Well, ain't that a nice little surprise? - 7.62x54R brass

[Mr White]

A few years ago I bought 100 rounds of S&B soft point hunting ammo in 7.62x54R so that I could take my M44 hunting. Assuming anything made in the east was Berdan primed, I tossed about 40 cases.

Yesterday, I don't know what posessed me to do it, but I sawed a case open and found that they are boxer primed. Now I have about 60 cases to play around with. I guess a set of 7.62x54R dies is in my future. I'll find out just how accurate my M39 really is.

Anyone have experience with S&B brass? Am I gonna run into any gotchas when I try to reload it?

 

[jr45]

7.62x54

I have not relaoded the S&B brass for the x54 however; I have with PRVI and Norma. With both brands, they seem to have been annealed too much and the sholders can be a bit soft. Be carefull when seating/crimping the rounds as you can easily fold the sholders. If you choose not to reload it, I will buy the brass from you. Good luck.

 

[FieroCDSP]

I had an issue with an out of spec Lee sizing die. While resizing, it was shaving brass off of the wall near the bottom. After three loads, they were rupturing. I sent in an email and they asked me to send it in, as a die can slip by the final polishing stage occasionally. They polished it and it's been perfect ever since.

I guess what i'm saying is if you get a Lee die set for it, watch for that problem. Or you might locate a neck-sizing die set since you're using a bolt-action. I've had pretty good luck loading for my Mosins. I recommend some 303 bullets, unless you have a Finnish Mosin, of course.

 

[Clark]

I got some S&B Mosin Nagant ammo 6 years ago that shot well, but reloads poorly.
The primer pocket bottoms have the wrong radius. A Lyman primer pocket uniformer can fix it.

 

[Cosmoline]

Anyone have experience with S&B brass? Am I gonna run into any gotchas when I try to reload it?

You won't ruin anything but I have found the S&B/Winchester brass to be inferior to the Lapua and Norma brass. It's good for two reloads max before it gets worn out.

 

[Navy_Guns]

My nice little surprise was finding out that the S&B soft point ammo you're talking about will consistently shoot 1 MOA groups out of my scoped M39... Not bad for a $100 rifle!

 

[556nato]

Good luck! I get about 1 MOA with my M39, and the bore's pretty rough. About S&B brass, definitely get a primer pocket uniformer! Some that I've reloaded had such a shallow/incorrect pocket, that the primer would protrude from the base. Not exactly a model of safety...

 

[Mr White]

My nice little surprise was finding out that the S&B soft point ammo you're talking about will consistently shoot 1 MOA groups out of my scoped M39... Not bad for a $100 rifle!

Hmmm. I'd think your nice little surprise would have been finding an M39 for $100!

I haven't shot any of the S&B from my M39. I've only shot it from my M44, which is by no means a tack driver.