Found a 7.62x39 compact today...

[Joe S.]

My 125/308's came in. Now i have a few bullets to play with for this rifle and daughter's 30-30 single shot.
Do wish they had a crimp groove.

Loaded up some 26 gr/ reloader 7 and some 28.5 gr/AA2230 tonight to try in the compact. Should be nice n gentle. Hopefully the 308's shoot as good as the 311's...

 

[DGW1949]

Hello Joe S.....

That is a beautiful rifle you got there.

Way back when, I was involved in a "good bit" of accuracy development of the 7.62X39 cartridge for use in the Mini-30 platform. Looking through my notes, the three most accurate loads we found are listed below;

Nosler (.308) 125Grn Ballistic Tip
Lapura (spelling?) Brass.
23 Grns IMR4227 Powder.
Federal GM-match Primer.

Sierra (.308)150Grn FMJBT
Federal Brass.
27.5 Grns H-335 Powder.
Federal GM-match primer.

Lake City (7.62 NATO) 147Grn FMJBT bullet.
Federal Brass.
28.5 Grns H-335 Powder.
Federal GM-match Primer.

Things to note in relation to the above loads;
All of the above loads are what I personally consider to be max.
The reason I didn't list the AOL for the loads I posted is; Back then, I was striving to use the maximum AOL that would be consistent with the chamber (and magazine) dimensions of the test rifles that we were working with, and that may or may not coincide with the requirements of your bolt-gun.
As you probably noted, the 147 and 150 loads use a somewhat "heavy for caliber" bullet, and as such, carry all of the usual concerns that developing such loads always involve. That said though, at the time they were being developed, I was working rather closely with one of the bullet-techs at Sierra. His expertise and willingness to help was invaluable.
The 147 Lake City bullet actually has two crimp groves but neither was suited to the AOL we wanted.
I think it important to use a "rather tight" neck tension. You may find it interesting that not all .308 bullets actually measure .308" . Over the years, I've found some brands/lots to be closer to .307, and a few to be as small as .3065, neither of which are optimum for the expander that is provided with most dies.....which might be something to keep an eye on while doing your own development work.

Hope something here helps.

DGW

 

[Joe S.]

Yep. Thanks. I have noticed these sierras are "loose" and i kiss em just a little with the crimp part of the seater to tighten it up. May go back with the expander out of my 30-06 or 308 dies to compare.

 

[rugnelli]

Good information.

 

[Joe S.]

well it is official... my M77 has a .311 bore. just slugged it. it measured .3105"

so i guess i am gonna trade in these .308's for .310's... zombie max anyone? lol

 

[DGW1949]

well it is official... my M77 has a .311 bore. just slugged it. it measured .3105"

so i guess i am gonna trade in these .308's for .310's... zombie max anyone? lol

I find that to be rather surprising.....woulda thought that by now, Ruger had standardized on a .308 bore. FWIW, the various Mini's that we used for accuracy testing varied a bit in bore sizes, yet what shot the best out of one, almost invariably shot the best out of the others also.

Just sayin'...don't get discouraged.

DGW

 

[Joe S.]

I bought 500 Hornady Zmax boolits today sized .310 to try. Wonder if these are vmax boolits? Kinda looks like em. Wonder how they would do on deer...

 

[Ruger Nut10]

I did shoot one deer with the 7.62x39 Zombie max.(60 yd shoulder shot) They do eat up meat but do the job. They may be a little soft but work great on the small Hill Country Texas deer. I do plan on more testing..... The new Hornady SST 123 did not group well in my mini 30, but I would think they may be the best for larger deer.
I have shot dozens of deer and a few hogs with the Wolf 154gr and all one shot kills and untill I shot a hog that the bullet didn't exit found the bullet just slightly mushroomed so I have since switched to the Silver Bear 125gr SP but have no data yet. Hope this deer season I get some data.

 

[Joe S.]

Cool. Thank ya for that info

 

[dfletcher]

I bought 500 Hornady Zmax boolits today sized .310 to try. Wonder if these are vmax boolits? Kinda looks like em. Wonder how they would do on deer...

Pretty sure they are the same. BTW, Grafs (if they have them in stock) usually has very good prices on the .310 VMAX - $15.99 for 100 IIRC. I also use Privi Partizan 123 FMJ for reloading and get excellent results out of my CZ.

 

[Joe S.]

Just checked em out. Dang i paid altoo much for those zombie boolits. Oh well i got em now. :-/

 

[Joe S.]

Back out today. Loaded more AA2230. 5 each of:
28.3 grains
28.5
28.7
28.9

All with the zmax. Its overcast with wind gusts. Not ideal but trying to shoot when wind flags are still. 28.3 and 28.5 have gotten about 2" groups so far. Hopin the improve. I probably shouldnt even be here.

28.3 grains. Guess i missed round 5. It was off in right field somewhere. Fired too fast between shots for the first three

28.5

Gonna get some H335 to try next.

 

[Joe S.]

Wow. 28.7 grains. Thats about 4". Ugh.

 

[Joe S.]

Was about to say maybe i should slow it down a little. 28.9 is lookin good.

 

[craigcpa]

Hey Joe, what is your scope on this?

 

[Joe S.]

Nikon Monarch UCC in 1.5-4.5x20. Great scopes! I now have three and want/ need about that many more!

 

[russ69]

I did some load development for a SKS I had. Being a SKS I knew it had a .311 bore or thereabouts. I tried a number of bullets, including the Speer 311 dia cone base and a bunch of 308 match bullets. I never got any decent grouping with any load. I finally just gave up. I hate to say it but your results look a lot like mine.
About the only thing I could not do is load the bullet really long and try to get it near the lands. I wanted the loads to fit the magazine so long loading was not possible. Keep trying, that gun is too nice to quit on.

 

[Joe S.]

Thanks russ69