Nice find also.1990,s or so?Also at the same time century arms or s.i.r. had never issued lee-enfields (1943) from a stash in Ireland for 350 if I remember right .Should of bought one .
Nice find also.1990,s or so?Also at the same time century arms or s.i.r. had never issued lee-enfields (1943) from a stash in Ireland for 350 if I remember right .Should of bought one .
Yes were very lucky to have such great examples of the m.n.I believe it was the early 90,s when I bought mine.At the same time sir or century arms found a stash of never issued .303 lee-enfields in Ireland .They were 325 or so ,I should of bought one .Up here in Canada 7 out of 10 hunters probably have one in their collection with 95 percent still fully usable.More moose were killed with the .303 most likely than any other rifle .
Try 20.0 grains IMR 4759 with the lyman 314299 bullet. I do this with my 1935 Model 27. The bore slugs out at .3115 so I size to .3135 and when the eyes cooperate I get 2" at 100 yds. Winchester LR primers, hansen cases, javelina lube. I seat them out so they do not fit in the mag but tip them down in the mag so the extractor grabs the. Frank
I too acquired an unfired Polish M44 from Century Arms in the 80's. Price was 85 bucks. Have put a few hundred cast loads through it over the years. Lyman 314299 sized 314 over 22.0 grs of H 4198.
A couple years ago I found another one in unfired condition on consignment in a small outdoor's store. Picked it up for 250 bucks.
My plan was to shoot it and keep the more accurate of the two. I have a good friend of polish descent whose father had escaped Poland at start of W11 to serve in RAF. His son was very interested in the Polish rifle and I sold it to him at a very fair price. I did not shoot it and it remains unfired. We had mine to the range a couple weeks ago so he could experience shooting one while leaving his unfired . Beautifully finished rifles.
Going asking price here in Canada for these rifles is 5-600 hundred dollars. They do come up for sale on a regular basis.
Yea there are some nice Mosins out there. I scored with a Russian 1946 M44, were a group of never issued examples imported in the 90s I think. The rest I own are the Finnish versions one VKT, one SKY, one B barrel. I was willing to pay premiums for un-fired versions or like new. The Sako SKY has seen some use.
Not really sure if I need to take these all out to the range, or just pick one to shoot exclusive. I never fancied my self as a collector. I am more of a re-creationist I guess, I want to shoot these rifles as they would have been in the war years.
All be it 20gr of 4759 under a 180gr pill is not the Finnish equivalent, but I did load some.
I got an unfired Polish M44 to in late 80s. 1957 vintage, amazed at how nice they are compared to wartime produced rifles. Got it for a 100.00 with 5 boxes of brass case yugo ammo.
33gr 4895 under any heavy pill sized to .314, is my go to mosin load
The ones I see now are almost always counterbored, never see a hex now, not like ten years ago.
Be safe
When you read the fine print you get an education
when you ignore the fine print you get experience
War time production tend to not be very good. One I have, the barrel isnt in the receiver straight, and nothing is concentric on the barrel. The other war time I had would not hit a target at 20ft. The prewar is beautiful. But the days of picking and choosing are over. I didnt see a single mosin at the last gun show.
Though I havnt been there for over a year anybody a member of the m.n. site?
O boy I cant remember which forum it was ,lol.I believe I'm suffering from C.R.A.F.T. cant remember a %&$* thing!
Last edited by 82rude; 10-09-2016 at 10:16 PM.
I have had the best cast boolit accuracy in my several Mosin-Nagants with the Lee 180-grain using a slightly compressed full case of WC860. The load developers at Accurate Powder came to the same conclusion using a Finn Mosin-Nagant with the 0.310" bore. However, I don't know if WC860 is currently available since it is a pull-down powder from .50 BMG ammo.
My own experience with Mosin-Nagants shows me they are excellent rifles. When I was 14 in 1964, I bought a used M-N from Sears and Roebuck for $10, a day's wages at the time. I had never fired high power rifles before, so I didn't pick up any bad shooting habits from others (I developed my own). Where I did my shooting was in a vacant canyon, and my range was 200 yards, although I didn't know it yet. My targets were 12 oz beer bottles from the nearby ranch dump. There was no way I could see a beer bottle at 600 feet without a scope, so I set them on top-center of wooden lemon harvesting boxes that I COULD see, but just barely. I fired just a hair above the top center of each box, hitting the beer bottles often enough to keep doing it. I very quickly discovered that Finn ammunition was far, far better than the cheap WW2-era captured Soviet stuff in copper-washed steel cases with corrosive primers - I washed my barrel after reading about it in the 1959 edition of Shooters Bible. The accuracy I got shows whoever sighted-in my rifle in the Soviet Army did a good job! Right after the end of WW2, we had zero trade with Russia, so I suspect my rifle was a battlefield pick-up by either the Finn Army in The Winter/Continuation Wars of 1939-1940, or by the Nazis in their Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in 1941.
