Hornady .312” 150 gr soft point bullets in stock & other stu

[texasmac]

Hi guys,

New poster here. Thought I'd start with some reloading info. If you are not aware, Midway finally has Hornady Interlock 303 Cal. 0.312” diameter 150 gr soft point bullets. Hornady # 3120. You may be aware that these have not been in production for a long time. I’ve been bugging Hornady off and one for at least a year to make some more. They will go a long way in maximizing the accuracy in the Mosin. I just picked up a box of 100 at $24.99.

Not having any reloadable cases I also bought a couple of boxes (40 total) of the Serbia made Prvi Partizan (PPU) 150 gr soft point boat tail ammo with the intentions to shoot it than reload with the Hornady bullets. But come to find out the PPU bullet diameters are 0.3113” so they may shoot very well in the Mosin. If you are not a reloader these may be the ideal cartridges for hunting with your Mosin.

I have been shooting the Russian made zinc plated steel Silver Bear 174 gr full jacketed ammo with less than stellar results. The bullet diameter in these is 0.309”, which is a little small in my Mosin which has a groove dia. of 0.3115” and a land (bore) dia. of 0.3025”. The measurements were taken from an impact impression and also confirmed by slugging the bore. BTW, FWIW the impact impression resulted in an overall cartridge length of 2.130” and a neck dia. of 0.340”.

I pulled the bullets on 20 of the PPU ammo & plan to reload 10 with Win. 748 powder and 10 with IMR4350, the only two Mosin compatible powders I have in stock. I’ll head to the range with the two batches of reloads and the original PPU ammo to check out the results.

BTW, The PPU brass is very nice and uniform with a length of 2.10” and neck wall thickness of 0.0105” to 0.0110”, resulting in a loaded neck diameter of around 0.334” using the Hornady bullets.

Wayne

[FineRedMist]

Gone already.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[texasmac]

Wow! That was fast.

Wayne

[texasmac]

OK guys. I’m back from the range & here’re the results. It was not a perfect day but not bad. The wind was gusting 20 to 25 mph but directly from 6:00. I shoot slowly to allow the barrel to cool down a bit between shots and waited even longer between strings. The Russian Silver Bear full jacketed ammo really surprised me as it has not shot as well during previous outings and the bullet diameter is 0.309”. For hunting it’s a tossup since most are 1-shot kills. Boy, the PPU ammo is quite hot, averaging over 2900 fps. Based on all the results it looks like 2.5 MOA is about the best I’m going to get with this rifle and my shooting ability. You will notice that statistically the 53 gr of IMR4350 was the best and 47 gr of Win. 748 the worse. BTW, the sights were not adjusted between strings.

Wayne

[bunkysdad]

I really like your targets and method of data gathering.
I just checked and these .312 Hornady bullets are in stock at Grafs for 26.95 per box

[texasmac]

Here's the missing target. BTW, my previous post had an error. As noted on the target below, 50gr of IMR4350 was used not 53gr. Also, the rifle is a 91-30 with a perfect bore. The receiver has the holes filled in where the scope mount was attached so it may have been selected for a sniper at one time.
Wayne

[texasmac]

Hey guys,

This is “the rest of the story”. Being a basically honest person I need to “fess up” and divulge that the Mosin I used for the range tests is a “sporterized” version with a modern scope, hence the ability to use small bulls-eye targets. I bought three M1891/30’s 12 months ago, hoping that one had a very nice bore I could use for a conversion platform. Not being a collector I didn’t care if the numbers matched and therefore got a good deal, around $80/rifle. I lucked out. The bore looks like new in the one I converted. I cleaned up the other two with slightly dark but certainly usable bores. These were sold along with the stock and accessories from the converted rifle. The profits were sufficient to cover the cost of the conversion stock and kits.

The sporterized rifles features a synthetic Monte Carlo stock, bent bolt kit and scope mount kit. I attached an inexpensive Tasco 3-9X40mm scope. Also, due to the scope extending closely over the original safety knob, the knob was replaced with an extended finger pull version. I relieved the stock to float the barrel; ground off the front and rear remaining sight bases and refinished the barrel. The bottom line is it’s not worth the time and effort if one plans on selling the converted rifles. The $80 rifle and conversion parts/kits totaled around $250, not including all the work involved. You will not make a profit. I did it mainly as a fun project. There, I feel better with that off my chest. Sorry if I mislead anyone.

As a result of my testing I would take with a grain of salt anyone reporting that they can get 2MOA or less with their Mosin, especially with iron sights. I expect 2MOA is feasible with my rifle after additional load testing and upgrading the trigger, but doubt further improvements without a lot of work and additional expense, which does not make sense with a $100 rifle.

Wayne