Given that I'm going to be getting my Mosin next week, I was wondering who's ammo you like to use. I went looking at a couple of gun shops today, and the prices at the local shops are way higher than the prices on the internet. I've looked at several online stores but the problem is that I don't know a thing about quality. What has the most consistent loads? New Remington or Winchester, milsurp Czech, Bulgarian, or Hungarian, or what? What's the most cost effective in your opinion?
Best 7.62x54R
- Thread starter Avenger
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I've never had a problem with any milsurp. Just remember, it has a corrosive primer. As long as you clean it as such. You have nothing to worry about.
50's Hungarian is good.
60's through 80's Czech is good.
70's though 80's Polish is great.
80's Soviet is excellent. (if you can find any)
80's Albanian is good. It's brass, but watch out for the occasional split case.
I haven't had a chance to use Bulgarian yet. I heard good things though, and have a case on the way.
I know I've used another, but I can't think of it right now.
Avoid Olympic.
50's Hungarian is good.
60's through 80's Czech is good.
70's though 80's Polish is great.
80's Soviet is excellent. (if you can find any)
80's Albanian is good. It's brass, but watch out for the occasional split case.
I haven't had a chance to use Bulgarian yet. I heard good things though, and have a case on the way.
I know I've used another, but I can't think of it right now.
Avoid Olympic.
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From what I've seen (I don't own any Nagants but I've fired hundreds of rounds through friends'), the Czech Silver Tip and Hungarian Yellow Tip is golden.
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If you really want quality, there's wolf match grade: http://www.wolfammo.com/bs_riffle_762x54rextramatch.htm
BTW, surplus stuff is usually corrosive.
BTW, surplus stuff is usually corrosive.
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8-ball, ANY x54R surplus is going to be corrosive. You just clean the rifle with water, patch it dry, then clean it again like a normal rifle... right after you shoot, and you're fine. I shoot corrosive out of my Mosin 91/30 and My CZ52 and don't even worry about it.
Stuff my 91/30 and I like:
Hungarian "yellow tip" heavy ball, '50s production - my rifle LOVES this stuff. A friend (actually, {YBBS}InnocentBystander) and I were busting balloons at around 200 yards as they floated in a river with this stuff... Mojo rear sight helped a bit.
Albanian shot pretty nice, I liked it. Some cases have folds on the neck and won't chamber though.
Commercial stuff:
Wolf 200 grain soft points shot pretty well. It's strange, having a steel-jacketed soft point...
Brown Bear 200 grain soft point. Sure, it's lacquer-cased, but it hasn't given me any feeding problems. I use it in tactical rifle shoots, where we shoot a LOT in a fairly short amount of time. I walk off some stages, and my handguards are way too hot to touch. I use it there since we're scared of steel-jacketed ammo (pretty much all surplus in this caliber is...) punching through the rifle steels on the stages. The wierd thing is, BB is steel-jacketed, but being a soft point it hasn't damaged any of the steel targets, so I keep on using it.
Winchester White Box in 180 grain was better than I'd expected.
Ingman 150 grain soft point... I like it for the power (good GOD that stuff kicks harder and is MUCH louder than anything else in these rifles), but it didn't really give me great accuracy. That said, I kept two clips of it for home-defense ammo... it does about 3,000 FPS out of a 91/30! That speed with 150 grains of lead is pretty impressive, IMO. AFAIK, the bullet diameter is slightly smaller (.310 vs .311) than some, which may be why my rifle doesn't like it... or it's barrel whip from the (excessive) recoil. I've never had a rifle kick like a shotgun before I shot this stuff.
Stuff my 91/30 and I like:
Hungarian "yellow tip" heavy ball, '50s production - my rifle LOVES this stuff. A friend (actually, {YBBS}InnocentBystander) and I were busting balloons at around 200 yards as they floated in a river with this stuff... Mojo rear sight helped a bit.
Albanian shot pretty nice, I liked it. Some cases have folds on the neck and won't chamber though.
Commercial stuff:
Wolf 200 grain soft points shot pretty well. It's strange, having a steel-jacketed soft point...
