7.62x39 HPs

[BpS12 512]

So where's all the 7.62x39 Hollow Points? They're not showing up at the local dealers and have been noticeably absent from the last 3-4 gun shows I've been to. I'm not terribly worried as I have a couple hundred rounds, but just starting to wonder if I should invest in one of those jigs for making my own out of FMJs.

 

Btw, anyone use a hollow point jig?

[Shandlanos 1,470]

Probably a regional thing. Seen them around these parts about as much as FMJ.

[gunfun 3,931]

Every discussion I've ever read or heard on drilled hollow points mentions how innacurate they are, because it is near impossible to keep the bit perfectly centered.

 

You'd be better to leave them solid point or get a mold made for the caliber in HP. Checkout www dot mp-molds dot com. He makes very high quality molds. They would outperform drilled HPs.

 

I've cast a few hundred of these and have been shooting them out of 30/06 at just over 7.62x39 ballistics. No gas checks, lubed with either 45/45/10 or polycoated. You could also bi-metal cast with a mold like this to get soft point and yeild the same or even better effect than HP.

 

Another superior route would be to drill an an HP then run it through an HP swager. That would uniform the bullet. People get about hunting grade accuracy out of home swaged bullets most of the time. A few people manage to get target accuracy.

 

Another route, probably easier and better than the above would be to pull the bullets and load them with commercial bullets and/or reload up from scratch.

 

 

 

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[YOT 3,743]

Check centerfires systems. They had them by the case recently.

 

Edit to Add: It looks like they still do.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Yeoldetool

[DLT 1,646]

That's all my local Wally world stocks in the Tula variety.

[Lone Eagle 839]

I can't find FMJ in my area to amount to anything.  The few places that do get it in still have the stupid 3 box limit.

[getitat 609]

Hello

 

Find some brass, a willing handloading buddy, some .308 lead in lower weight (156 gr. and less) and a case of beer (for after the loading, preferably).

It will beat the shit out'a any commercially available ammo for hunting, especially surplus.

 

JMHO.....

 

-guido in Houston

[Sdustin 578]

The jacketed hollow points preform almost the same as a FMJ. If I wanted better performance for hunting or whatnot id get soft points or ballistic points.

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

There is an excellent thread in the x39 section on the ballistics of various rounds.

http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?/topic/85802-terminal-performance-of-the-762x39/

 

These homemade HP are about as useful as one would expect, not very.

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

snip

 

Another route, probably easier and better than the above would be to pull the bullets and load them with commercial bullets and/or reload up from scratch.

 

Now that is a pretty damned good idea.

I would replace the powder also for a known type to go with whatever bullet is selected. 

One way to get around the berdan primed/steel case issue for custom rounds.

Heh off to see what I can find in 311/312.

[JESS1344 508]

RHODES,

   DON'T HAVE TIME TO CHECK RIGHT THIS MINUTE, BUT HORNADY USED TO MAKE A 125GR., .311 SOFT POINT; MAY STILL.

 

   JESS1344

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

Yeah saw that.

The ballistic tip SST is in 310 but everything seems BO at the moment.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Rhodes1968

[gunfun 3,931]

 

snip

 

Another route, probably easier and better than the above would be to pull the bullets and load them with commercial bullets and/or reload up from scratch.

 

Now that is a pretty damned good idea.

I would replace the powder also for a known type to go with whatever bullet is selected. 

One way to get around the berdan primed/steel case issue for custom rounds.

Heh off to see what I can find in 311/312.

 

 

I can't think of the name of the thread at the moment, but look for one. Anyway, someone else has been doing that with '54R. He weighs the charges, finds an average, and uniforms them with the powder that came in them. I think he was finding a pretty big amount of variation by weight in the surplus stuff, so just uniforming the charge from a lot and putting the bullet back is going to improve performance. If you substitute a heavier projectile, you probably do want to use commercial powder. Steel will chew up your dies, so factor replacing a die set into your calculations.

 

 

Personally, I think it would  be better to buy some S&B or PPU boxer primed brass loads, shoot them,  and load from scratch. I've actually been seeing plenty of new made american AK projectiles around. I was in a store the other day and they had a lot of bags of Hornady bullets for the caliber, at cheaper prices. They were soft point. possibly 137 grain? hunting bullets will outperform ball any day. 

