Charles Daly Mini Mauser 7.62 x 39.

[richhodg66]

Just picked one up for something to mess with this spring once deer season is over for good. Any suggestions on bullets? I have mold for the Lyman 311359 somewhere which shot well through an SKS at short ranges but not so well at longe ranges as the Lee 155 grain design, which I no longer have the mold for Any other suggestions?

The rifle is really a slick little number. I'd think some kind of flat nosed cast bullet, 125-150 grains would be ideal in this for hunting. Seems like this would be the perfect rifle for squirrels to deer at reasonably close ranges.

[HeavyMetal]

I saw a couple of these when they hit the market and thought they were pretty neat!

sadly they disappeared before I could find a lefty version ( they did make one)

I'd take a look at any of the molds made for the 30 carbine round because I had my Redding catalog open as reference material for another thread I took a quick look at what they might offer for the carbine and saw Mold number 316!

This is a flat nose GC 30 cal. 150 grain boolt for the 30-30 and might be just what your
looking for. A second option would be number 630 a flat nose plain base 140 grain boolit.

Hope that beauty shoot s as good as they looked on the dealer rack!

[Mk42gunner]

I've been shooting the Lyman 313445 95gr SWC sized to .313" over 3.0 gr of Green Dot, Rem case, Winchester small pistol primer in mine.

I am not real satisfied with the groups, about 2 1/2" at fifty yards. I think it is the boolit itself that is causing the poor grouping; boolits from the same batch don't group very well from my Ruger SSM in .32 H&R either. I am going to load some of the Group buy 122gr 314-120 and also Lymans 311316 next time.

Do a search, there is a lot of info on these Mini-Mausers, on this site. There have been at least three importers of the same rifle.

My rifle had a big rollover comb and beavertail foreend more suited to a varmint rifle than a small carbine.

Robert

[richhodg66]

Thanks. Mine is the sporter variant someone did a bad job of refinishing for some reason, but I'll redo it later. They are really neat little rifles. I think the ones CZ imports now have detachable magazines, mine has a standard hinged floor plate.

I know someone manufactures brass for the 7.62x39 that uses small rifle primers, who does? I would prefer to use small primers.

Hope it warms up some and I can get a chance to shoot this soon.

[Maven]

"I know someone manufactures brass for the 7.62x39 that uses small rifle primers, who does? I would prefer to use small primers."

richhodg66, Remington 7.62 x 39mm brass used small rifle primers v. large rifle primers in Federal and Winchester brass.

[richhodg66]

Thanks. I think I have some, but I'll have to be on the lookout for more. I don't know if it makes any real difference, but I have a lot of things that use large rifle primers and not many that use small, so it'll even up some of the usage. Just seems like for a case that small, a large primer would be excessive.

[Herb in Pa]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=66650

[armed_partisan]

I got one of the Remington 799 versions of the Charles Daly Mini Mauser this summer from CDNN for a very good price. It does surprisingly good with the 174 Grain Sierra Match King J-words at 600. The bore runs .311" and has a 1:10 twist. I have a surprising lack of .30 bullet molds which would be suitable for 7.62x39 or larger, so I don't have any experience with cast out of it (which is odd, because it's one reason I bought it!).

[lawboy]

My efforts with a CZ527 and a Saeco 185gr GC boolit are here.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=81943
I love the combo myself.

[OBXPilgrim]

My H&R Handi Rifle in 7.62x39 does great with 311407 group buy Loverin that weighs 180grs. I'm pushing it to 1800fps and it has killed deer.

I think the Zastava mini-mauser has been inported as all the below:
Interarms Mark X mini-mauser
Charles Daly Mini-mauser
Remington 799

I used an Interarms Mark X in 30-06 for 15 years of deer hunting, it did everything I ever needed.

[David Caldwell]

In my 7.62X39 Ruger M77 Mark II, which has a .308 groove diameter and a very long leade, I shoot the Lyman 311299 200 gr w/gc.
20.0 gr of IMR 4198 gets 1770-1800 fps and 3" groups. Slams nicely through deer. Slower gets me a better group. (Alloy must be beginning to slip on the lands around 1770.)
5.0 gr of Bullseye gets 950 fps and tiny groups at 20 yds (my sight-in for squirrels).
Fun, fun cartridge!

[richhodg66]

Wow, I'd have never thought that little cartridge would work so well with longer, heavier bullets. Maybe I should stick with the same ones I use in other .30s.

