Ten Days Before I Wake Up and get my M39

[WILD_WEASEL]

The ten day wait is up on Dec 28th, so I’ll be able to get started cleaning up my M39. For some reason the cartridge interrupter and ejector are pretty rough along with the stock being pretty crusty. I ordered replacements parts along with a SA cleaning Kit form Tennessee Guns. To clean up the crusty stock I’m going to rub it down with turpentine to clean off the crud they apply a few coats of 1/3 Mix from The Stock Doctor.  Other than that the rifle is VG+ to Excellent.

I also reload for the 7.62x54r and now the 7.62x53r. My RCBS dies came with both .308 and .310 expander buttons. For my first attempt at reloading 7.62x53r I’m using Sierra .308 150gr SP’s over 52gr of IMR 4350 in a Winchester case. Using the .308 expander button neck tension appears to be OK to hold the bullets without crimping. Fortunately my 1891/59 shoots well with .311 bullets and from my readings the M39 bore is .310 for the specific purpose of shooting both .310-.311 7.62x54r captured ammo along with Finn 7.62x53r .308 ammo. However, using Hornady .312 bullets may be stretching thing and I will not be shooting these in the M39.

[Larry Gibson]

The Hornady .312 bullet isn't stretching things at all. It may very well turn out to be distinctly more accurate that the .308 bullets in your .310 barrel.  My M39 with it's .310 barrel shoot the .311 and .312 bullets much better than any .308 bullet.  A neck size die is going to give you much longer case life with the 7.62x54R (not really any difference other than name with the x53R).  I have found 4895 and varget to be excellent powders for this cartridge with bullets of 123/125 to 180 gr. 

Larry Gibson

[1911crazy]

I have one M39 that seen action that had a chipped mark in the stock were the hand grip is.  I had to try to clean it up a little because of splinters.  For some reason i couldn't restain the area.  I figured out a trick to apply the stain and let it dry and repeat it until it matched the orginal color.  Then i applied tung oil on the whole stock and it came out awesome.  I believe the finn's used some sort of a stock sealer.

If you can use the FMJ .311" bullets you can find the surplus military pulled bullets at a decent price at www.wideners.com  I use the cheap fmj pulled bullets for plinking and target shooting.  Why waste the soft points.

I also use the CCI#34 nato primers and IMR 4895 powder in all my reloaded ammo for my military surplus guns this way i won't mix up my ammo for the bolt actions and the semi auto's i can use it in both actions with no worry about a mix up.  As i get older this is a good thing and safe too.