[DLT 1,646]

Regarding the effectiveness of the Tula HP rounds, it all matters what they hit. When we dig them out at my shooting range, they are always inside out and streched out. So they do work...on dirt anyway.

[JoeAK 337]

We have tons of Herters HP (rebranded Tula) at our local Cabela's, easy to miss sometimes, because the box is almost identical to the FMJ.

[Sdustin 578]

The box looks the same as fmj cause it might as well be fmj. On ballistics gel theres basically no difference. Dirt on the other hand???

 

The soft point from wolf works much better on gel. I saw a test on youtube one compareing fmj jacketed hollow point and soft point. The the hollow point and fmj were almost exactly the same while the soft point was much better.

 

As far as steel and reloading I remember reading on a prepper forum about people drilling the primer pocket to be able to reload them. In an emergency shtf kind of thing the ability to reload steel would be a good asset to have. Hell with an ak you could probably carve bullets from rock and grind up matches for powder. Haha.

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

 

 

snip

 

Another route, probably easier and better than the above would be to pull the bullets and load them with commercial bullets and/or reload up from scratch.

 

Now that is a pretty damned good idea.

I would replace the powder also for a known type to go with whatever bullet is selected. 

One way to get around the berdan primed/steel case issue for custom rounds.

Heh off to see what I can find in 311/312.

 

 

I can't think of the name of the thread at the moment, but look for one. Anyway, someone else has been doing that with '54R. He weighs the charges, finds an average, and uniforms them with the powder that came in them. I think he was finding a pretty big amount of variation by weight in the surplus stuff, so just uniforming the charge from a lot and putting the bullet back is going to improve performance. If you substitute a heavier projectile, you probably do want to use commercial powder. Steel will chew up your dies, so factor replacing a die set into your calculations.

 

 

Personally, I think it would  be better to buy some S&B or PPU boxer primed brass loads, shoot them,  and load from scratch. I've actually been seeing plenty of new made american AK projectiles around. I was in a store the other day and they had a lot of bags of Hornady bullets for the caliber, at cheaper prices. They were soft point. possibly 137 grain? hunting bullets will outperform ball any day. 

 

 

Still like your idea. I always keep any components I pull anyway so not like its going to waste.

 

Just seating the bullet shouldn't cause any wear in the single stage press.

Now crimping may be an issue but since that is a separate die and fairly cheap oh well.

 

As for why, well I always like to know what would work and what would not.

I would do it just for shitzn-giggles if nothing else.

 

This isnt actually reloading, just pull the bullet, dump the powder, load new powder, seat bullet, crimp.

Maybe try it on a few rounds of yugo mil-surp first. Good brass.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Rhodes1968

[gunfun 3,931]

If you are going to take the time, you may as well sort the bullets by weight too while you are at it. 

 

If it's the same stuff I've handled, that Yugo stuff is such a tease. Nice looking brass, then you see the berdan primer.

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

Same stuff and yeah the berdan primers flat suck.

 

Still have a couple of crates of it put back and few hundred in the range bin.

 

Heh no sorting, Hornady SST is pretty consistent. 

[Shandlanos 1,470]

 

 

snip

 

Another route, probably easier and better than the above would be to pull the bullets and load them with commercial bullets and/or reload up from scratch.

 

Now that is a pretty damned good idea.

I would replace the powder also for a known type to go with whatever bullet is selected. 

One way to get around the berdan primed/steel case issue for custom rounds.

Heh off to see what I can find in 311/312.

 

 

I can't think of the name of the thread at the moment, but look for one. Anyway, someone else has been doing that with '54R. He weighs the charges, finds an average, and uniforms them with the powder that came in them. I think he was finding a pretty big amount of variation by weight in the surplus stuff, so just uniforming the charge from a lot and putting the bullet back is going to improve performance. If you substitute a heavier projectile, you probably do want to use commercial powder. Steel will chew up your dies, so factor replacing a die set into your calculations.

 

 

Personally, I think it would  be better to buy some S&B or PPU boxer primed brass loads, shoot them,  and load from scratch. I've actually been seeing plenty of new made american AK projectiles around. I was in a store the other day and they had a lot of bags of Hornady bullets for the caliber, at cheaper prices. They were soft point. possibly 137 grain? hunting bullets will outperform ball any day. 