[Mk42gunner]

The CZ is a different design. The three importers listed by OBXPilgrim are the ones that I am aware of for this rifle.

Lee makes a 155 and 160 gr mold designed ny Ed Harris for the AK/SKS that sholud work.

Personally, My 7.62x39 is a plinking rifle; if I want to shoot bigger boolits at deer, I have larger cased 30/31 calibers to use.

Larry Gibson has recommended using the lighter (90 gr or so) .32 cal pistol boolits, propelled by Bullseye. I would go this route, but I don't have any other light molds at this time. Someday I will find a decent mold whenI have the disposable income in my pocket.

Robert

[David Caldwell]

I began experiments with 165-200 gr jacketed Sierra .308 bullets in this rifle years ago for 50-150 yd hog hunting. Most pleased with the 200 gr SPBT. Wicked on the receiving end and grouped the best of everything tried (about like a 25 cent piece at 100 yds). I attributed the good groups to the fact that I could load right up to the lands and still have some bullet in the neck in that long-leade chamber. I ended up putting a .308 Win magazine box in it to accomodate the Jimmy Durante looking cartridge.
SAFETY REMINDERS: 1) I use .308 jacketed, .309 cast (My barrel is .308)
2) My chamber has a looong leade
3) My OAL is looong - 2.50" for jacketed; 2.34" for cast

0 Buck shot works for squirrels, too.

Let me know what you discover.

dac

[richhodg66]

I'll have to get the rifle out this weekend. I don't know what I have cast up that will be suitable, but I should find something. I thought this would be an excellent walk around small game and varmint rifle with deer as a sometimes thing. Maybe I have underestimated the cartridge's capabilities with heavier bullets.

I don't know what the bore measures in this, I just assumed it was a .310 and planned to size cast bullets to .311 like I do for most things.

[Deputy Dog]

I just bought a rem 798 mlni mouser in 7.62 went to yhe range and shot some factory rounds 123 grs and left very sad it shot around four to five inches at one hundred yards looks like a lot of work ahead,

[richhodg66]

OK, I think I can get to a range this weekend, so I'm gonna throw together some loads with some Hornady jacketed bullets (yeah, I know)I had around for the SKS, but I have a batch of plain based 115 grain RN bullets coming from another forum member I'd like to try a light, small game load. After seeing more big, fat fox squirrels than deer this season, I've been kind of wanting to get out and do that lately.

[David Caldwell]

I shot some Speer 100 gr "Plinkers" (1/2 jacketed little things). 2.7 grains of Bullseye gave 693 fps (probably close to sticking in the barrel) and the group was 3" wide and 14" tall at 50 yards.
With 5.0 grains Bullseye, got 1270 fps and the groups went to 1" tall and 1/3" wide at 50 yds, well within squirrel noggin at 15-20 yds.

[richhodg66]

I think I have some of those bullets, unfortunately, no Bullseye on the shelf at the moment. I wonder if Unique or SR 7624 would work as well?

[David Caldwell]

I'm sure Unique would work. I'm just not familiar with SR 7624. The "Plinker"
is .308; what is the groove diameter on the Charles Daly? (Interestingly, I have an SMLE in .303 British that shoots .308 bullets extremely well - ya just never know....)

[jwhite]

I have one of the Charles Daly 7.62x39's and it is a real tack driver. The bolt can be a little sticky sometimes but that rifle has the smoothest barrel I have ever seen. I have a 165gr LFN mold that Veral Smith cut for me based on a chamber cast I sent him and it is awesome. Several youngsters around town have used this gun to shoot their first deer and it always works like a champ. The Remington versions while the same gun do not seem to have been finished quite so well which is too bad as it soured a lot of people on these little rifles. I have shot a pile of rabbits and squirrels with a 95gr SWC @ 1100fps.

JW

[richhodg66]

That's good to hear, I'm thinking of this as primarily a walking varmint and small game rifle; adequate for coyotes, but not too much for squirrels and rabbits.

By the way, I meant SR7625, I got several pounds of it new dirt cheap at a gun show a few years ago and have been using it for light pistol loads, seems to work OK in some cast rifle loads too.

[NoDakJak]

My favorite load in my CZ is with the Lee 155gc ahead of 18.0 grains of 1680. A friend has the same rifle and swears by 311241 ahead of 4895. Both these loads are accurate in our rifles and work well on deer. Neil

[richhodg66]

Thanks Neil. Just recently got some 115 grainer flat nosed plain based bullets to try, a little lighter than the 311241, I think, but I will definitely try similar loadings.

