Having this discussion with a friend of mine today at the range... He was shooting his Mosin and all of a sudden he stops, gets this weird look and holds up one of his surplus 7.62X54R out of the giant spam can and he says, "you know I'd like to be able to shoot this.. in that" - pointing to my Savage 10FP.
Well, we started talking about it and now I am on here asking questions, which is I suppose the next logical step to this madness.
So, could someone more knowledgeable out rimmed cartridges in bolt action rifles please chime in? Thanks!
That Nagant rounde is roughly equal to the .30-06. It definately can be used as a single shot. I dont see why it cant be used in a magazine rifle, the Mosin does it as does the British MSLE. Not sure how but I think if you carefully load them so the rim of the top cartridge is ahead of the rim in the preceeding round it might work. This subject has been hashed over amny times so I am sure there will be some others chiming in.
El Lobo
Nope - can't be done on a Savage (well ANYTHING can be done with enough time and money but...). Extractor design is wrong for the rimmed round, I think the rim may be bigger than you would want to open up a bolt face to, etc.
Now if you wanted to fab an entirely new flat faced bolt head with a hook type extractor, make an extractor cut in the face of the barrel, etc. etc. you might be able to get a single shot going.
Haven't thought through doing it with a CRF Savage but it still would be far from a "barrel swap" project.
A siamese mauser or even a P14 would be a better place to start if your buddy wants a "modern design" bolt gun in 7.62x54.
Wow, never thought of the extractor thing being a problem. I knew there was something making it difficult, just couldnt remember what it was. Its an age thing.
El lobo
......Or he could just build a 30-06 and have darn near the ballistic equal.
Other than "because I can", the only real advantage I would see to having a Savage in 54r would be to take advantage of cheaper ammo. However, to get the full potential out of it (and to be equal to other, more practical calibers, such as .30-06 and .308), you would end up handloading and the advantage is then gone. I have 25 Mosins, including 12 snipers. Six of those currently have optics and I handload for them all. To get comparable accuracy, it's actually cheaper for me to handload for my 10FP in .308 than it is to feed a vintage sniper with the components required to get consistent, sub-MOA groups. This is in addition to the magazine/extractor issues already mentioned, which are very valid points, as well.
John
rim dia of 7.62x54R is 0.567 most of my cases measure .563 so its .030 or so over a mag bolt head. the bolt face could be opened up extractor would take a little work but i think it could happen firing pin depth is alot more on a mosin so might have to set a bolt up just for it
The main reason he wanted to go the "modern" bolt action route is that he bought so much spam can ammo he is getting bored with shooting it out of only Mosin Nagants... I don't think he is looking for bench rest accuracy either... Personally I think it was kinda dumb to buy that much of a caliber you can only shoot in basically one rifle.
I figured this would be a no-go from a cost/benefit point of view, but who knows, I figured someone out there may have done it. As far as this being covered before... I did use the search function but noting came up regarding this topic. Please feel free to point to to a link if you have one.
Thanks...
You could always sell off your surplus ammo.
I would be happy to take it off his hands... ;D
Besides the extraction issues, the Mosin rifle is most notable for it's cartridge interrupter mechanisim.
Our modern bolt guns don't have such a system because they were designed around rimmless cartridges.
I have five Mosins, if I was bored I could get some more.
Performance wise the 54R is right in between the .308 win and the .30-06. Reloadable brass for either of those cartridges is more plentiful than for the "Russian".
As for the cheap surplus ammo, I'd rather shoot that corrosive stuff in a $100 rifle such as the Mosin than a modern gun such as a Savage or it's contemporaries.
Three 44s
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