Reeloading steel cases for dragunov

I tested is it possible to reload surplus ammo with  steel case. I wanted a handload that is safe to shoot from dragunov, in finland there is no hard primer like CCI 34 on the market so I have to improvise. I unload chineese surplus ammo with steel case and use the unfired steelcase and primer and reload it with new bullet and powder.

Unfortunately there's no reloading data for .311 bullets and no info for reloading steel cases. I tryed some loads with .311 bullets and wihtavuori powder.

1. load.

Hornady 150gr sp
COAL: 73mm
Powder: N135 46gr

avarang speed was 860 m/s with old type of primer (larger one)
And with newer type of primer speed went up to 890 m/s with same amount of powder! Presure went too strong, some of the steel cases crack in the shoulder.

2. Load (my friends load for ukko-pekka)

Sako .311 8g
COAL : 71mm
Powder: N135 49gr

Avarange speed 930 m/s. This load makes the magazine jam. The COAL is too short and ammo in the magazine start to move when shooting.

3. load

Sierra 174 gr
COAL: 75mm
Powder: N140 45,5gr

Avarange speed 785 m/s. Works well, exept load is too hot. Steel cases with old primers give more pressure than expected. Some of the cases cracked in little. Same loads with sako and lapua shells did not give any hot load symthoms, but I did'n mesure the speeds eitheir.

Dragunov handloads

I started loading for dragunov. I bought some .311 bullets for test, there are no many choices in .311 caliber. Amercan bullets are actally for .303 british caliber and there are no loading data for them in 7,62x54R.

I managet to get these bullets for testing:

Sako 123gr FMJ for 7.62x39,
Lapua 200gr FMJBT( too heavy for dragunov)
Sierra Pro Hunter 125gr
Sierra HPBT 174gr
Hornady 150 SP

In finland there are not extra hard primers like CCI no. 34, so I have to manualy load each round. I have also planned to reload chinese surplus ammo to get it savefully work in semi-auto.

First load:

Hornady 150gr SP
COAL: 73mm
Case: Sako
Primer: vihtavuori (old)
Powder: N135 45gr & 46gr

So I started shooting handloads one by one and got nice results. Best 5-shot group was 1 moa. There was problem with vihtavuori primers, dragunovs strikes primers so hard that few soft vihtavuori primers get piersed. I have to chance vihtavuori to CCI 200 and see how it goes.

More tests and photos are coming...

Shooting a dragunov from kneel position

I bought some time a go a countor action camera. Its very helpful when you want to improve your time in practical shooting. This time I just wanted to film my self shooting dragunov from kneel position at 40 meters. That damn thing is so fun to shoot!

SVD range report 2

I started testing PPU Leader surplus ammo. It has steel case with cupper plating and 148gr bullet. There are several different case markings and some of the ammo's primes and bullets are seald with pink lacquer.

Altough PPU is the cheapest 54R ammo in the Finland it gives a firm performance, all the groups are under 2,5 MOA this includes fliers. This might not sound like much but the ammo is only 0,35€/piece and my Dragunov has old russian 4x scope on it. Best 5 shot group that I get was 1,25 MOA.

The best results gave cardridge with numbers 71 and 66 stamped in the rear. Some of the different case markings hits different place than the rest, so its important to arrange the cases. Last photo shows how high 69/19 hits compered to 71/66.


 I know there is potential to SVD, but there are no other hard primer ammo available in Finland and hard primers as CCI #34 are not available for reloading. One possibility is to start reloading berdan type of shells, berdan primer should be harder than boxers.


 I found out that it is relitvely easy load a dragunov single shot style. After last shot the boltcarrier is left in rear position, then it's easy to load a single cartridge in the magazine when it's still on the gun. This way I can test western ammo like S&B and Lapua without worrying the rifle been blown in my face.















  

SVD range report

I ordered some russian ammo for my dragunov. There is a major slam fire potential with free floating firing pin so I decided to keep firing russian ammo for now. There is one kaboom with dragunov in Finland last year, if I remember currectly it was with S&B ammo. There were no serious injurys to shooter.

I managet to get three different ammo with hard russian primers. Wolf 148gr fmj, Barnaul 174gr and PPU Leader 148gr.

