Russian surplus 7.62x54 bullet pulling ??

[kendwell]

Loading for a M39, want to use .311 Sierra SMK 174 gr, and new powder,

What collet size needed to pull (assuming .310?) factory 188 bullets, recomendation on a puller, plan also to load

NOE 312299 202 gr, initial size .310 (have that one). Using Possum lead coww mix.

M39 has 1970 date, unissued condition.

Any suggestions welcome.

kendwell

[texassako]

I just use the .30 caliber collet, and they come out much easier if you run them through a seater die to push the bullet in a bit. It breaks the seal that can make them stubborn to pull. Don't forget it is the primer that is corrosive; so you still need to clean it like it was milsurp ammo after shooting.

[john hayslip]

John Barsness wrote this up so He gets credit. With no die in the press run the cartridge up until you can grab the bullet with a set of diagonal wirecutters - rest them on the top of the press and pull the cartridge down with the ram. It will leave small marks on the bullets but probably leave them reuseable if the bullet isn't too tightly held. Quick and cheap!

[Larry Gibson]

I have pulled thousands of milsurp .31 cal bullets (303 Brit, 7.65 Argentine, 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R) with my RCBS collet bullet puller and the .30 cal collet. None have a "seal" comparable to US milsurp and I quickly found that seating the bullets deeper to break the "seal" was a waste of time. The RCBS collet bullet puller works great.

Larry Gibson

[Green Lizzard]

johns way except wire strippers work better

[Hang Fire]

Ditto on the wire strippers.

I use them and to prevent slipping, I make sure I engage the bullet cannelure if there is one.

[gew98]

I have pulled thousands of milsurp .31 cal bullets (303 Brit, 7.65 Argentine, 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R) with my RCBS collet bullet puller and the .30 cal collet. None have a "seal" comparable to US milsurp and I quickly found that seating the bullets deeper to break the "seal" was a waste of time. The RCBS collet bullet puller works great.

Larry Gibson

I do the same exact thing and have to concur with larry. The RCBS collet puller works excellently !.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Most Aussies just knock the tips off on the grinder and go from there. I have done hundreds and hundreds of 303s that way and thousands of 7.62Nato. Bob Penfold used to run a big safari company in the Northern Territory and North Queensland and also used to do aerial culling using Aussi built FN/FALs. he used hundreds of thousands of rounds like that without a single failure.

If you are going to replace the bullet and the powder, you would be probably be better off swapping the milsurp ammo for commercial brass, then you are right to reload (assuming that you can get brass at the moment).

[bruce drake]

We call that mexican-match ammo in highpower rifle shooting circles where we take surplus cases and powder and replace with a quality bullet like a Sierra or a Hornady. Not certain how or where the term came from but that is what they call it. I use a standard 30 cal collet for my RCBS bullet puller. I've broken-down several thousans Russian surplus 7.62x54R cases for the powder and bullets to feed my other 31 caliber rifles. Tighten, pull down, loosen and drop the bullet in one can and the powder in another and pitch the berdan case into another box for plinking loads for the kid's M44 later on.

I've got a great 8mm Mauser load using Russian pull-down powder with a 190gr bullet for NRA vintage-rifle Matches along with a 303 British loading using the same powder with the Russian 147gr FMJ-BT.

Bruce

[Fishman]

Congrats on the nice Finn. Unissued you say? How about a pic?

I have always just used an inertial hammer-type puller, but I haven't done a lot. Just reloading errors, etc. They are cheap and work for everything. Plus you get to pound the heck out of something. I use a soft lead ingot on the bench as a strike point.

[Scharfschuetze]

Mexican Match! Ha, ha! I haven't heard that term for a few years. Lord knows that I've made a bunch of that. I guess I need to get back to high power match shooting.

Ditto for me on saving all that Russian powder for 303, 30/30 and what not. In the past, my son pulled bullets for a friend who ran a surplus ammo business and we got to keep the powder and bullets as all he wanted from the effort was the primed cases. My son even got paid too! I might add that some of the Russian steel cased 7.62X39 bullets were really tough to pull no matter what we tried. We even bent the steel rod used to turn the collet on the RCBS bullet puller.

[DCM]

Mex. match-Not sure exactly but in the early 90s we used to get 7.62 Mexican ball ammo at $ we could only dream of today by the case, we would pull/push the bullet you could clean the 2 and 3 with the stuff with a good 14..
Sure do wish I had some now.

[Dale in Louisiana]

"Mexican match" had nothing to do with ammo from Mexico. It was a way to take cheap military ball ammo and bump up the accuracy a bit.

A common scheme was to pull the bullets, dump a few of the powder charges, weigh them and then get a number for a charge weight with that powder, then carefully meter the charge for each round and load up with a premium match bullet.

By using the powder from the lot of ammo, you ran no risk of overloading, all you were doing is getting a more consistent charge.

Some guys sorted the bullets by weight and used them as well, instead of paying for the premium bullets.

These were ways to squeeze more accuracy out of ammunition while on a tight budget.

dale in Louisiana

[Holescreek]

I broke down 30 military 7.62x54r's for a project I've been working on and documented the powder charge, bullet weight, bullet diameter and case weight. Probably not any info you can use but at least I get to show someone else the results! I used a kinetic puller for these, not fun at all.

[Larry Gibson]

Actually the term "mexican match" came from the International Matches held in Mexico in the early '60s. The U.S. shooters pulled the 174 FMJ bullets from M118 Match ("white box") and replaced it with 168 Sierra MKs. They shot quite well and the practice continued with the name "mexican match" sticking.

Larry Gibson

[Larry Gibson]

Holescreek

Not "fun" for sure but that's how we really learn instead of guess. Well done!

Larry Gibson

[Multigunner]

I've pulled hundreds of 7.62X54 R 147 gr Steel Core bullets using only an inertial puller. These work great in a .303 even those with fairly loose bores.

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

Anyone want to sell any of your steel jacket and/or steel core pulled bullets? I can use them here.

Thank you,

Josh