Russian M44 Mosin Nagant

[johntheplinker]

I've heard that the M44s were sighted in and optimized to be fired with the bayonet extended. How many of us would really do that? Just saying.
Might explain some of the groupings, but interested in reports on with and without bayonet extended comparisons.

I've noticed more of a change of POI than in accuracy. No real pattern, some are closer to POA extended, some folded.

 

[DadSmith]

The yellow tip is heavy ball. 180 grain if I remember correctly. My regular Mosins didn't care for it, but my Finn M39 did pretty well with it.

Okay thanks for the info. It was all over the place for me. A guy at the range suggested some silvertip ammo he said they are very accurate but are armor piercing. So not allowed at my range.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Okay thanks for the info. It was all over the place for me. A guy at the range suggested some silvertip ammo he said they are very accurate but are armor piercing. So not allowed at my range.

Silvertip is 147 grain, steel core (as just about all surplus 54R is I think), but it's mild steel, not really "armor piercing". Still, a lot of ranges don't allow any ammo with projectiles that are attracted by a magnet.

 

[Mgderf]

The Polish M44's are the nicest ones.
I have an unissued one and the fit and finish are great.
Noticeably better than the unissued Russian ones I have.

I have a Chinese knockoff, the T53. I haven't shot it for groups. It's simply a range toy, but I don't think it's as bad as 4M.O.A.
Could be, I just haven't tried.

 

[johntheplinker]

Silvertip is 147 grain, steel core (as just about all surplus 54R is I think), but it's mild steel, not really "armor piercing". Still, a lot of ranges don't allow any ammo with projectiles that are attracted by a magnet.

Yep. Years (15 or so) ago I did some testing just to see if the steel core made any difference. I found the steel core had at best 10-15% better penetration than plain lead core, but that was highly dependant on the target and individual types of ammo. As a general rule, the softer the target, the closer the 2 types were in performance. On steel, Czech silvertip was actually less than some lead core, my guess that was because the Czech had a blunt core. The only one I found to actually be noticeably better on steel was the Hungarian yellow and silver tip. Anybody else remember THAT stuff? Much better than any other heavy ball,provided you could actually hit what you aiming at. Also all the heavy ball types penetrated better than all the light ball types, irregardless of target.

 

[DadSmith]

What do you all recommend for new ammunition for this rifle? Accuracy being the most important. I want to build my brass stockpile up more but fund buying loaded ammunition to be about as cheap as buying new brass and loading it by hand. Might as well have fun.
I did buy 40rd PPU 185gr match. It wasn’t to great out of my rifle. About the same as the yellow tip mil surplus.
My rifling is a bit worn and is .313 caliber after slugging the barrel. Where can I find something close to that size to reload?

 

[johntheplinker]

I've had good luck with the Hornady 174 gr RN bullets. They're .312" so that's a little closer to your bore.