Nagant 1895 revolver reloads

[Melnic]

I sucessfully fired my first Nagant Revolver reloads.
I have a 1931 Russian Nagant 1895. Inexpensive Surplus revolver (when it was available). I have lots of Surplus ammo left but the Indoor range I shoot at does not allow Steel Jacket FMJ bullets anymore. So I decided to try reloading it.
I followed some online postings about using modified Lee Nagant dies (made for a 32-20 shell) to reload once fired PPU Nagant ammo.
Grafs had .308 bullets designed for the nagant so I added that with an existing order. I used Trail Boss I got in PA at a gun show which is also what other people were using. To get the expantion die to work, I had to insert the seating part of an M1 Carbine die into my Nagant Expander. I"m still thinking I may have a friend turn my original part on a lathe to change the contour though. I can fit up to 4 grains of Trailboss but I loaded with 3.2. Others load with 3.5grains.

Here are pics of a reload and today's result.
(Photo of the revolver is old photo and not with reloads)

 

[paxfish]

that's a pretty long case!

At what distance are you shooting?

 

[Machodoc]

Cool!

 

[Melnic]

25ft indoors at the nearby range. I don't think I was aiming well till the first reload
When I first got this and was not used to it, by groups were all over the place.
That was not my best shooting but much better than when I first got it. Heavy trigger pull on it.
The Nagant Revolver cylindar pushes forward for a gas seal. It keeps the smoke out of your face for sure.

 

[DocAitch]

Very nice.
DocAitch

 

[John from MD]

Nice job but a lot of work.

I have been shooting these since I took one back in the seventies. I found that most of them have good bores and will shoot almost anything well.

The easiest load I found is to use .32 H&R mag case, Lee .311-100-2R bullet and 3 grains of WW 231 and you get a great shooting round for 25 feet. The case expands in the chamber but doesn't split. When you reload the expanded cases, you just size them down only enough to hold the bullet.
I also use the same bullet when loading the 32-20 brass but I up the powder to 3.5 grains. Only R-P brass should be used if you use these as WW splits way too much.

The gas seal in a neat idea but it isn't needed to get good accuracy out of the Nagant.

 

[j8064]

Very impressive. I've spent much time over the years trying to reload for the little beast and never have gotten to where you are.

 

[Melnic]

Well, I worked up just 14 reloads last night.
I took a dremel to the seating die to chamfer it a bit.
I also played with the seating die to get it to seat and roll crimp the right amount.
Zero issues with all 14 rounds and shot them today. No problem getting the cylindar to seat the seal this time. I did run the sizing die partially in when done.
I think I'm going to look at backing out the sizing die because I think it sizes the case down too much.

 

[John from MD]

I think I'm going to look at backing out the sizing die because I think it sizes the case down too much.

I do the same thing with my 32/20 cases so the brass gets worked less.

 

[Gcs7th]

Annealing the brass might help after a few reloads too.