A while back I built a Savage that fired the 7.62x25 Tokarev round. It uses a .308 bullet which made finding bullets for reloading easy enough. It also had the advantage of being able to shoot surplus in a pinch if I wanted to. From the biginning the rifle was being built to shoot at subsonic velocities using heavy bullets but I did try a few lighter ones also. One being the 110 grain varmint bullet from Sierra. According to a program used to calculato proper powder, velocities and pressures my max load using HS-6 launched the 110 grainer at a little over 1700 FPS. The best part about his load is that it was extremely accurate, holding less than 3/4 MOA.

I also had visions of buying a Tokarev 33 or a CZ-52 then working it over into a "Tactical Tokarev" as I called it. Another option me and my smith cam up with is using a 1911 designed for a 38 Super. The Tokarev is so close in dimensions it would easlity work and be almost like a necked down 38 Super. If I ever do this the 110 grain bullet is what I will use. The Tokarev round would make a great self defense round if it had modern components. As it is, the little round will defeat soft body armor pretty easily with surplus ammo. It will even defeat a kevlar PASGT helmet easily.

In the rifle I also used everything up to 180 grains with good success. Using the right powder combines with the 24" barrel I was able to launch 180 grain bullets as quietly as a Ruger 16" barreled 10/22 shooting CCI Subsonic HP's. The energy levels were on par with 357 Magnum with no muzzle flash, even at night, and as quiet as a 22lr. This made shooting it fun because felt recoil didn't match the sound and most people who shot it jst shoock their heads and laughed. All this was done without the use of a silencer.

If you do a search for me you can see some of the exploits and odd stuff I used to do to see if it can be done.

Sorry for the tangent, the 110 grain Sierra varmint bullet is great.
Dolomite