7.62x54R Mil-Surp Ammo Surprise

[Big Blue]

I was looking through some surplus 7.62x54R ammo I have, and found one that was kinked in the shoulder. Well I culled it out, and figured I'd pull the bullet to check it's weight, and that of the powder. The bullet was a jacketed hollow base weighing 148.5 gr. and the powder weighed 50.7 gr. and was not ball, but extruded! According to the headstamp, I believe this is Czech 1984 surplus, made by Sellier and Belliot(bxn designation). Their use of a hollow base bullet, and extruded powder really surprised me.
Don

[Mikey]

BigBlue:  the use of extruded powders is common in european cartridges.  You can have a lot of fun pulling old 303 British bullets for the extruded nirto-cellulose powders they used and stringing them together for fuzes - kid stuff, just be careful if you do that.  As for hollow-based bullets, also pretty common.  The weight is what surprises me, most of the 7,62x54R ammo I see or look for is the 200 gn load.  You can betcha bottom dollar that Russian round doesn't give up anything to the 308.  Mikey.

[His lordship.]

I have notice two of the cartridges on the Bulgarian ammo to have a deep kink in the shoulder area too, the headstamp is star at 12 o'clock, "3" at nine o'clock, "10" at 3 o'clock, and "53" at the bottom (6 o'clock).  I shot several of the good rounds, did have one of the brass cases split in two spots.  Accuracy was good, only bought 20 rounds though.

I have seen numerous dents on a few of the older Albanian ammo in the shoulder area, marked "85" at the 12 o'clock, and "3" at the bottom.  This Albanian ammo is believed to be part of the older, and smaller can that had all those thick rims and bent necks.  

My question is...are the dents and kinks in the shoulder area of the above ammo safe to shoot in a Mosin Nagant?  I am a Mauser fan and would consider blowing off 8 MM ammo in a condition like that to use em' up in a Model 98, but they are different rifles.  Would I be better off chucking the few deformed rounds, I don't like the idea of a possible problem with ammo in a high powered rifle, and so far several of those deformed rounds are in my ammo collection as freaks. :?

Thanks.

[Big Blue]

I came across a good site for 7.62x54R ammo identification:
www.mosin-nagant.net/i3tro4.htm
Don

[kevin.303]

by extruded powder do you mean stick propellents like cordite? i've got a jam jar full that i puklled from corroded .303 surplus.  a buddy told me that you load a couple strands under a .32 pistol bullet for a light plinking load. haven't tried it though and not sure if it will work. any one tried handloading with the stuff? iread some where that when the .303 ammo was made the would take the straight wall case and load it with the cordite and then neck it because that was the only way to get the max amount in.

[Fla Brian]

iread some where that when the .303 ammo was made the would take the straight wall case and load it with the cordite and then neck it because that was the only way to get the max amount in.

This is true. I remember seeing, some years ago, some photos of .303s being loaded by women for WWI.