7.62x54r recommended moulds

[fenman]

Hi All

I want to cast for my dragunov svd straight pull , the bore is .311 and 13 1/2 twist , I have tried the lee 7.62x39 spitzer bullet , but this performs poorly ,I believe it is because the bullet's will not reach anywhere near the lands ,unlike in my saiga .308 (13 1/2 twist) this bullet just touches the lands ,and shoots great with 7 grains Bullseye
so may I ask what moulds are you chaps using maybe in nagants etc ?

regards fenman

[jugulater]

In the mosins and many other European oversized .30/7.62 cartridges the lyman 314299 works wonderfully well, but its a long heavy boolit and i have no clue how it would function in your particular firearm, but its worth a shot!

The 311299 would work better if you have a tight bore.

[nagantguy]

The lee 312-185 is my go to mold, seems to be a sweet spot with seating depth and powder charge somewhere to be found with this boolit. The lee is affordable, once you've established a base line for accuracy with lead boolits you can always go to a pricier mold that may or may not make boolits as good as the lee.both molds recommend by jugulater above are also excellent choices. You didn't ask but h4895 is the powder I E found to have the widest range and most use in this caliber.

[Outpost75]

In my bolt Nagants I use the NOE clone of #314299 and use the same charges I do in the .303 British, good starting loads are 30 grains of either RL7, 3031, 4895, 4064, RL15 or Varget which all work well.

In the SVT40 you need to increase the charge to about 35-36 grains of 4064, RL15 or Varget to get reliable cycling, depending upon which powder you have.

That should give you a working range to get started.

[nagantguy]

Yes varget is another excellent choice, fenmen you said svd straight pull, I'm familiar with the dragunov platform but guess is assumed you ment some type of bolt action variant. Maybe I assumed because of your location, please tell me more of your rifle.

[GhostHawk]

I'm like Nagant guy both in the Lee .312 185 and the 4895.

My Mosin's have .312 bores so I started out beagling. The I lapped it to .3135 which is working fairly well.
I size with a Lee .314 which is hardly touching the boolit but crimps the gas check on solid.

[nagantguy]

Powder coating works wonders as well squeezing out an extra thousandth or so for those odd3124 313ish bores. Another tip that has always yielded good results with any bore that has seen corrosive primers is to run about 30 or 40 patches of never dull through the barrel. Really shines them up and let's you see what's really under the hood sorta speak.

[Baja_Traveler]

I started out with 311299's in my Finn Mosin and had no complaints at all - it has a true .308 bore, and I size to .310.
But then I bought an NOE 311365 mold and never looked back! I shoot our military bolt silhouette matches with it at Pala, where the rams are out at 600 meters, and it performs simply awesome.
I'm literally the only guy on the line shooting cast in that match, but I'm really starting to convince a few others that cast really can do the job.

159398

[LAGS]

I second the NOE 311365 in either the PB or GC.
My mold does one of each.
My best accuracy so far is with Reloader 7 around 28 to 30 gr depending on the rifle.

[fenman]

Hi nagantguy
yes you are spot on SLR are banned in the uk over .22 ,so our rifles are made in the Izmash factory for the UK outwardly identical to SVD Tiger ,but no gas port or linkage ,so its manually fed from the magazine ,we do have some strange Firearms laws , but we keep smiling and enjoy what have got ,for a little longer before they all go ,they have changed the law so they can be banned without compensation so if we have 10 years we will be lucky onward and upward !



Yes varget is another excellent choice, fenmen you said svd straight pull, I'm familiar with the dragunov platform but guess is assumed you ment some type of bolt action variant. Maybe I assumed because of your location, please tell me more of your rifle.

[fenman]

cheers all for you input I will ask on local forum who may be using all the mould specified and see if I could blag some bullets for testing ,and then get the right mould after testing ,as feeding can be an issue from the magazine ,if its not spitzer shape,and it seem most of you guys are have good results with higher velocity and slower powders so that could be the way as well

thanks again

[nagantguy]

cheers all for you input I will ask on local forum who may be using all the mould specified and see if I could blag some bullets for testing ,and then get the right mould after testing ,as feeding can be an issue from the magazine ,if its not spitzer shape,and it seem most of you guys are have good results with higher velocity and slower powders so that could be the way as well

thanks again

Blag, some British marines I trained with for a time used that word, usually in a way that denoted theft, "someone blagged my boots" but also in a borrow or lend way "hey mate Blag me a smoke". Good word, I'm going to Blag it and start using it!!!

