Reduced charge, heavy bullet PSL loads?

[Cpt Caveman]

I picked up about 600 rounds of 7.62x54 last weekend at a local gun show. Guy had a shoe box fulla different kinds.There was about 375 brass, berdan primed stuff that had 183 grain bullets in them.About 200 other rounds of 3 different kinds.

It was weird no matter what kinda round it was they all had 50 grains of powder in them. Even though they used different kinds of powder.

My question is could a fella reduce the charge enough ( using the 183 grain bullet) that the heavier bullets wouldn't cause damage to my rifle.
Also, has anyone tried shooting .308 bullets out of a PSL?If so what kinda luck did you have?
Thanks

 

[duffman0286]

light ball is really what you want for your psl and there are alot of 54r pages out there that will tell you want your ammo is or you could just post some pic on here and we can tell you what it is and if its safe. but as long as you got a good deal you could always feed some nagants. far as the bullet im not sure its does fall into the 7.62 realm but id do your homework. Also i wouldnt advise lower the loads id hate to see you get a squib stuck in the barrel

 

[Cpt Caveman]

I don't care who made it and I took one of each kind apart and weighed the components so I know the bullet weights and powder charges for each kind of round.
My question, and I thought it was relatively straight forward, was can I reduce the charge in a heavy ball round to where it isn't gonna damage my rifle.
Seems like someone may have thought of this before me.

 

[x10]

I don't care who made it and I took one of each kind apart and weighed the components so I know the bullet weights and powder charges for each kind of round.
My question, and I thought it was relatively straight forward, was can I reduce the charge in a heavy ball round to where it isn't gonna damage my rifle.
Seems like someone may have thought of this before me.

Your question is straight forward but the answer isn't
we have no idea what kind of powder that is and you didn't say how much you wanted to reduce it.

10% may be safe but the factor goes up fast, You probably know that in large batches of manufactured ammo they don't use an "off the shelf" powder, Most places will accept the powder test it and adjust the load accordingly, I'm going to assume its a slow powder and you can play with it, There are some "real or theoretical" instances of where a reduced charge will not ignite because the powder is down at the end of the case away from the primer or since you pulled the bullet you might get a puff and the bullet goes out the end of the case and then the powder ignites with odd results. I'm assuming you know how to recrimp the bullets and to check for neck cracks. Seems like if you count your time as any $ then you didn't save much money when you have to process each round.

I would say that you would have to take a chronograph and check velocity of the assemble round, and then shoot a lot of 5% reduced loads and chronagraph them as you increase the amount of powder taken out, You will have to sample sized large enough to check for velocity Variation I think your Extreme spread will be the telling factor, once your velocity hits the bottom range for that round I would stop, and if your E.S. increases more than 20% of the E.S. of the un modified rounds then thats your absolute stopping point.


Good luck and remember everything I said is pure speculation and for entertainment purposes ONLY. I'm not sure you save much money.

 

[Cpt Caveman]

Guess there's only so many headaches in one lifetime a guy can handle. I'm gonna pull the heavy ball, re-weigh the charges, and top em off with a 150 grain bullet.