Reloading 7.62x39 for SKS?

[5.56Geo]

What is your 7.62x39 load for SKS? I haven't been able to go to the desert to shoot my SKS so I'll be loading some brass case ammo. What bullets and powder have worked for you? I have some Speer.311 Bullets and two different powders that will work, H335 and IMR 4189.

Thanks for the help, any tips, comments and pointers are appreciated.

[SKSDan]

I've had some luck with 123gr hornady SP, 24gr IMR 4198, and CCI large rifle primers. I've used this load with fiochi, PMC, and Winchester brass with no problems

[Pauliedad]

I'll get my info up later today when I get home.
I went through this last year on a quest to see how my loads compared.
I do remember I used Hornady 123gr projectiles.
I also remember that my groups were definately tighter at 50 yards and I think tighter at 100 yards (no scope and my old eyes kind of take out the certainty here) than Wolf Ammo but not so much to motivate me to load more than maybe 100 rounds.

[stilly]

LoL. Fix the title please... There is no such SKS that is 7.62x29

[Enfield47]

I've had good luck with 123 gr Hornady V-Max bullets and 23 gr IMR 4198 with a Remington primer. The bullets fed fine in my Russian SKS and groups were tighter than Wolf factory ammo. The brass was mixed headstamps and I found many cases that needed to be swaged.

[kcheung2]

The SKS ejects pretty violently and the brass tends to fly upwards at random directions, so I can't think of any brass catcher design that works well at saving your brass.

[BruinGuy]

First, 7.62x39 usually uses a .310 bullet. I'd save the .311s you have for reloading 7.62x54R if you do so, unless you know something more about your bore.

Personally I like either H4198 or RL7 as my go-to powders (or if you can find it Accurate 1680), but there's a decent number of powders that will work. I would use the hardest primer you can get, like CCI #34s. The SKS can slam fire and I've seen and experienced pierced primers with different SKS rifles.

I've found that loading at or near max even with conservative load data doesn't yield the best results for most of the shooting I do (inside 200 yards) with the SKS, so definitely work up your loads and see what gets you results.

Like kcheung2 says, be prepared to scour the ground for your brass...even my biggest brass catcher can't do anything with the SKS's tendency to put the cases 20' straight up. At least they tend to come down in about a 10' circle around me. I've experienced no issues with any of the boxer primed brass I've used - PMC, Fiocchi, Arsenal, PPU, S&B, etc...they all work fine. Arsenal and S&B have tighter pockets. Overall it's an easy cartridge to work with.

[6mmintl]

Im shooting .310/.311" 150 grain flatbase speer/hornady and seated out long for single loading, usually 28-29 grains of AA2230 ball powder. I shoot silhouettes out to 500 meters with this load in a 59/66 (replace cutoff gas port) and a model one 20" AR.

You cannot/should not load 28-29 grains of AA2230 ball powder for magazine length, reduce by 1-1.5 grains.

As far as violent ejection you should only reduce port sizes to suit heavy bullet hand loads down to around .100" diameter, or try venting/additional ports in gas cylinder, once you do that you may/will have cycling problems with std, com bloc 123-125 grain ammo, it may cycle heavier ball ammo.

I also shoot an 98 mauser in 7.62x39mm lapua with a .308" kreiger 13" twist barrel with 150-155 SMK match bullets behind 29.3 grains of AA2230.