7.62x25mm M57 loading information

[lazarus]

I thought I'd share just in case anyone else journeys down this path later. I have some (safe for MY gun) 7.62x25mm reloading data for the Yugo M57.

Of note, I slugged the bore of my M57 and it is coming in at .312-.313". Which means I can safely load ".32 bullets". .308 bullets barely engage the rifling when slugging one down the bore and push through relatively easily. Which would help explain why factory loaded Tokarev ammo just has abysmal accuracy out of my M57.

All used miscellaneous cases. A mix of PPU and S&B for most of them.

So that said, this is load data for .313 coated lead bullets.
First up, load data for Acme 78gr coated lead .313 diameter round nose bullets 92-8-2 lead mix according to their website, 16BN hardness
These needed to be loaded to a short COAL because my chamber appears short, but bore large. Even using .308 diameter Hornady SPRN 85gr bullets I have to load them a bit shorter than the COAL max otherwise they hit the lands because of the ogive (and this causes a problem with those bullets as the taper means they don't have good neck tension loaded that short for the Hornady 85gr SPRN). Factory loaded FMJ and JHP appear to have a more tapered ogive allowing them to be loaded from the factory close to the COAL max, without hitting the lands.

Lighter loads had issues cycling the slide, which I think had as much to do with the short COAL as anything as it picked up a round, but wouldn't completely seat one. Hotter loads cycled okay.
CCI small pistol primers for all loads. All tested loads appeared safe and showed no pressure signs.
1.252" COAL for all loads. 4 shot data
Bullseye powder
5.0gr 1359fps avg, 30.7fps SD, functioned okay
5.2gr 1352fps, 11.4fps SD, failed to pickup a round
5.4gr 1426fps, 20.1fps SD, failed to chamber a round
5.6gr 1454fps, 21.2fps SD, functioned fine
5.8gr 1485fps, 43.7fps SD, ejected far

I will be settling on 5.6gr for reloading more 78gr Acme bullets, though I may play with 5.5 and 5.7gr loads as well as seating depth slightly. The 5.8gr loads kicked the brass an extra 5-6ft (about 25ft total, my M57 does love throwing brass into the next county). I'll prioritize making it slightly easier to find my brass over a few extra fps. Especially as that SD is a bit problematic. I did notice that the 5.6 and 5.8gr loads were shooting very close to POA, unlike commercial Tokarev loads which tend to shoot about 4-5" under POA at 10yds (using a chrono, they do show reasonable velocity for factory loads). The 5gr load also shot pretty low.

Next I loaded up some Acme 100gr round new flat point bullets. Also .313 diameter, same 92-8-2 16BN mix. These bullets I could load a lot longer before they hit the lands due to the difference in ogive.
CCI small pistol primers
1.280" COAL on all tested loads. All loads appeared safe and showed no pressure signs. Of note, I do NOT have good velocity data for the last two tested charges. My chrono was picking up the sun by this time with the angle it was at, so I got some FOR SURE bad data on some velocities and I don't trust the rest of the load string data. The function, cases, and primers all seemed fine. Each string was tested with 6 rounds. But the two hottest loads had a couple rounds that the chrono was claiming was 1800-2000fps. I am POSITIVE I didn't double charge any of those cases nor anything else and there were no massive fireballs and extreme recoil you would have noticed with a 100gr round out of an M57 clocking 1800+fps (I've seen this testing .45acp and .32acp loads around this time of the morning on that outdoor pistol range with my chrono. Though those are usually much more obviously bad, showing like 3000-9000fps false velocity claims). So I am not going to bother sharing the velocity data for those. At some point I'll retest those charge weights and I'll update if I can remember.
Bullseye powder
4.6gr 1215fps avg, 13.5fps SD
4.8gr 1240fps, 21.2fps SD
5.0gr ejected far
5.2gr ejected far

All loads with the 100gr functioned just fine. No hiccups. I'll retest the 5.0 and 5.2gr loads, but I'll probably settle around 4.6-5.0gr.

Of note, accuracy was also reasonable with the 100gr loads, with 4.8gr and higher shooting fairly close to POA. 4.6gr was a bit on the low side, but not as bad as factory Tok ammo.

Also of note, when I mention "far ejection", the ejection distance is to my 5-5:30 high up over my head. The shorter stuff was about 4:30-5 also pretty straight up and back. The far ejection is pretty similar to what factory Tok ammo behavior is in my M57. Not noticeably further than factory Tok ammo. In fact, the hotter S&B factory ammo kicks several feet further than the hottest handloads I tested at the range on this trip (that stuff chronos around 1450-1500fps with an 85gr bullet compared to around 1300-1400fps for PPU). But since I like being able to FIND my brass to reload it, shorter ejection is a nice feature and I don't really need super hot stuff. I mostly shoot my M57 for fun, not because I need max energy, and it is an old gun. So reduced wear and easier to find brass is a larger priority than screaming loads.

I did not bore scope the barrel afterward or disassemble and closely inspect the barrel for leading. I glanced down the bore and didn't notice anything.

That said, I likely will, at some point, try to work up a hotter load with CFE pistol since it is a slower powder and would be safer to push the velocity. Also, I may run down some 100gr .312 FMJ bullets to try to load for my M57 Tokarev. That would also make me feel more comfortable with a hotter load (to avoid leading).