~+:/&\:+~+:/&\:+~+:/&\:+~+:/&\:+~+:/&\:+~+:/&\:+~+:/&\:+~+:/&\:+~+:/&\:+
There is no such thing as too many tools, especially when it comes to casting and reloading.
Howard Hughes said: "He who has the tools rules".
Safe casting and shooting!
Linstrum, member F.O.B.C. (Fraternal Order of Boolit Casters), Shooters.com alumnus, and original alloutdoors.com survivor.
Got a similar Polish , shoots FMJ as well as a new Remington 700 , haven't got around to cast yet
I collect Mosins and have a whole extended family of them.
3 Chinese Type 53's
2 M44's, one refurb, one non-refurb
6 or so refurb 91/30's
1 Finn 91/30
1 Finn M91
1 Finn M27
4 Finn M39's
I like using the Lee 185gr cast with wheel weight alloy, powder coated with Harbor Freight red, gas checked and sized to .312 in a Lee push-thru sizer. I use 27gr 4198 or 29gr Reloader 7.
I tried 2400 and Red Dot and they didn't do near as well. Had the same results in my several different Mauser rifles. My Swiss rifles do great with 2400 though.
this is turning into a great thread!
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms *shall not be infringed*.
"The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution."
- Thomas Jefferson
"While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny."
- Rev. Nicholas Collin, Fayetteville Gazette (N.C.), October 12, 1789
I have been loading for my Finnish Mosins for over 10 years and while I am happy with my J-word results, I have not been having much luck finding a load to work with cast. I have been trying reduced loads with H4895 and some trailboss and Unique... which is ok... but I was planning to try some 2400 based on another guy's recommendation. Maybe I should try 4198??
I have more Finns than I would like to admit... the ones I like the most are the 28-30. My go-to load for that is: Lapua case, CCI BR2, 48.4 grains of Varget with a 155 Lapua Scenar and AOL of 2.950".
I bought an NOE 311365 and tried to find a load but nothing shot worth beans. I also tried an RCBS 170-SIL bore rider and I couldn't get it to group. I am fairly new to casting so I am mainly reading and trying to absorb here. I hope to find a solution
This is the one I shoot most often:
I took my mosin out last month with a brass stacker mount & a NC star pistol scope and surplus ammo, I was shooting 400 yards with good accuracy, and out to 1000 yards but I did NOT have a spotter, so that was inconclusive. Beat up old mosin with a black bore and some shade tree trigger work [by me]. I would have never thought the accuracy would be that good.
Had to wait for the weather to clear to do any testing. I had some 200gr Lyman and 230gr Noe I wanted to try. The mosin shoots both really really well subsonic. Hadnt tried the 200gr full power, the 230gr w same range scrap alloy, did not shoot well. Just to soft an alloy for the rifling. So made up a handful in lintype to see if it was worth messing with or not. No point in casting a bunch, powder coating them only to find out wont work and have to melt them down again.
The linotype 230gr shoot just as well at 1922fps as they do subsonic. Not that there is any data for a bullet that heavy in a mosin. Had to extrapolate a little from 338 fed, same case cap as a 308, and there is 220gr load data. The mosin is about half way between 308 and 30-06 in capacity. Be nice to know how far I can go. I used 30gr of Imr4198.
I used some min jacketed data for the 200gr, but will probably just go with lyman data. It only has a 17" barrel, so something like H4350, alot of it just ends up as blast. But 48gr of 4350 gave me 2197fps with a powder coated 200gr. Need to try that load in my other mosin with a full length barrel.
I have 2 mosins haven't tried cast in them yet want this spring. The one I've been shooting and hunting with I use the sierra .311 150 gr bullet in it with imr4064 it will shoot inch or less at 100 yards if I do my part. That gun has been modified its in a arch angel stock has a timney trigger a 4-12 scope on it and I cut 3 inches off the barrel. Haven't done any thing to the other one that's the one I want shoot cast in not sure if I 'am going to leave it stock yet.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |