Quote Originally Posted by jake7.62 View Post
7.62x54R..... It's been in use for well over 100 years so far and isn't going anywhere. It's seen use in WWI,WWII, Korea, Vietnam all the way through to today's battlefields. So hands down it gets my vote. It may not be a favorite of mine but you have to respect it.
Also my vote.
Most recently, my development projects have been concentrated on .30 BR, .280 Rem, .223 Rem, and 7.62x54R. Of these, the
7.62x54R has provided the most positive surprises.
I originally considered the Mosin-Nagant 91/30, and the cartridge it shoots, to be shoddy wartime expedient stopgaps, with little to recommend them beyond matters concerning collector interests. Big mistake.
The rifles are gracile, inherently accurate, and nearly 'as cheap as popcorn' to own and shoot. I am still going through the painfully slow and frustrating learning path needed to find that 'reliable' scope mounting. I may never fully succeed, but there are small incremental rewards along the path and "who knows, the horse may even learn to sing...". I'm having too much fun with the learning process to give up now.
Then...; there's that spamcan/steelcase/Berdan surplus ammo. Dear Lawdee, but that stuff shoots dirty; and it's corrosive as well, so 'extra care' must be given to render the bore immune to the rust demons dirtiest dealings post firing. In truth, either Hoppe's #9, or CLP with do that rendering alone, and running several patches through, soaked with Windex, will work with other cleaners. All methods should be followed up with final light coat of oil in the bore, which I'd be doing anyway.
OK, it's not Gold Medal, but it is composed of relatively adequate, if dirty burning/corrosive, components; and it can be collet dismantled and reassembled on a modern press, with a modern powder measure, and can render considerably better than might be reasonably expected ammo at that same spamcan cost per round. Again, still not Gold Medal, but maybe at least as good as American Eagle, and far cheaper (say $.25 a shot/$5-ish a string-tied paper package of 20 cheap - still, no...,
really), with the option of doing some charge weight adjustment/load development to render a sorta match/matched load for a given rifle. I find that IMR-4064 makes a rather excellent propellant for this chambering. I think some folks might even like to combine it with SRA .311 174gr SMK's.
My 110lb 16 y/o Granddaughter has reservations about its recoil. Fair enough, I'm working up a spamcan/TulAmmo hybrid load using collet pulled 123gr bullets from the 7.62x39 steelcase SKS fodder. When I bought it, the TulAmmo was retailing in Wallyworld for $4.97 a box of 20, but alas... But wait! Maybe
yet...!
Let's consider a few points. 120 years in service (and still counting), serving Tsar, Bolsheviks, Communists, and even the current Republic, not to mention client regimes, Third World revolutionaries, pauper states, and even the Soviets' own most virulent enemies. Still slaying bears and moose, as well as lesser game, maybe even a few Snow Tigers and -Leopards; it's also still an Olympic competition cartridge, still a respected chambering in a long sequence of modern Sniper Rifles, and still a key machine gun chambering. I don't know how much more a cartridge has to do to qualify, but this one has done its teething rather thoroughly, thank ya very much.
...and in this corner, the perennial, the original(?), contender, the 7.62x54Rrrrr...
Greg