Wolf

Steel case and unknow bullet. I have shot 60 shots with this. There sometimes seems to be little deley when firing, like 0,2 second or so. You only are able to tell it after the shot. Wolf often performs good, about 2,0 - 1,5 MOA but sometimes I got some huge fliers. the worst ones goes 15cm off the target, I do not know why. Best 5-shot group was 55mm at 100m and four of them was under 25mm.

Barnaul

I had high hopes for this one. I shoot barnaul a lot in 9 mm, its cheap and works well. Steel case with same green lacquer than the 9mm. Bullet is a heavy 174 gr so light rifle kicks a bit more. I have shot four five-shot groups and I was deppressed. The avarage group size was about 100mm.

 

PPU Leader

This ammo is little strange. I can not find any precise info about this, only that is surplus ammo with 148gr bullet. 200 pieces of ammo is stored in cardpoard box and there are some foreign language, mayby chech? Visually I see there are at least four differents types of cases, different numbers and case colors. Anyway I shot two 5-shot groups before dark and was amazed! First shot go little left, but the rest go about 5cm goup. Not bad for cheap surplus. This ammo needs more testing. Obviously I have to organice the different types of shells order to get more accuracy of this ammo.

Different type of shells in PPU Leader

Remington 700 + grs stock

I have had a Remington 700 Police for five years now. The original HS stock does not fit me like a glove so I wanted something with an adjustaple ceekwell and lenght. Stock markets in Finland are narrow, but norwegian GRS stock were awailable and desing of sporter/varmint was intresting so I go with that. Stock weight is only 1,3kg.

Same time I wanted to changes box magazine to AICS type changeable magazine. I bought an Alutek triggerguard that accepts AICS magazines. Its a lot stonger and bigger than the original trigerguard, so it is not a drop in installation.

Alutek triggerguard and steel bedding pillars

I noticed that grs stock needed a bedding job. My friend milled me two pedding pillar from steel. They werent adjustible like the ones in gunshops so I cut them exacly the same lenght as in the HS stock.

 

I used Acraglass bedding gel. It has a nice working time also its easy to mix and spread. Before bedding I used electric tape to center the barrel and to make room for recoil lug. Then I waxed all steel parts so the recerver wont stick in the stock. There are lots of videos in youtube of pillar pedding.

Final result was success. Actoin works perfectly and now I have light and ergonomic rifle with AICS magazines.

8 shots at 100m. Lapua Trainer

First shots with my new SVD

I bought my self a new rifle. I was going to buy DPMS AR10 or S&W mp10, but when I was at the gunstore I saw something beautiful. An original SVD Dragunov, stock condition! The last time when I have seen and fired Dragunov was in the army. Best part is the price only half of the S&W mp10! Decicion was made, I can buy AR10 rifles anytime but original Dragunov's, maybe never!

Detailed review gomes later, I also bought some wolf 7,65*54R ammo and headed to range. I was trilled! There was also Russian scope PO 4x24 with the rifle.

  

First shots were off the target, but then I sights to the A4 papertarget. Wolf ammo performed nicely 4 shots were in 3cm group and one flyer 5cm off the group! nicely done with cheapest ammo what you can find!

How to make a "puukko"

My father made me a nice christmas preset, DIY "Puukko" set. It had a my fathers handmade blade, handle, two brass somethings( I dont know what they are called in english), leather and wood for shealt.

The blade is forged of high garbon steel wich is mixed with crome and vanadium. In Finland its called "hopeateräs" (silversteel) becouse of its bright color. It is corrosive steel material but with right hardening and tempature treatment you get blade with extreame sharpness and toughness.

Assembleng a scandinavian style puukko is quite simple you just burn a hole with your blade trough your wooden handle. Then put some glue your brass things(still I dont know what they are called) and your wooden handle and hammer them together.

Now all you need is little sanding and some Danish Oil to have new nice puukko.

To make a new shealt you need leather, two needles and waxed thread. I have posted an article of making revolver holster, princible is same, wet leather is mold to the shape you want. Blade is protected by wooden cover wich allso gives the shealt its looks when you mold your leather. I did a tratitional "tommy" style shealt.

 

Handloads for STI 223 part 2

I wisited a local gunsmith to buy bullets to find good load for 300m. Unfortunalety there were only 75gr Hormady bullets, I was looking for 69gr but I guess that will be OK. STI has a 1-8" twisting so it would work, how ever 16" barrel would not give much speed. Anyway I was curious to find out how accurate it will be.

Lapua 55gr fmj and Hormady 75gr

Vihtavuori reloading manual gives powder values for N135 and N140, I have some recollection that N140 + 223 rem with 16" barrel = flamethrower so I did two different loads with N135.

.223 load No. 2

case = S&B Bulk full sized
primer = Federal No. 205
bullet = Hormady 75gr BTHP
powder = N135 23,0gr & 23,5gr
lenght = 57,4mm

I had problem with Lee .223 bullet seating dye, it gaves hormady hallow point bullet visible dent. After reloading I tried a Hormady .222 rem bullet seating dye, that worked well. Also with Lee dye the handloads jammed in the PMAG magasine when cartridge lenght was 57,4mm. This problem did not occur with Hormady dye when cartridge lenght was same. I might have to redo these handloads becouse there were some flyers.

Lee leaves a dent in the hollow point

Shooting conditions were below avarage, -7.5 C snowing and 2-4 m/s wind 180 degree.

10 shot groupings=

23,0gr =38mmx41mm

23,5gr =52mmx42mm

second 10 shot group

AR testing

I went 100m range today. Weather was gloydy -6c and little wind 20 degrees mayby 2-4 m/s.

First I shot PMC 55gr 10 shots midle of the target. Then I shot 40 handloads with Lapua 55gr FMJ and N133 powder in four different places. There were 4 differend powder loads 23gr(9 clock) 23,5gr (12 clock) 24gr (3 clock) and 24,5gr (6 clock). I did 5 shot goups from 23gr to 24,5gr, then I marked the hits and then fired another 5 shot groups in the same spots.

AR load no. 1

Case = S&B bulk full sized
Primer = Federal No. 204
Bullet = Lapua 55gr fmj S382
Powder = N133
Lenght = 54,0 mm

Notes: the 24,5gr load is vihtavuori manuals maxinum load and it is almost full case.

Smallest 10 shot group is 24gr with 42mm diameter, thats under 1,5 MOA pretty desent for fast shooting. In 23,5gr group are two massive flyers, my magazine must hit the taple while shooting. PMC is the cheapest 223  ammo without steel core in finland, but the accuracy is over 2 MOA with STI sporting rifle(some ranges forbittens using bullet with steel core). The Lapua 55gr fmj would be very nice for hunting and under 150m, but I still need more heavyer bullet for knucking down steel plates at 300m. I have plenty of Lapua 55gr FMJ and vihtavuori N133 powder in storage, I guess I now know what to do with them.

Remington 700 police handloads part 1

After I taked part in beertrophy match I wanted to improve long range accuracy with my remington. I have owned remington for few years and shot some handloads with it. However my reloading diarys are gone and I had to started it again in excel.

I remembered that Sierra Match 168gr gave some resorts with vihtavuori N150 and I had primed lapua cells in the storage so I started with that.

First load:

Load number: 1

Case: Lapua

Primer: unknow

Powder: N150 43gr

Bullet: Sierra Match 168gr

Loading length: 73mm

Load number: 2

Case: Lapua

Primer: unknow

Powder: N150 43,5gr

Bullet: Sierra Match 168gr

Loading length: 73mm

I reloaded 20 rounds each load and headed to the 300 meter range. This time shooting conditions were quite difficult. It was snowing and there were about 5 km/h wind in 45 degrees of angel. I was shooting prone with dipod and large sandbag in rear.

Here is my 10 round groupings:

Load number 1: 90mm x 140mm and 120x150

Load number 2: 70x150 (one flyer) and 90x110

For the record, I have some problems shooting prone with dipods. The gun powerfully "jumps" left when recoiling. Load number 2 gives more stable goupings, so I will try 44gr load also.

10 shots at 300m 70mm hight and 150mm wide