Brown Bear 200 grain soft point. Sure, it's lacquer-cased, but it hasn't given me any feeding problems. I use it in tactical rifle shoots, where we shoot a LOT in a fairly short amount of time. I walk off some stages, and my handguards are way too hot to touch. I use it there since we're scared of steel-jacketed ammo (pretty much all surplus in this caliber is...) punching through the rifle steels on the stages. The wierd thing is, BB is steel-jacketed, but being a soft point it hasn't damaged any of the steel targets, so I keep on using it.
Winchester White Box in 180 grain was better than I'd expected.
Ingman 150 grain soft point... I like it for the power (good GOD that stuff kicks harder and is MUCH louder than anything else in these rifles), but it didn't really give me great accuracy. That said, I kept two clips of it for home-defense ammo... it does about 3,000 FPS out of a 91/30! That speed with 150 grains of lead is pretty impressive, IMO. AFAIK, the bullet diameter is slightly smaller (.310 vs .311) than some, which may be why my rifle doesn't like it... or it's barrel whip from the (excessive) recoil. I've never had a rifle kick like a shotgun before I shot this stuff.
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I've put well over 1000 round of Silver tip through my Nagants and SVT40 and haven't had any problems. Just clean you gun afterwards and you'll be fine.
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one good thing to do before buying spam cans or full cases is to hit up a gunshow and get a box or two of different types of 7.62x54r try to stick with stuff you know you can get in a larger quanitity later
find out which ammo your mosin(s) like the best then buy a spam can, a case, or a truckload
find out which ammo your mosin(s) like the best then buy a spam can, a case, or a truckload
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You clean your rifles with water? You can clean and neutralize the corrosive crap with a little ammonia window cleaner.
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@ Necropimp: I like the precsision and stopping power of a rifle, not to mention it's expensive to get, and somewhat uncomfortable to wear body armor (yes, badguys can get kevlar) that'll stop a full-house rifle bullet. Plus, home-defense is a truly defensive position in my mind: I'll be in my bedroom, covering the door as the wife dials 911. If anyone wants to join our little party... well, I'm going to be cleaning 'em up with a mop. At my most adventurous, I'll be covering the hallway outside the bedroom door, which is long and narrow. Fish in a barrel. 
@8-Ball: It's not the ammonia that kills the corrosives, it's the water in the cleaner. Windex is water-based. The corrosion is caused by potassium chloride - a salt - left behind as a byproduct of the primers used in this ammo. Cleaners like the window cleaner make the cleanup go a bit faster, since the cleaning agents negate water's surface tension, helping get at those salts and dissolve them faster, but plain water works fine for dissolving salt, just in this instance, it takes maybe a couple more patches. Meh.
I use water for a few reasons. It's cheap (can't get cheaper than free!), and so am I. It's one less thing to carry to the range; I just take water outta the drinking fountain to soak my patches (I told ya it was free.) I'm not in such a big hurry at the end of a range trip that using one less patch, or about a minute of my time, is such a big deal I need to use something with soap in it, meaning that the above two reasons aren't negated by anything else.
Also, let me note that the water (or Hoppes 9, for that matter) does a lot better job of cleaning if you clean a still-hot weapon, I've noticed.
My CZ52 bore has been to the range multiple times now, and it's still the mirror that it showed up as. The 91/30's bore was a tad dark near the muzzle to begin with, but it hasn't gotten any darker with this cleaning method.
But don't take my word for it. IMO, this is the definitive guide to what works and what doesn't for corrosive salt removal. Yes, the water didn't work great, BUT note that it would have worked with some more cleaning. I patch my barrel with water till the patches come out clean, which takes a surprisingly short amount of time when the barrel is still reasonably warm.
http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews2006/alittlesalt/index.asp
@8-Ball: It's not the ammonia that kills the corrosives, it's the water in the cleaner. Windex is water-based. The corrosion is caused by potassium chloride - a salt - left behind as a byproduct of the primers used in this ammo. Cleaners like the window cleaner make the cleanup go a bit faster, since the cleaning agents negate water's surface tension, helping get at those salts and dissolve them faster, but plain water works fine for dissolving salt, just in this instance, it takes maybe a couple more patches. Meh.
