based depending on the rifles preference, it just plain works at these distances, it will struggle a bit over 50 yrds but for indoor shooting it is the only boolit you will ever need over 4 gns of any fast pistol powder like N310, Bullseye, Clays, Red Dot, Nobel 78, W231, Howitzer, Nobel Pistol No3, HP38, N320 etc.

Large pistol primers work fine but there is the slightly greater risk of a pierced cup, not really an issue so long as you are wearing eye protection as the pressure is not high and there is no danger of shrapnel, its just like a .22 rim fire piercing. I use PPU pistol primers as the cups seem quiet hard and have never had a pierced cup yet over thousands of rounds.

Don't make it complcated, just load, shoot and enjoy the one ragged hole on the target.

For longer distances out to 300 yrds then the best boolits for the 7.62 x 39 is Harris's AK 47 designs as produced by Lee, the C312-155-2R grease groove and the CTL-312-160-2R tumble lube design, if you are lucky enough to get a good mould that casts to speccy then these are fine bullets too.

For longer distances out to 300 yrds then the best boolits for the 7.62 x 39 is Harris's AK 47 designs as produced by Lee, the C312-155-2R grease groove and the CTL-312-160-2R tumble lube design, if you are lucky enough to get a good mould that casts to speccy then these are fine bullets too.

Are these the 125g soup cans you mean. I have this mould I might even have the other one as well some were.

Hard to tell from the top photo Dave but they do look like soupcans, usually they are a bit lighter at 115gns.

The second photo is one of Harrisis's designs, my moulds of these designs are six cavity and cast little bit larger than the Lee two cavity at a true 0.315" with WW/range scrap. What does that one drop them at?

Alpha1 wrote:

one of the guys I shoot with has reloaded 7.62x39 with home casts if I remember correctly he claims a cost of 9p a round

Any idea what sort of boolit he is using what weight and what powder charge etc.

I can try and find out, but I know he has reloaded the steel cases with Berdan primers, and they group nicely into a barn door at 100m's