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I found Belom 7.62x39 to shoot quite well in a 16" AR with 7.62x39 barrel. The barrel is from Hitman Industries, has carbine gas and 1:10 twist. The Belom rounds have a reloadable brass case. Having some 225gr Gallant powder coated bullets in .310" diameter, there was an opportunity to try hand loading some 7.62x39 rounds. I was not able to find any load data in this caliber for bullets this heavy, so looked at 300 BLK loads as a baseline and worked up. Please note - I am no expert at hand loading and cannot recommend that anyone try what I did. It made sense to me but I don't know that it is safe. I welcome all comments.
I settled on a starting load of 10.4gr Accurate 1680, with CCI #34 primer. It was necessary to expand ( Lyman M-expander ) the case necks to avoid shaving off the coating. I seated the bullets at 2.23", which is longer than the 2.20" allowed for 7.62x39, but still gave about .030" to the lands in my barrel. I loaded two rounds, and two rounds each in successive increments up to 13.9gr. There were occasional FTF on the first round where the first round did not get stripped from the magazine ( Duramag steel 7.62x39 ). However, for the load at 11.9gr and all above that, the rifle cycled and locked the magazine open after the second of two rounds.
Chrono results:
10.4gr - 905fps
10.9gr - 927
11.4gr - 1003
11.9gr - 1067
12.4gr - 1100
12.9gr - 1122
13.4gr - 1162
13.9gr - 1226
I can't say much about accuracy other than that I did not see any obvious cause for concern. I shot at targets 50 yards away and all the holes were perfectly round. Each load hit a little higher on the paper than the previous. There was no sign of distress in the primers. If I try this again I would adhere to the 2.200" COAL in the hope that the first round feeding would improve. There is probably also the potential for higher velocity if one is not concerned with staying subsonic. For subsonic, the 12.4gr load seems workable. Maybe fine tune that number at the shorter COAL and see if the bullet is still flying true at 100+ yards.
Regarding the Gallant bullets, I bought them at Sportsmans intending to load 300 BLK. Something like $75 for 500. The box says .30 cal 217gr boat tail TPJ - Total Polymer Jacket. I could not assemble any round with them that would chamber in 300 BLK without going down to an extremely short COAL. This all became clear when I measured them at 225gr and .310" diameter, which is one of their stock items.
I settled on a starting load of 10.4gr Accurate 1680, with CCI #34 primer. It was necessary to expand ( Lyman M-expander ) the case necks to avoid shaving off the coating. I seated the bullets at 2.23", which is longer than the 2.20" allowed for 7.62x39, but still gave about .030" to the lands in my barrel. I loaded two rounds, and two rounds each in successive increments up to 13.9gr. There were occasional FTF on the first round where the first round did not get stripped from the magazine ( Duramag steel 7.62x39 ). However, for the load at 11.9gr and all above that, the rifle cycled and locked the magazine open after the second of two rounds.
Chrono results:
10.4gr - 905fps
10.9gr - 927
11.4gr - 1003
11.9gr - 1067
12.4gr - 1100
12.9gr - 1122
13.4gr - 1162
13.9gr - 1226
I can't say much about accuracy other than that I did not see any obvious cause for concern. I shot at targets 50 yards away and all the holes were perfectly round. Each load hit a little higher on the paper than the previous. There was no sign of distress in the primers. If I try this again I would adhere to the 2.200" COAL in the hope that the first round feeding would improve. There is probably also the potential for higher velocity if one is not concerned with staying subsonic. For subsonic, the 12.4gr load seems workable. Maybe fine tune that number at the shorter COAL and see if the bullet is still flying true at 100+ yards.
Regarding the Gallant bullets, I bought them at Sportsmans intending to load 300 BLK. Something like $75 for 500. The box says .30 cal 217gr boat tail TPJ - Total Polymer Jacket. I could not assemble any round with them that would chamber in 300 BLK without going down to an extremely short COAL. This all became clear when I measured them at 225gr and .310" diameter, which is one of their stock items.