I use water for a few reasons. It's cheap (can't get cheaper than free!), and so am I. It's one less thing to carry to the range; I just take water outta the drinking fountain to soak my patches (I told ya it was free.) I'm not in such a big hurry at the end of a range trip that using one less patch, or about a minute of my time, is such a big deal I need to use something with soap in it, meaning that the above two reasons aren't negated by anything else.
Also, let me note that the water (or Hoppes 9, for that matter) does a lot better job of cleaning if you clean a still-hot weapon, I've noticed.
My CZ52 bore has been to the range multiple times now, and it's still the mirror that it showed up as. The 91/30's bore was a tad dark near the muzzle to begin with, but it hasn't gotten any darker with this cleaning method.
But don't take my word for it. IMO, this is the definitive guide to what works and what doesn't for corrosive salt removal. Yes, the water didn't work great, BUT note that it would have worked with some more cleaning. I patch my barrel with water till the patches come out clean, which takes a surprisingly short amount of time when the barrel is still reasonably warm.
http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews2006/alittlesalt/index.asp
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I stand corrected, ammonia is even potentially bad for the bore: http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/corrosive/index.asp
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Just chiming in, I use water to clean up surplus too. If the rifle is cool, I keep a 20 oz bottl of water with some Dawn (grease cutting powah!) in it with all my 'gun stuff'. It works great, just flush it with plenty of clean water after one or two soap patches, and make sure you run an oil patch down the barrel when all is through. Also it doesn't take a whole lot of Dawn. I put in a few drops to the bottle, shake it up and leave it sitting to 'settle' for a few days and kill the sudsy. Water and soap worked for how many years for black powder weapons? Won't hurt your gun's barrel one bit
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I used boiling water at first, but have switched to Hoppe's black powder solvent. It neutralizes the salts, and helps to clean the bore out faster. Then I use Hoppe's No. 9 to finish the job. Since I started using the black powder solvent. I've never had rust form in a rifle bore. I did once with water.
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@ Necropimp: I like the precsision and stopping power of a rifle, not to mention it's expensive to get, and somewhat uncomfortable to wear body armor (yes, badguys can get kevlar) that'll stop a full-house rifle bullet. Plus, home-defense is a truly defensive position in my mind: I'll be in my bedroom, covering the door as the wife dials 911. If anyone wants to join our little party... well, I'm going to be cleaning 'em up with a mop. At my most adventurous, I'll be covering the hallway outside the bedroom door, which is long and narrow. Fish in a barrel.
ever think of what that rifle's bullet will do after it passes through that soft target you would be shooting at in such a situation? have kids? pets? something expensive that won't be covered by insurance if you shot it? a nearby neighbor (that bullet can exit your house and enter a nearby house)?
it's not what you'd be aiming at it's what's behind what you'd be aiming at that i'm concerned about
i keep one magazine for my CZ-52 loaded... that is my home defense weapon... still a bit of an overpenetration issue but it will do until i get around to getting something else
yes if left sitting in a bore for a long enough time it can harm the bore
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Each Mosin tends to like different ammo. Get a mess of surplus and commercial and try it out with a variety to see what it likes. I've had good luck with the 200 grain Wolf, the 180 grain Winchester/S&B and the Wolf light stuff. I've also worked up some handloads. My favorites are the 123 grain AK-47 SP's pushed past 3,000 FPS and my patented Woodleigh 215 grain bar-killin crosbow bolts.
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I'm fully aware. My preference is to aim down the hall, since the bullet would exit the front door and enter our truck.
Insurance? I plan on suing the scumbag's family.
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plans can change very quickly in a home defense situation plus suing the "scumbag's family"? good luck with that...
an ideal weapon is a pump action shotgun loaded with buckshot no worries of overpenetration and all the stopping power anyone should need
but this is all way off topic
i debated if i should get the bulgarian from AIM or the hungarian... i spent the extra $10 for the extra 140 rounds and hope all my mosins like the taste of hungarian silver tip
also ordered another 91/30 bayonet... the one i have doesn't fit any of my 3 91/30s
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I picked my 91/30 at a San Jose gun show two years ago. No bayonet offered with that either and I paid $110 for it.
Still cheaper than anything from AIM after shipping + dros + transfer.
Hungarian and Czech is good ammo.
Still cheaper than anything from AIM after shipping + dros + transfer.
Hungarian and Czech is good ammo.
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