Mosin Nagant M44 - checking out some hand loads

[jamesspo]

Just a quick range report on some hand loads I'm working up for my Mosin M44 Carbine w/4x scope.

Random, unknown, Mil-Surp ammo leads to typical groups sizes for this gun, at mostly 6-8 inch groups at my 125 yard range. Not that bad, really..for a WWII battle carbine.

I figured I'd try some hand loads just to see if I could get any more out of it. I wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised.

Sierra Match King HPBT .311 174g / 45.5 grains of Varget. 2.2" group

Sierra Match King HPBT .308 168g / 46 grains of RL15. 6.0" group - not surprising, just tried 308 for grins because some have had success with .308 in some Mosins

Sierra Pro Hunter .311 150g / 43.5 grains of RL15. 1.38" group - The winner..yeah baby!

Still some more work to do to see if I can squeeze out any more. That 1.38 group might be as good as I can hold with the 4x scope though.. We'll see. Can't complain about 1.1 MOA for this gun though. If only those poor Russians had these modern bullets (and a scope!).

Required evidence:

174 grain SMK

.308 SMK group in the middle. 150gr .311 SPH in the lower right corner. Sweet!

 

[nffclsr]

nice, but a picture of the gun would be really nice! (hint, hint, picture of the beautiful gun please)

 

[Jnatcat]

I really like my M44, i picked up for $75 about 15 years ago and got a sealed can of ammo in the deal

 

[jamesspo]

Oh yes..indeed, I'll post a picture of the gun tomorrow. It's your basic M44 from the $80 surplus gun bucket, but I seem to have gotten lucky with this one.

 

[Ad Astra]

Nice work. The .308s should have been rattling out of the pipe!

I'm going to cast .311&.314 eventually, and work up my usual low recoil Trail Boss loads for 54r.

(Have already done that for 8mm Mauser, .308 and others)


AA

 

[nortac]

Nice write up! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Highspeedlane]

That's some darn fine groups from a classic war horse. Congrats!