[fenman]

Hi Nagantguy we have many words that mean the same so feel for any who learns English ,blag, cadge ,scrounge, beg, snaffle , this time its about asking fellow shooters for help ! as ordering a mould from US is a big expense if its not suitable ,usually all US $ prices are doubled to get it to my door ! but it will all come right in the end onward and upward !

[fenman]

Hi may I ask your 311365 do you still size .310 for the .308 ,would a.311 be sized .313 if such a size exists ?

regards Fenman


I started out with 311299's in my Finn Mosin and had no complaints at all - it has a true .308 bore, and I size to .310.
But then I bought an NOE 311365 mold and never looked back! I shoot our military bolt silhouette matches with it at Pala, where the rams are out at 600 meters, and it performs simply awesome.
I'm literally the only guy on the line shooting cast in that match, but I'm really starting to convince a few others that cast really can do the job.

159398

[Donor8x56r]

I use both Lee .312 and NOE 314365 depending on what bore size ( I have 2 MN).I really wish Lee increase size of that boolit because as nagantguy stated above it seats exactly bang on where it suppose to be.NOE bullet has to be seated like picture above shows and with grease grooves exposed it creates mess when carried in anything other than plastic box.

One thing I can suggest is checking same boolits with your powder and 2 different alloys -range lead and WW(if you can get it).Both of my MN prefer range lead over WW by large far and I use fast powders like Red Dot,WSF,Trail Boss and whatever else I can get.
I get my range lead from indoor pistol range so lead comes out softer than WW but a lot cleaner and easier to cast with.

[fenman]

cool thanks guy's a huge response ,I will have take some time to make small changes to my loads ,or i will not know what tightened up the groups

cheers all

[Bigslug]

Fenman,

Given the slow twist of your bore, you might want to buy a box of some heavy, flat-based jacketed bullets just to see what kind of weights you can get away with before investing in molds. I was introduced to the 200 grain 311299 by a friend and have seen truly impressive accuracy from them in both P-17's and Nagants. . . but these are 10" twists. Your SVD may need something lighter.

[LAGS]

With the Noe 198 gr SP, cast them from Lino and I PC them and they give excellent accuracy.
I size them to .309 for my .308 Win , 30-06 and will for my 300 Win Mag.
For the Nagants, the Finns get .311 or .312, and the others get PC'ed As Cast and sized to .314
I can probably hold the accuracy with 96-6-2 but found at the higher loads , even PC'ed they dont like softer lead like WW or 10 to 1 lead Tin.
At best was 1.5 groups at 100 with softer lead and a BIG scope and Timney trigger.
But then I am not using really fast powders like Unique or Red Dot.
I wish I could find some 2400, but SR 4759 was my favorite along with 5744.
The Reloader 7 is an excellent replacement unless you want to jump up to the 4895 or 4064 slower powders.

[fenman]

Bigslug
I think you are right the rifle was made for 150 grain FMJ ,the only trouble the only ones available are restricted for hunting only SP so as this rifle is on my Target only part of licence ,i cannot buy them ! ,I have tried the lee 312160tl bullet for the ak
but it is way short of the lands infact it has jump not good with cast bullet , I have tried the lee 312 185 ,bullet but the bullet drops into barrel right up to the drive bands so its not bore riding so may have to think about lapping it out !,but first I have loaded a few with reloader 7 (21 grains )to see if higher velocity helps as the guys here seem to get good results with that powder ,rather than the faster powders I have tried before !
as for fmj the rifle shoots the old mk7 303 174g surplus bullet better than .311 smk ,i wish I could find a ton of them ,


Fenman,

Given the slow twist of your bore, you might want to buy a box of some heavy, flat-based jacketed bullets just to see what kind of weights you can get away with before investing in molds. I was introduced to the 200 grain 311299 by a friend and have seen truly impressive accuracy from them in both P-17's and Nagants. . . but these are 10" twists. Your SVD may need something lighter.

[44magLeo]

Beagle your molds, this makes the boolit bigger.
Leo

[Tackleberry41]

The twist makes a difference. Doubt you will be able to go over 200gr. I could not keep 200gr stable in a 1-12 twist 30-30 at subsonic. Maybe if sped up. I have used the NOE 247gr 311 blackout in my mosins and stay stable, but they are 1-9.5. I have another NOE 200gr mold, but is plain base so never really fired them very fast. Only ever messed w subsonic.

