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Hello all - does anyone here reload the 7.62 x 54R? Wondering whether to bother gearing up for it at the moment or whether to just use surplus @ around £28 per 100 in my new (well, you know what I mean!) M44? I already load my own .223/.303/.308 but it would mean another powder, another set of dies, yada yada yada...

I'm probably only going to be using it at around 200yds for poking holes in bits of paper, and for a service rifle type comp I guess supreme accuracy is not a major benefit! Cheers.

We have loaded a lot of 54R in the past, it is a very forgiving round to load as well however with 54R light ball at the price it is loading your own is hard to justify.

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.

Depends on the accuracy you want, if you are happy with the mil ball then stuck with it but if you want to tighten up your groups then handloading is the way to go.

Its a great cast boolit round BTW.

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

Hi Doz.
I reload for both my mosins sniper and M44, if you are thinking of reloading may I suggest you slug the bore first, to check the bullet diamiter. Most factory 7.62x54 is .311"dia or above so fits the rifling well, reloading bullets in 7.62 are size .308" a tad small. Also you should wash out the barrel well if using milspec ammo, as they tend to have corrosive primers. Reloading ones are not (I don't think "ovenpaa").
I use the same powder for my nagants as my .303 .308 7.92 which is Hogdon H4895 need advice just ask..

Yep its .311" I've shot/shoot in all mine. As bnz41 said slug to be sure.

Good point, Milsurp do use 'corrosive' primers so the barrel will need a good clean out ASAP after shooting. The issue is the salts left in the barrel are hygroscopic so they attract moisture and promote quite rapid rusting. No such issues with modern primers. Also milsurp is going to be Berdan primed so not really suitable for reloading as removing and sourcing new primers is a PITA.

I have some slugs I can post out if you want a few

Thanks very much indeed everyone, I think this is the prompt to start boolit casting. I already cast balls for muzzleloading and my old man was a printer so I can source some decent metal. Will buy a few rounds of surplus to have a go over the weekend then think about reloading. Will be back for advice! Cheers.

Good on you that man.