Was at the local gun show yesterday and I bought a ziplock bag of what purported to be 7.62x54R amunition. Headstamp "VPT/42", softpoints. A magnet sticks to the bullet but not the case which appears to be brass. Hunting around on the internet, I find out that the headstamp traces them to Finland, so they probably are x53R, safe to shoot in my Tula chamber but .308 bullets.

Can anyone give me any further info on these? Are they collectable before I pull them down to use as x54R brass?

Absolutely safe; 7.62x53R is just the Finnish name for the 7.62x54R russian. Some of their barrels are .308, but they will shoot in any Russian chamber. I have fired many of them. Collectable? Not common any more but I don't collect 7.62x54r ammo.

Lapua makes 7.62x53R ammo, and the bullet is the 185 gr .308 Mega.

KB

I pulled one down a few days ago. 41.6 gr of a perfectly square, paper-thin wafer powder, berdan primers. Bullet is plain, jacketed base, soft point, 11.2 g, .308 diameter with a crimping canelure. I'm gonna just shoot them. They're safe if inacurate in my .311 bore. I did find on the internet that the non-corrosive primers the Finns used may not ignite.

The only problem is they are non-corrosive. I had 500 of these cartridges and none of them would fire. I would be curious to know if yours fire. I tried them in a Finn M39 rifle.

Doug

quote:

VPT/42

A lot of this stuff. For collection and as source of brass.
But about caliber - modern russian cartridges may have .308 (sporting, Novosibirsk, LVE) and .310-.311 (Barnaul) bullets. No problem with Mosin rifle. And during the 2WW Finns had usual Mosin rifles with Russian barrels.

VPT, State Cartridge Factory in Lapua.
Marking still used today on ammunition delivered to Finnish Armed Forces despite the factory being today Nammo Lapua Oy (Ltd)

Valtion Patrunnas Tehdas or State Cartridge Factory. In 1985, our club sent a team to Camp Perry. In that year the US Army had contemplated using Lapua 170 gr .309" D46 bullets in lieu of our standard 172 gr USGI Match bullets. The reason for this was, they wanted a more accurate 7.62x51mm Sniper Round. It was decided the Sierra 168 gr Match bullet would suffice because although it is hollow pointed, they do not expand. This was agreed upon in the International Community and the Lapua bullets were surplus.

Our team was given 10,000 D46 bullets by the DCM for reloading. I still have a few of them I load in my SAKO M39. They are the most accurate bullets I have ever used in this rifle.

I will say one thing, VPT brass is the best brass made for the 7.62x53r. I have had 100 pcs of it for 20 years and NEVER had a split neck.

I have used 10 of 1000's D46 both in 7,62 NATO and Mosin loads, they are simply the best money can buy.
They gave the best results any bullet produced in a Romanian PSL, a Mosin 44 carbine and a few others in .30 caliber.

I got a box of D46's, about 600, after the 175 SMK was adopted. I've only shot few to start working up a load. Several other Navy shooters are still loading them for long range though. I just got what looks like a new bore and 1968 rescoped Russian 91-30. This is my third, I'd love to find less expensive boxer brass than Lapua. Surprisingly, I can buy Privi 7.62x54R 180 grain match or $1 each but virgin brass is $.65 each. I'm not sure how well the match ammo works I haven't been to the range with either yet. I also have an SVT-40. Anyone have a spare mag?

quote:

Originally posted by Sam:
Anyone have a spare mag?

Estonia?

http://www.roba.ee/en/product=svt_40_stick_mag

I would not worry about a spare magazine. I would use cheaper stripper clips.

Vashper, for 76 euro that would be a deal. They sell for $200 US now. I saw some reproductions made here a few years ago for $75 and didn't order in time.

Doug, was looking for a second magazine to shoot 2 and 8 for Highpower at local matches. I could do five and five stripper clips.

PS: Just for the fun of it I did a search again and found and bought a reproduction magazine for $59.

Generally in the US, according to our notions, the prices of weapons and optics is significantly lower than in Europe. And in Moscow would not find cheaper than 200 Euro, except on occasion. SVT - perfect thing, I from ironsight shoot better, than with optics. I'd like to buy (buddy sells), but the limit on license 5 guns - me has long been achieved. It is necessary to make the collecting license, and it is a lot of bureaucracy


180 grain Prvi Partizan - I think some analog of Soviet "Sniperskie" (their weight about 11.5 gramm).
Must be suitable for Mosin and SVT. By the way, generally charge in the Soviet cartridges corresponds exactly to the American army since WW2 30-06 with bullets of 150 Grand. This is a common weight of the most popular type of LPS bullets (steel core). There are also more severe special bullets 11-12 gramm, particularly these sniper. The weight of the charge do not know, probably the same as all military rounds, 3.1 to 3.3 grams. Soviet sniper bullets differ from D46 by the steel core in the form of a cone in the nose of the bullet (as in American military .223 bullets), and the Finnish core is all lead.
Incidentally, the sniper's bullet good for hunting deer, a bullet breaks through the boundary of the steel core and has got some effusiveness.

They used to be less expensive before our politicians got involved. My SVT-40 was eithe $200 or 300 US, the Mosin Nagants were under $100 except "sniper" they were around $$250. SKS's were around $100 and AK' about $300. Now the Mosin Nagants are $200, the "sniper" is called a hunting carbine now and sells for $600, SKS's went up to $600 and are at $400 now. SVT-40 and AK around $800. Imported ammo used to be really inexpensive now sells for.almost as much as domestic.

In my da, before the 1968 gun law, SVT's were $40. 1903 rifles $29 etc.

Sam, not a criticism, and for your information: in reality the rifle Mosin-Nagant does not exist. They are two different rifles. The confusion probably happened because the Russian Ministry of defence by results of the tender purchased both rifles - rifle of Sergei Mosin and Leon Nagant rifle. This was due to the fact that the production was planned in France, and Hagant had some patents there, that cannot be circumvented.
As a result of the Mosin rifle was made first in France, and in French documents it was called "Mossin fusille". Nagant Bolt is more complicated, there are two screws and disassembly requires a screwdriver, so the rifle was not used in the army, but it can be seen in museums such as the Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg. But I'm afraid this is the wrong name so ingrained that it cannot be changed. By the way, the sight on the Mosin after 30-th years is similar to the sight of the Swiss rifle Schmidt-Rubin.

No critism taken, I like a good history lesson. Thank you.