Safe 7.62x54R for 1895 Winchester

[kevin.303]

i have a 1895 Winchester lever action in 7.62x54R, and am wonderinf there is anysafe factory load i can use in it. i know the surplus stuff is out of the question and i'm leery to try Igman. will reload for it, have a mix of Norma & Igman brass, and can always pull the bullet and powder form surplus and use that once, just clean accordingly

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[Stevo]

Why is surplus out of the question? Provided it's regular rifle ammo, I don't see what the problem is. Unless the 1895's originally used a reduced load?

[kevin.303]

all the local surplus stuff is that Hungarian heavy ball stuff, which there seems to be a general consensus that it's machine gun ammo. i've had trouble opening mosin bolts after firing that stuff so, don't want to try it in a lever. i'm just paranoid about blowing the gun up.

[Stevo]

all the local surplus stuff is that Hungarian heavy ball stuff, which there seems to be a general consensus that it's machine gun ammo. i've had trouble opening mosin bolts after firing that stuff so, don't want to try it in a lever. i'm just paranoid about blowing the gun up.

Gotcha. I should think 147gr surplus should be fine if you can round some up.

[desporterizer]

Uh, isn't it bad to use pointed ammo in a tube mag? The 7.62x54r started out as a 210grn round nose at about 2200fps if I recall correctly.

[Stevo]

Uh, isn't it bad to use pointed ammo in a tube mag? The 7.62x54r started out as a 210grn round nose at about 2200fps if I recall correctly.

Excellent point! That never even occurred to me.

[kevin.303]

the 1895 uses a lee type box magazine, the czar's army ordered 300,000 in a musket configuration, also available in .30-40 Krag, .303 British, .30-06, .405 WCF and others

[Claven2]

Yep, no tube mag

The Czech silvertip ammo should work just great in your intended application.

As for the Hungarian ammo, the chamber sticking has less to d owith how hot (or not) it is, and more to do wit hthe steel alloy used to make the cases. It's soft and doesn't spring back to the original shape very well afte firing, causing it to grip the chamber walls. I think it was meant to fire in self-loading rifles of one type or another where the cases are extracted while still hot and maleable.

Not that I would fire it in a lever action either. Levers aren't noted for their positive extraction.

[happydude]

Kevin's a tough guy, I've got some of that heavy ball you can try