 

[IronEye]

Personal handloading information. Proceed with extreme caution.

Thanks for the very detailed write up on your experience with reloading for your M57.

I should slug my barrel. I should slug my barrel. I should slug my barrel. Now that is out of the way.

I did some handloading experiments a while back with my Yugo M57. My motivation was based on commercial JHP and a lack of gel testing (that I could find at that time) on those cartridges. How good could the performance of PPU JHP ammo be? So I decided to load some high performing Hornady XTP bullets to see what I could do.

I started with heavy for caliber 100gr Hornady XTP bullets. These are .312 diameter and are meant for 327 Magnum, 32 Magnum, etc. The velocities of the magnums are in the same range that one would expect out of a Tokarev so they should be designed to perform well at Tokarev speeds.

Before I loaded these I lubed the bullets and ran them through a .309 sizing die. As already mentioned, I should slug my barrel to see if this is necessary or even desirable.

Before I mention my load experience I want to mention how commercial ammo performs in my gun. I have shot PPU ammo in both FMJ and JHP configurations. These have functioned well but the empty brass is thrown 30 feet behind me. Finding the empty brass is a chore.

I tried loads using much slower burning Power Pistol (vs Bullseye mentioned in the posting above). I believe this was originally designed for good performance in cartridges such as 40 S&W.

I forget now if I noticed the fireball that is a signature of both the Tokarev cartridge and Power Pistol. But I'm pretty sure it would have been remarkable.

I worked up a (short) ladder using Power Pistol starting at 5.5gr. I used once-fired PPU brass. I found that 5.5 and 5.8 grain loads to be mild recoil, no signs of any stress on the brass and the brass landed just a few feet behind me (unlike commercial ammo). Based on the slide velocity I would estimate that the bullet velocity is much reduced from the commercial ammo I have tried. I do not have access to a chronograph. All testing was done at 25 yards fired offhand. I'm not that good a shot and shooting was done on different days. The trigger pull on my Tokarev is very heavy and is not conducive to precision shooting. Bottom line is I see no practical difference in accuracy when shooting offhand.

My loads were based on the following article:

Shooting Times Article

I have exceeded the top PP load by a smidge and see no warning signs with my gun. But recall that this was with resized and possibly undersized XTP bullets - proceed with extreme caution. The Yugo M57 bore diameter has been reported to vary greatly.

Since I did these experiments I found, somewhere, some ballistic gel results with commercial ammo. Expansion was very good, penetration was adequate and velocity likely surpassed my loads by a mile. I'm not sure that my reloads would ever exceed the overall performance of what is commercially available. Without performing some serious side-by-side shooting from a solid bench rest I don't see any performance advantage over commercial ammo.

Personal handloading information. Use with extreme caution.

 

[GuckyMuckster]

I'd like to thank both of you for the interesting read. I'm looking to start loading this caliber sometime this winter. Surprised that you can push cast bullets that fast without leading issues. More surprised you were able to resize the jacketed bullets down to .309. Thanks

 

[lazarus]

Oh also, some data. My M57 shoots low, so I was sending them over my chrono real low and it was giving me issues reading velocities.

But I also loaded 100gr RNFPFMJ bullets (.312") with 4.8, 5.0 and 5.2gr of Bullseye.

I'd have to check COAL, but I want to say I was running it .010-.020" under SAAMI max COAL for the cartridge to get it to chamber properly in my M57 (and I still had one round that didn't want to chamber quite right, but I suspect that was an overcrimp issue, not a COAL length issue. It did chamber in the end, but it took 3 tries to get the slide to go home).

I saw about 1200fps for both 4.8 and 5.0gr and 1221fps with 5.2gr.

Of note, I was having some powder measure issues and I am pretty confident 4.8 was actually dropping 5.0.

SD was 33.2 with 4.8gr, 11.8 with 5.0 and 4.2 with 5.2gr.

No pressure signs even at 5.2gr. Primer strikes looked typical. The M57 tends to have firing pin swipes on the primers. No flattened primers, the swipes didn't extend into the case, the fired cases fit back into the chamber without serious force, ejection seemed normal.

5.2gr is hotter than I'd be really comfortable with. Lyman lists 5.2gr of BE at a very shorter COAL as the max load with an 85gr RNFMJ. A 100gr RNFPFMJ bullet is only very slightly longer OAL than an 85gr RNFMJ. So total case volume between Lyman's data and what I am loading is only very slightly reduced. But it is still pressure building behind a much heavier bullet.

Anyway, SD and velocity look fine with 5.0gr. Throws a heck of a fireball.

I plan to work up a load with CFE Pistol soon. There is a good youtube video out there of a gentleman who did it. 7.62x25mm normally loads a medium speed powder from the factory, which is what CFE pistol is. I figure I should be able to pretty easily hit 1400fps with CFE pistol without pressure issues. I have no desire to try H110 to really maximize things. I have more concerns about durability of throwing that much energy out the barrel at that point, rather than pressure concerns (Hornady has load data up to I think 1700 or 1750fps with H110 with an 85gr)

 

[IronEye]

My M57s also display atrocious firing pin smear on the primers so you're not alone in that regard.