 

Probably 147-grain, as that's a pretty standard weight for soft points in 7.62x39, and is the nominal light ball weight in 7.62x54R.

[gunfun 3,931]

A good thought, but No.

 

I initially looked at the bags because I was mildly interested in .308 win. projectiles, and I noticed that they were light and .311. That's why it was memorable, I expected to see 308 and saw something that was pretty obviously intended for 7.62x39. IIRC 303 Brit is .311, but uses weights in the 308 range. I think hornady realized that the people buying into reloading in the latest wave are mostly looking at .223 and at 7.62x39. Sure a lot geared up due to panic, but when they can't sell that overpriced stuff,  a lot of them will start using it. I predict we will see a lot more commercial options for 7.62X39 projectiles and brass for the reloader soon.

[JoeAK 337]

The box looks the same as fmj cause it might as well be fmj. On ballistics gel theres basically no difference. Dirt on the other hand???

 

The soft point from wolf works much better on gel. I saw a test on youtube one compareing fmj jacketed hollow point and soft point. The the hollow point and fmj were almost exactly the same while the soft point was much better.

 

Every box of Herters HP I've bought has been loaded with 8m3 or something very similar, you can easily feel the cuts inside the HP. They expand and fragment like crazy.

[Shandlanos 1,470]

A good thought, but No.

 

I initially looked at the bags because I was mildly interested in .308 win. projectiles, and I noticed that they were light and .311. That's why it was memorable, I expected to see 308 and saw something that was pretty obviously intended for 7.62x39. IIRC 303 Brit is .311, but uses weights in the 308 range. I think hornady realized that the people buying into reloading in the latest wave are mostly looking at .223 and at 7.62x39. Sure a lot geared up due to panic, but when they can't sell that overpriced stuff,  a lot of them will start using it. I predict we will see a lot more commercial options for 7.62X39 projectiles and brass for the reloader soon.

I did some poking around, and can't find any Hornady .310/.311 diameter bullets that are between 123 and 147 grains. Several varieties at both of those weights.

[gunfun 3,931]

It was probably 123 then. Definitely not 147. My main point is that they were in the bargain bin, plentiful, SP and made for the ruskie carbine. 

[BpS12 512]

Thanks for all the info. I agree that it's likely a regional thing. As I'm not yet set up for reloading, the surplus ammo is still my best alternative thus far. And I do recycle the steel casings. Around here the domestic brass runs about $1+/rnd. The steel surplus runs about $.25+/rnd. I have a good variety of everything so am not hurting. Maybe next year I can get the reloading started.

 

Again thanks.

Edited November 24, 2013 by BpS12

[Sdustin 578]

Where are you at BpS12?

[XD45 7,124]

The 123 Hornady performs just like you'd expect from Hornady.  Perfect.  Expands reliably even from a pistol barrel.

 

The loaded ammo is available from SGAmmo right now.

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

I prefer the Barnaul or Golden Bear SP rounds to the Russian HPs. They have always proven to be the best for expansion when compared with the other surplus ammo. That's why I use them for hunting.

 This guy does some OK vids and has one here that compares the two in water. The HPs actually tend to fragment more than they expand.

 

[Ruffian72 548]

Ok, been a few years. Yet with regular HP and FMJ. (Before Softpoint was imported) Was one of the shooters for some tests at KBI range. Many calibers/weapons, do remember the Wolf and Bear (Silver)tests of 7.62x39. Main test that left a impression. 70's full size car doors, hoods, and trunks used. Shot through metal, then 3/4in plywood, then caught in rubber bounce barrier. Except for some splintering of HP, couldn't really tell the difference. Believe softpoint be better hunting round, or go with a domestic hunter/game round producer. Testing was to use as training info for present and new officers. Eye opener for those who believe cover behind vehicle is enuff when encountering a rifle shooter. Unless engine block, no safe place. Or a car door, even with most handgun ammo. Be worse with modern lighter built vehicles. Penetration testing, not really for spreading for body mass hits, yet if rounds go through metal and wood and don't flatten much, basic Russian HP not much of a expanding hunting round.

Edited November 24, 2013 by Ruffian72

[XD45 7,124]

Biggest problem with any imported ammo is lack of consistency. I've seen bear sp tests good and bad.

 

Best to test each case to be sure if relying on imported.