Rifles and Muzzleloaders - M1944 Truck Rifle Ammo

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M1944 Truck Rifle Ammo

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Forum Name: Rifles and Muzzleloaders
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Printed Date: 26 March 2026 at 17:51
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Topic: M1944 Truck Rifle Ammo

Posted By: Adobe Walls
Subject: M1944 Truck Rifle Ammo
Date Posted: 24 February 2004 at 13:16

Surely, someone here has experience with the 44's and various types of ammo?AW

Replies:

Posted By: Triggerguard
Date Posted: 24 February 2004 at 16:25

Which M1944 do you mean?

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"...A moral compass needs a butt end.Whatever direction France is pointing-towards collaboration with Nazis, accomodation with communists,...we can go the other way with a quiet conscience"-O'Rourke

Posted By: Adobe Walls
Date Posted: 25 February 2004 at 08:36

TG,

The 1944 Russian bolt action carbine in 7.62X54R.

There seems to be almost as many of them at the gunshows these days as there used to be SKS carbines over the previous decade.

There seems to be a lot of cheap surplus ammo, as well as inexpensive imported SP hunting ammo; but some disagreement in which is most suitable for this particular model rifle. I need some that's cheap, reliable and accurate for plinking and some that represents a decent deer load for hunting. Don't plan to reload for this one at thepresent time if you can get get cheap stuff that'll serve well enough for a $65.00 utility rifle to stuff in truck and forget.AW

Posted By: NH_Hunter
Date Posted: 25 February 2004 at 10:07

Well, you can get 7.62x54R by the 440 rd can for fairly little money. It is corrosive though. You can get Wolf 200 gr. SP for 4.99 at cabelas. The wolf has a steel case, so it isnt reloadable. The ammo sure is cheap!

NH_Hunter

Posted By: soggyshooter
Date Posted: 25 February 2004 at 12:05

AW,

Still trying to sort that out myself. So far the one constant in my M-38 carbine is a whole lot of muzzle blast, fire, and flame! Have tried the Wolf soft point seems accurate enough. Not overly impressed with the Silver Bear label. Have some Barnal and Selier & Beloit to try next. Just a matter of time before I start loading for the dang thing. I'm not a real big fan of steel cases, and unknown corrosiveness.

Jeff

Posted By: Triggerguard
Date Posted: 25 February 2004 at 16:47

S&B seems to be pretty good ammo, Winchester is the exact same thing, so don't spend more. Couple of importers are bringing in more boxer primed stuff, check Century Arms and Coles. I use some of the surplus stuff for plinking, but for hunting I do prefer my handloads.
Some of the steel cased, laquered ammunnition has a reputation for making a VERY sticky bolt lift, and hard extraction/ejection. I stick to brass, or copper plated steel cases, even with surplus.

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"...A moral compass needs a butt end.Whatever direction France is pointing-towards collaboration with Nazis, accomodation with communists,...we can go the other way with a quiet conscience"-O'Rourke

Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 26 February 2004 at 01:39

Same as my experiences. Got cheap bulk corrosive for plinking, and S & B brass soft point for hunting and target.

Yep, lots of muzzle blast, way too much slow burning powder in these.

BEAR

Posted By: Adobe Walls
Date Posted: 26 February 2004 at 12:45

I've heard the stories regarding the laquered steel cases causing problems in some of the rifles too. If it's as persistent in my rifle as others have experienced, then I could stand to spend a few pennies per round more to avoid it. I kind of get the impression that the current crop of steel cased ammo may really have been initially designed and adopted as a replacement for brass for use in belt fed MG's instead of the old bolt guns.

I haven't heard about a business relationship between S&B and Winchester. Did I miss something? In fact I recall hearing that Winchester was going to offer 7.62X54 quite some time back, but never saw any or heard of whether they actually did get any out on the market.

I did hear that Starline experimented with making some 7.62X54 brass, possibly with Winchester as a potential customer but never heard whether that led to anything or not. Possibly some collusion with Sierra Bullets during the experimental stages and testing.

Everything I've read in regards to the 7.62X54R point to it being a very good vintage military and medium-big game cartridge. With good condition rifles selling for less than $100.00; it sounds like it has great potential for a rough and tumble utility rifle for conditions that are just too abusive to tolerate for a fine sporting rifle. AW

Posted By: Triggerguard
Date Posted: 26 February 2004 at 16:38

Never heard of Starline doing 7.62x54R, but I do know they did some pre-production runs of 7.5x54 French. Winchester is simply importing and selling S&B in their packaging. Don't know why, maybe military contracfts took production time and space. Maybe they looked at all the import boxer stuff coming in or getting ready to come in and figured importing someone else's would be more cost effective. Quien sabes?
My bad weather hunting rifle is a MN M91/30 that I turned into a pretend sniper. Century Arms had Russian scopes and mounts then for about $25. These were basicly the same scopes used on the original sniper versions,still being produced as a sporting scope in the 1960s and 70s. Ain't communism great? Nothing like a captive market!
Anyway, I drilled and tapped the sidewalls, did the stock mods, and lengthened and turned down the bolt handle. It's an consistent 1.25 MOA rifle, which isn't too bad for a run of the mill bolt action battle rifle.

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"...A moral compass needs a butt end.Whatever direction France is pointing-towards collaboration with Nazis, accomodation with communists,...we can go the other way with a quiet conscience"-O'Rourke