With all the Christmas activities and deer season going on, I haven't gotten it to a range yet, hopefully soon.

[NHlever]

When I had a CZ in 7.62 X 39 I shot a lot of the Lyman #311008 115 FN boolits in it over around 8 grains of Unique. It was very accuratee, and fed well after CZ modified the magazines for that caliber.

[richhodg66]

NHlever, is that bullet gas checked or plain based? Eight grains of Unique would be real easy for me, my go to pistol powder.

[NHlever]

NHlever, is that bullet gas checked or plain based? Eight grains of Unique would be real easy for me, my go to pistol powder.



I used both the 311008, and an older Lyman 3311316, that is very close in shape, and weight. For the 7-8 grain loads of Unique with these boolits, it didn't seem to matter much whether I used the gas checked boolits, or not. They both would shoot one hole groups at 25 yards, and very good groups at 50 yds., and I never tested them beyond that. My goal was to duplicate the old 32-20 loads with about the same amount of powder. I expect that Red Dot would work real well in this application too.

[richhodg66]

That sounds great, I'll experiment with heavier bullets later, right now, I kind of want a "minute of fox squirrel" load. This ought to be the ticket.

[txpete]

I began experiments with 165-200 gr jacketed Sierra .308 bullets in this rifle years ago for 50-150 yd hog hunting. Most pleased with the 200 gr SPBT. Wicked on the receiving end and grouped the best of everything tried (about like a 25 cent piece at 100 yds). I attributed the good groups to the fact that I could load right up to the lands and still have some bullet in the neck in that long-leade chamber. I ended up putting a .308 Win magazine box in it to accomodate the Jimmy Durante looking cartridge.
SAFETY REMINDERS: 1) I use .308 jacketed, .309 cast (My barrel is .308)
2) My chamber has a looong leade
3) My OAL is looong - 2.50" for jacketed; 2.34" for cast

0 Buck shot works for squirrels, too.

Let me know what you discover.

dac

dave what powders were you using with the 165 gr bullets?.I found one of those rugers yesterday NIB and it followed me home.
thanks
pete28143

[David Caldwell]

Pete,



Sierra's .308 165 gr BTHP Game King was about the lightest bullet I could get to approach the lands while seated in the cartridge case. (This "nearly touching the lands" business seemed to get the groups from 3-4 moa to 1-2 moa.) With this bullet, at OAL=2.374", I tried:

18.0 gr AA1680 - Not enough pressure to obturate the cartridge case! Probably unsafe. Decent obturation began about 21 grains.



24.5 gr AA1680 - 1.7 moa; 2192 fps; pressure signs on primers (and we know their limitations) seemed OK, but about enough.



24.5 gr IMR 4198 - An honest 1.0 moa; 2185 fps; pressure signs probably OK but getting kinda high.



24.5 gr IMR 4064 - 1.5 moa; 1819 fps; pressure signs were mild.







With Speer's 165 gr BTSP @ 2.462" and 24.0 gr AA 1680 - OK pressure and four shots in one hole at 100 yds. (a fluke, I'm sure) I never got around to trying it again as I migrated to 200 gr bullets so I could seat a little more bullet in the case neck.





Let me know what you come up with.



dac

[richhodg66]

Ultimately, this is going to be a cast bullet rifle, but I managed to finally get it to a range and shoot some of the cheap Wolf ammo today. The one group I shot at 100 yards with it, four shots went into an inch, I threw one out (the trigger on this needs some serious work). I'm pretty sure I can best that stuff with handloads pretty easily. Neat little rifle, I wish I had gotten it developed enough to use it deer hunting this year.

[txpete]

anyone try the lyman 311359 ?. I have one on the way and should be here fri.
thanks
pete

[txpete]

well I did make it to the range.I didn't get to loading up any cast loads yet :oops:.I did bring along some wolf 122 gr hp ammo.
its a shooter and next time out I will have some handloads ready to try.
pete

100 yards

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/txpete/range31jan2011006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/txpete/range31jan2011004.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/txpete/range31jan2011005.jpg

[hicard]

I just picked up a new Ruger Hawkeye compact in 7.62x39 w/16 1/2" barrel and it looks like a winner. Had a great time at the range yesterday but I do not know the dia. of the barrel. Anyone know if it is .308 or .310 or .311?

[NHlever]

I think Ruger switched to the larger bore diameter some time ago. Your's should be .310-.311.