[LAGS]

I find that the 311 or 314 -299 bullet is a little more accurate at 50 to 100 yards than the 198 gr spire pointed design, mostly because of the Bore Riding design.
But when you shoot out to 200 yards, the Spire Pointed bullet design doesn't drop as much with the same load.
I too am playing with the 230 bullet for the 300 blackout, and have had good sucess so far, but it was designed to shoot Sub Sonic.
Sub Sonic doesn't work out to 200 yards.
I dont plan to be shooting in Church, so sub sonic is not what I want.
I prefer distance, and a little more Boot.
The 198 gr NOE seems to fit the bill, and can be seated longer to be nearer to the lands than any 150 or 160 gr.
That will pick up or maintain accuracy almost as good as a Bore Riding design.

[Ken in Iowa]

Bigslug
I think you are right the rifle was made for 150 grain FMJ ,the only trouble the only ones available are restricted for hunting only SP so as this rifle is on my Target only part of licence ,i cannot buy them ! ,I have tried the lee 312160tl bullet for the ak
but it is way short of the lands infact it has jump not good with cast bullet , I have tried the lee 312 185 ,bullet but the bullet drops into barrel right up to the drive bands so its not bore riding so may have to think about lapping it out !,but first I have loaded a few with reloader 7 (21 grains )to see if higher velocity helps as the guys here seem to get good results with that powder ,rather than the faster powders I have tried before !
as for fmj the rifle shoots the old mk7 303 174g surplus bullet better than .311 smk ,i wish I could find a ton of them ,

It sounds like you have found the outer limit with that slow twist.

The Lyman 311413 approximates the weight and profile of the Mk7 bullet. I have one that drops in the .313-.3135" area with Alloy in the WW to hard ball range. My Mosins prefer longer, heavier boolits. They have a 10" twist of course, so that's not a big surprise.

The 311291 comes to mind. Even if you found an oversized one, lapping or beagling may be required.

[skeet1]

I like the Lyman 314299 but if I were to buy another one it would be an NOE. The reason is the Lyman I have has a lot of machine tool marks in the cavity and they show up on the bullets. I have other NOE molds and they are a work of art and produce very good bullets. Lyman used to make good molds but my 314299 will be the last I purchase until they make some big changes and then I still might not.

Ken

[leebuilder]

Hi Mate. I have fed my mosins the 185 Lee, tl160 Lee, 314299 and the Noe clone 316202 even the 30hunter. They all shot once I found the sweet spot. Your bolt action semi may have feeding issues. So profile will be some what important, they will have to feed with out damage. I so far found heavy blunt and round nose work well. My best load to date has been 185 Lee under h4895.
Be well

[aquarist]

Keeping a close eye on this thread, I too want to cast for my Nagant soon.

[fenman]

Hi you hit the nail on the head, with the svd straight pull , the bullet has to be splitzer design ,even the short lee 312160 tl bullet sometimes gets damaged during feeding from the mag as have several round nose flat nose 185 grain bullets , I have had some good results with heavy lead bullets ,but they have to be placed in the chamber by hand ,and bolt then closed , so where next a friend has dropped in 200 hard lead 314365 noe bullets to try , I have loaded 30 in sets of 5 to test ,with 26 to 28.5 grains of reloader 7 (CE Harris cast bullet article ), I have busy week so I will not get to the range til 15/2/15 intching to test them !


Hi Mate. I have fed my mosins the 185 Lee, tl160 Lee, 314299 and the Noe clone 316202 even the 30hunter. They all shot once I found the sweet spot. Your bolt action semi may have feeding issues. So profile will be some what important, they will have to feed with out damage. I so far found heavy blunt and round nose work well. My best load to date has been 185 Lee under h4895.
Be well

[pacomdiver]

44magleo,
sometimes molds don't take to beagling, I have a noe 311365 that I used a piece of 3m aluminum tape to beagle it and it casts with a flash on the tip

[LAGS]

I have to agree.
Beagleing a mold only widens one side of the mold.
But it helps in many cases.
I prefer that once I have established that I need a Bigger mold, and if they do not make one, Or I can not justify or afford one, I Lap the mold using a cherry or slug I cast in that mold and plain old Mag Wheel Polish