Help with mould selection for Mod 54 Tok

[Metrobluing]

Recently picked up a Chinese Mod 54 Tokarev pistol and want to start casting for it. This will be primarily a range toy as I have no intensions to use it for anything else. The barrel slugged at .312 so this will help with mould selection. I'm looking for some guidance from folks who have been casting for 7.62x25 pistols to help streamline this process. Have 3 different types of lead available (WW,Lino,Soft) but want to cast using WW since there is a large supply of that on hand. So who offers a GC mold with a decent bullet design that I don't have to wait a year to get and hand over a bar of gold for? Plan on powder coating them also. Thanks

[Outpost75]

I use Accurate 31-100T which is a plain base. No GC is needed. I cast wheeleeights +2% tin and size .312 lubricating with 50-50 Alox-beeswax and load 7.4 grains of AutoComp in Starline cases with Remington 6-1/2 primers for 1450 fps. No leading. More accurate than ball ammo.

[WRideout]

I use the Lee 90301 30 cal 100 gr mold for my Romanian Tok. It's a little heavier than factory, but I have no trouble with it. I use nothing harder than COWW. I don't powder coat, but others on the forum claim that powder coating eliminates the need for a gas check. I personally have never used a GC boolit in my Tok, and have not missed it.

BTW: I "Beagled" my mold so I could use the same boolit in my 32-20 revolver which likes .313 diameter boolits. They still size down easily to .311 in my Lyman 45.

Wayne

[LAGS]

I am casting and shooting the Lee 100 gr RN and powder coating them.
I size them to .309.
I recently got my model 54 Tokarev from a late friends estate.
I use to cast and powder coat bullets for him for over 5 years.
They shoot great.
I have recently sized some of the Boolits to .311.
But for my pistol.
The larger diameter Boolit expands the case neck a little too much and won't let the rounds Plunk into the chamber.
It also works better when I am shooting cases made from .223 or 300 BLK cases since the metal at the neck is a little thicker.
Those cases might get the outside of the neck turned down a little to thin out the casing neck.
But the .223 cases work fine with .309 Boolits.
My barrel grooves measure .311 .
I also have cast slugs for this pistol out of Linotype for both lubed or if I intend to PC the Boolits.
The harder lead holds up well to the higher velocity of this round.
Most of my loads are done with Unique , but I want to try some other powders.

[WRideout]

My experience mirrors that of LAGS. I do have to neck turn my cases made from .223, which enabled them to chamber with .311 boolits.

Wayne

[jdgabbard]

How ironic that I just did some casting for my CZ52 this evening, and was planning on making a post about it....


I use Accurate 31-100T which is a plain base. No GC is needed. I cast wheeleeights +2% tin and size .312 lubricating with 50-50 Alox-beeswax and load 7.4 grains of AutoComp in Starline cases with Remington 6-1/2 primers for 1450 fps. No leading. More accurate than ball ammo.

That is a VERY similar design to my mold which I designed around 2010 while stationed overseas.... I'll attach photos, so you can see. Mine is a 90gr RF with a .100 lube groove spaced so that the groove rides inside the case neck when seated so the case neck is in the center of the front band. This has proved to be a pretty accurate and reliably feeding design.

I use this over 5gr of Red Dot, which functions the pistol well, and doesn't fling brass into the next galactic cluster. I typically size to .311", however I do experience a little leading at this size with Carnuba Red. My plan was to powder coat to see if that does any better, since I've just about shot up my remaining lubed boolits. As cast it drops about .3115-.3125. My barrel in the CZ measures about .3105-.3110 when measured, so with PCing, it might fatten up just a hair. We'll see...

Here are pictures of my boolit design. I've actually though about sending some examples off to Mihec several times to see if he'd be interested in doing a run of molds. I'm glad someone came up with a similar design. I've thought about having this one done again, but with a gascheck and no lube groove for powder coating - I have just recently been making the change over to this...

311310
311311