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Heh! I could not make up my mind if this was still 54R or had skipped to .303 We also used Lee dies for 54R and I only ever used full length sizing dies and had no issues with them.

Ah, that's OK - wasn't me then! You have however set me wondering whether I can modify a .303 collet die to size 54R...

They are actually quite close other than the shoulder angle but it looks like it can be done

Thanks for that, yes it looks as though it should be possible and relatively simple although trying it on my old 1947 Myford might be chancing it a bit. I suspect I'll just buy a full-length set of Lee dies - life's too short!

I would say if you have an old set of .303 Lee dies have a try. Really all you are doing is boring it very slightly and changing the shoulder angle, you can grind up a boring bar for that and off you go :)

G'wan you know you want to try it...

Doz,

If you're interested I've a brand new (and unused) set of Lyman dies consisting of a full length resizing die with decapping stem and neck expanding button and a bullet seating die (Part #7452291).

Ah, could be! PM'd you.

ovenpaa wrote:

Doz wrote:Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought. Is light ball the way to go you think? I was thinking of trying a hundred of light and a hundred heavy to see how they compared.

M44? Avoid the heavy ball. Really! It is hard hitting stuff and in the M44 is quickly going to become a pain, literally. We used S&B 147's in .308" to great effect with Vectan SP9 and Magtech primers, they make for a cheap load and are certainly accurate to 600m

Tried both in all my Nagants for which I have three. The silvertip lightball is the clear winner for me, shame there is none left :/

Finally got a chance to slug the bore today and got a bit of a surprise - .3135 according to my digital vernier. Clearly .308 isn't going to cut the mustard, should I be going with .311 or trying to get something closer to .313? Would appreciate some wisdom from the boolit experts here please!

According to http://www.7.62x54r.net (the Mosin Nagant reference on the web) with a groove diameter of 0.313", a 0.311 or 0.312" bullet should work very well indeed.