Foxyboy43
Well-Known Member
Not strictly a deer-related topic more an extreme reloading example. Being a keen rifle shooter and interested in older military rifles I once bought an 1944 M48 Mosin Nagant carbine in 7.62x54R for use at our club range. It was a real old timer with a pretty rough bore whoch had been counterbored for about an inch reflecting its heavy use and leaving a very short barrel indeed. Anyway clutching my new rifle and 2 boxes of PPU ammo off I set to the range. As it only had battle sights I set up a white card at 15 metres to see how it went. It very quickly became apparent why the americans call the M44 the "Russian Boomstick" as every time it "detonated" a 3ft ball of flame emerged from the barrel. This of course caused great merriment which was heightened by the initial, and I use it cautiously, 5 shot "grouping" - see photo - 1 miss and 4 sideways!
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Not bad for 15 yds! At 50 I couldn't be sure of hitting the range backstop so after much discussion and merriment I retired gracefully from the field - straight back to the dealer I had bought it from with my ears ringing (in both senses) to comments like "so that's why it has an underslung bayonet".
To cut a very long story short he phoned a Mosin shooter and was given the legendary advice "they don't like PPU"! One week later and back to the range clutching a box of S&B and a dozen reloads in Sierra Prohunter .311 calibre . In short the new ammo transformed what was basically a "club" into a rifle which was grouping 2 inches at 50 yds - probably all that the model was ever expected to do at Stalingrad or anywhere else on the Eastern Front!! The homeloads also went very well and I was a happy bunny. What's more there was a sudden interest in Mosins. Since then I have perfected a round which will regularly group 3 inches at 100yds and still retain the visual and sonic wow factor.
So why am I telling you this - for me it was a perfect lesson in how with a little research and experimentation even a "dog" might be tweaked to deliver results better than you ever hoped for. I was so pleased with the outcome I bought the M44's big brother - 91/30 which had a mirror bore and with a long eye relief pistol scope attached will shoot MOA all day long. See photo as an illustration.
!
Not bad for 15 yds! At 50 I couldn't be sure of hitting the range backstop so after much discussion and merriment I retired gracefully from the field - straight back to the dealer I had bought it from with my ears ringing (in both senses) to comments like "so that's why it has an underslung bayonet".
To cut a very long story short he phoned a Mosin shooter and was given the legendary advice "they don't like PPU"! One week later and back to the range clutching a box of S&B and a dozen reloads in Sierra Prohunter .311 calibre . In short the new ammo transformed what was basically a "club" into a rifle which was grouping 2 inches at 50 yds - probably all that the model was ever expected to do at Stalingrad or anywhere else on the Eastern Front!! The homeloads also went very well and I was a happy bunny. What's more there was a sudden interest in Mosins. Since then I have perfected a round which will regularly group 3 inches at 100yds and still retain the visual and sonic wow factor.
So why am I telling you this - for me it was a perfect lesson in how with a little research and experimentation even a "dog" might be tweaked to deliver results better than you ever hoped for. I was so pleased with the outcome I bought the M44's big brother - 91/30 which had a mirror bore and with a long eye relief pistol scope attached will shoot MOA all day long. See photo as an illustration.
