.315 bore m44?

[acsteve]

I finally got around to slugging the bore of a m44 in very good condition and was suprised to find it had a bore of .315". I does seem to have a roomy chamber, so what boolit diameter should I use? Of what is commonly avaliable anyway.
Is it so loud to shoot with Wolf ammo because of all of the powder gas blow by?

[Junior1942]

My M38 is .316". However a .3155" bullet is the max diameter that will chamber. I swage .318" & .323" j and cast bullets to .3155" in Lee dies.

[45nut]

It appears the chambers on the Moisins are every bit as generous as any SMLE if not larger, this is due to the need for these main battle rifles need to feed and chamber ammo under nasty conditions with ammo of dubious history.
I would see if you can chamber .317 or at minimum .316.
I won't guess on your second question about the noise. I have my own reservations about the rifle and freely admit a SMLE bias.

[Ricochet]

It's so loud to shoot with Wolf ammo because the barrel's short.

The big groove diameter isn't a manufacturing flaw, they made 'em that way. .314-.316" seems to be typical for WWII Mosins. More tolerant of dirt, rust, frozen oil, ice, etc. in bores. Makes diameter tolerances of ammo made under wartime conditions ballistically insignificant. There's likely some self-cleaning effect of the blowby between the bullet and groove bottoms. Velocity loss from blowby would be somewhat compensated by reduced friction. The bullet is still held centered by the lands (around .303") and gives adequate accuracy for battle use. These aren't benchrest specials. Also, as rifling tools (buttons) wear, the groove diameter gets smaller. If you start with a big tool, you can use it longer before minimum groove diameter is reached. Just as the big bore is more tolerant of variations in bullet diameter, when the bullet's smaller than the bore there's less effect of variations in the bore. Just some ideas I've come up with to explain why they did it.

Other European countries used groove diameters bigger than the bullets, too, it was a common practice.

[Junior1942]

I suspect the bullets obturate and fill the bore.

[Buckshot]

................Get the Lyman 323470 Loverin design 8mm boolit mould. Lubesize to .323" then run it up through an opened up Lee push through sizer (.316 or .317"). They make a .314: die and trust me, polishing one of these out is fast as the sizing portion is narrow.

You'll have to seat your boolits in something else then the 7.62x54R die as it's based on a .312" slug. At least the Lee's are. Or you can have it bored and polished out. The size die will also work the brass hard. You'll need the Lee caseneck expander or a large rOD Lyman 'M' die neck expander.

...............Buckshot

[sundog]

I've opened up several sizer dies and seating dies ala Buckshot. The last one went really fast. I used a partly worn chain saw file first, got it to size, sand paper just enough to smooth, and crocus to polish. Certainly reduces work time with the file as it is quite a bit more agressive.