Lee Loader

Looking through the 2018 Hodgdon Manual/magazine for loading info that I might have components on hand I noticed that all the loads they list for jacketed bullets list .308 as the diameter. I'm somehow under the impression that the 54R took fatter bullets. Anyone here with experience. A year so back I was trying to do some cast and discovered that anything smaller than around 312/314 were useless. I still not sure this particular rifle is a cast bullet shooter any way.

Make smoke,

People use .308 and they can be used to hit the target. All the reload data I have uses .308. The actual diameter should be .311 in a jacketed bullet. The major bullet makers specify this on some of the bullets "for 7.7 Japanese, .303 British and 7.62 Russian" is how I saw on of them on line. Johnny's reloading bench on youtube compared his 7.62 x 54 R loads using different loads in . 308, .311 and .312. Long videos but worth a look.

The Finns re-barrelled stacks of 91 Mosins to shoot .308 bullets after their war of independence and civil war in 1917-18. These rifles are still around. The Finns went to .310 when they introduced the M39. I use .311 bullets in my Mosin as they are more available. What manual are you using? My manuals all list a .310 standard but I believe this is in deference to the many Finn M39's in circulation. The Russian M91 and derivatives seem to hover around .312. The only real way to know is to slug the barrel. I have seen M91's with very good barrels slug at .314. If you are unfamiliar with the technique it is explained on many forums. Just one tip, do not simply slug the last inch of the muzzle. All military cleaning rods were made from steel. Repeated cleanings wore the muzzles down.

Manufacturing tolerances for military rifles tended to be quite generous although countries like Switzerland and Sweden, who didn't have to produce millions of rifles under wartime conditions, produced rifles that match or even exceed some modern offerings.

My Moison is one of the short rifles, don't recall the date, but post war out of Tula. I'm going to put a few together with these Speer .308 and see what happens. Some where I've got some Sierra bullets that I bought for the 7.62x39, i I can track them down I'll give them a shot also.

Make smoke,

My Moison is one of the short rifles, don't recall the date, but post war out of Tula. I'm going to put a few together with these Speer .308 and see what happens. Some where I've got some Sierra bullets that I bought for the 7.62x39, if I can track them down I'll give them a shot also.

Make smoke,

Also bear in mind some companies (such as Lee) refer to the 7.62X39 as 7.62 Russian....and the bigger brother as 7.62X54R (R for Russian).

Clear as mud?

I thought the R was for rimmed ........

And you are right. The European nomenclature is very straight forward, no need to learn the arbitrary makers names.

Fyodor wrote:And you are right. The European nomenclature is very straight forward, no need to learn the arbitrary makers names.

Hmmm you mean all those added Mauser, Mannilcher, Saur, Krag-Jorgenson, Breneke etc. are not really names Then there is the confusing plethora of British ones which like NA names may indicate any number of measurements and have all sorts of added names. I will concede that the general rule in Europe of bullet diameter and case length to designate the caliber is more accurate and descriptive.

One thing I do find with European calibers is the many instances of both a rimmed and non-rimmed version. I have read this was often done for single shot and combination guns that break open.

I guess you'll just have to slug the barrel and see exactly what you've got. I've got an Enfield, 303 that is "supposed to be" .311" - .312' but slugs at .318"!..