WARNING! Bulgarian 7.62x54r Updated with pics of what century is sending out x54r

[-hanko]

http://www.mosinnagant.net/t3p.asp for info on eastern bloc tip colors.

Much commercial ammo uses red primer sealer, military seems to use red or black to seal primers and bullets. Sealer color doesn't relate to cartridge pressure or anything else.

-hankko

[dasmi]

I shoot that Czech stuff that's lacquered green, with the silver tip bullet. Works great. Thanks for the heads up.

[virulosity]

I had a similar problem to the OP. I determined that it was weak brass. Some of the case necks were split right out of the packaging. I think that overpressure symptoms may be caused by the bullet being pushed back into the case, as the case crimp was really weak in my lot. I could literally pull some of the bullets out by hand.

[fatphatboy88]

The tips of my bullets look like they have been dipped repeatedly in some dark colored lacquer or something similar to that because there are lighter and darker spots in the "thin line" from where the dipping depth was varied. I didn't know if this was just some random anomaly in tip coatings since mine didn't look like any of the ones in the pictures.

Thanks for the help guys.

[RedDawn]

Thanks for the heads up, and for resurrecting this old post.
Yeah, the "search" button works

[rl81466]

7.62x54R Ammo Misidentified

I know that this post may seem to be a bit late, but I am new to this site and just noticed the post from last year on the "Bulgarian Heavy Ball" that one member was having problems with. I guess I should begin by saying that if you are going to shoot military surplus ammo out of ANY rifle, the shooter must be able to identify the type of ammo he or she is buying. The Soviets and Warsaw Pact nations (like NATO) used a standard bullet tip color scheme to identify different types of ammunition so dangerous mix-ups would not occur in combat. Heavy ball ammunition is identified by a YELLOW tip. Ranging incendiary ammunition (designted "PZ" ammunition by the Soviets) for machine guns is identified by a RED tip. Although this ammo can be fired from Mosin-Nagant rifles, it should be avoided at all costs because the bullet design is unstable. It has a small striker assembly built into the center of the bullet to ignite the incendiary compound, and it may EXPLODE at a really bad time. Machine gun ammunition MAY also have a larger powder charge than a standard ball round and may overpressurize the chamber, (again bad news for the shooter). All this information can be found in Terrence Lapin's book "The Mosin-Nagant Rifle" (4th Edition) pages 199-204. Be careful out there and have fun shooting while you can!

[DRH]

If you are firing incendiary ammo in California you would be in serious danger even before you pulled the trigger! Each and every round would be a felony.

[Agustav]

I've used 55 dated Bulgarian heavy ball as well. Out of a can of 300 rd, only 2 failed to fire and 1 crack case. I can get it on paper (8 in target) at 100 yards with Mosin 91/30 about 80% of the time. At 200 yards, it's close but pretty erratic. For ammo that is more then 50 years old, that's pretty good! I am going to try Czech light ball next. Anyone ordered Czech ammo from Century? The picture they have on the Century website does not match the picture in 7.62x54r.net!?

[Sampachi]

Over on Gunboards, there was a similar experience with this old dated, Lion stamped Bulgarian ammo. Everyone there agreed that it is really bad stuff, possibly due to poor storage and should be avoided. So it's not a headspace issue.
I'd pull the bullets for reloading, chuck the powder and take the brass to your local recycle plant for a few bucks.

[SVT_Fox]

had some super cheapo yellow tip heavy weight stuff that shot, fine pretty sure it was Romanian, anywho dont yall be scared of that cheap ammo