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I had a tough time trying to decide where to put this but here it is.
lots of folks enjoying the cheap little Nagant revolvers and some want to reload for them. I hear of people doing such dangerous things as shooting .32 H&R mags in the Nagant or handloading with 32/20 brass. That simply is not necessary. Proper Nagant ammo is available. You may not find it a Walmart but you probably won't find .32 H&R or 32/20 there either. I tried Fiocchi and PRVI factory loads which are Boxer primed and reloadable and some Russian match ammo which is Berdan primed.
I got a set of the LEE dies. Only the sizer is actually made for 7.62 Nagant, the expander and seater are marked 32/20, as is the shell holder. The dies work more or less OK for Nagant brass but the shell holder is worthless. I got an RCBS shell holder from Midway which is a custom item marked 7.62 Nagant. At 20 bucks it is by far the most expensive shell holder I've ever owned but it seems to be the only option.
Yesterday I fired groups and chronographed loads. My revolver throws two wide shots out of every seven and it is clearly an issue with the gun. I therefore listed group size as first seven shots, then a slash mark and the best five of seven.
Russian match ammo--586 fps and group of 2.6"/1.5"--- best accuracy of all.
Fiocchi 98 gr.fmj------672 fps and group of 3.6"/2.1" pretty fair accuracy.
PRVI 98 gr fmj--------641 fps and group of 4.1"/2.8" best 5 are not too bad.
90 gr. Hornady HBWC over 3.5 gr. Trail Boss-954 fps and group of 3.5"/2.6" Pretty good load
90 gr. HBWC over 3.2 gr HP-38--858 fps and group of 3.3"/2.3" good load.
90 gr. Hornady SWC over 5.4 gr. AA-5--1043 fps and group of 5.4"/2.5" NOT RECOMENDED
That AA-5 load was pretty warm. It was the only load which produced noticeable recoil in the Nagant and also the only one which required the use of the ejector rod, all others falling freely from the chamber. I would certainly advise backing that one off at least half a grain. The Russian match ammo was clearly the most accurate but those are not reloadable and are getting hard to find these days.
For reloading the PRVI and Fiocchi brass you must use a good case lube and plenty of it. The Nagant case rim is thin and tiny and it is easy to rip the rim off and have a case stuck in the sizer as I did several times. I adjusted the die upward to size only enough for the case to fall freely into all chambers and then had no more problems. The 32/20 seater is not designed to seat a bullet below the case mouth, I modified mine to do that. The seater also crimps the case mouth sort of like a bottleneck and not quite enough to permit perfect function, the factory loads have the case mouth reduced smaller than can be done with the LEE die set.
I was seating bullets just deep enough to permit crimping the mouth ahead of the bullet. The highly accurate Russian ammo had a wadcutter bullet seated very deep into the case. In the future I will try reducing the HP-38 load to 2.5 gr. and seating the Hornady HBWC down on the powder.
Anyhow, with some effort and ingenuity it is possible to produce accurate and reasonably powerful loads for the Nagant Revolver. No one seems to KNOW exactly what pressures these little revolvers are designed to withstand and for that matter I haven't been able to find the exact ballistics of the original military loads, some say about 700 fps and some say over 1100 fps. At any rate, I see them as good only for small game and plinking where high velocity is not needed so I have no interest in exploring loads much hotter than a .32 S&W Long. I'd like to try some of the plated bullets as posted by Ben T but that will have to wait a while.
lots of folks enjoying the cheap little Nagant revolvers and some want to reload for them. I hear of people doing such dangerous things as shooting .32 H&R mags in the Nagant or handloading with 32/20 brass. That simply is not necessary. Proper Nagant ammo is available. You may not find it a Walmart but you probably won't find .32 H&R or 32/20 there either. I tried Fiocchi and PRVI factory loads which are Boxer primed and reloadable and some Russian match ammo which is Berdan primed.
I got a set of the LEE dies. Only the sizer is actually made for 7.62 Nagant, the expander and seater are marked 32/20, as is the shell holder. The dies work more or less OK for Nagant brass but the shell holder is worthless. I got an RCBS shell holder from Midway which is a custom item marked 7.62 Nagant. At 20 bucks it is by far the most expensive shell holder I've ever owned but it seems to be the only option.
Yesterday I fired groups and chronographed loads. My revolver throws two wide shots out of every seven and it is clearly an issue with the gun. I therefore listed group size as first seven shots, then a slash mark and the best five of seven.
Russian match ammo--586 fps and group of 2.6"/1.5"--- best accuracy of all.
Fiocchi 98 gr.fmj------672 fps and group of 3.6"/2.1" pretty fair accuracy.
PRVI 98 gr fmj--------641 fps and group of 4.1"/2.8" best 5 are not too bad.
90 gr. Hornady HBWC over 3.5 gr. Trail Boss-954 fps and group of 3.5"/2.6" Pretty good load
90 gr. HBWC over 3.2 gr HP-38--858 fps and group of 3.3"/2.3" good load.
90 gr. Hornady SWC over 5.4 gr. AA-5--1043 fps and group of 5.4"/2.5" NOT RECOMENDED
That AA-5 load was pretty warm. It was the only load which produced noticeable recoil in the Nagant and also the only one which required the use of the ejector rod, all others falling freely from the chamber. I would certainly advise backing that one off at least half a grain. The Russian match ammo was clearly the most accurate but those are not reloadable and are getting hard to find these days.
For reloading the PRVI and Fiocchi brass you must use a good case lube and plenty of it. The Nagant case rim is thin and tiny and it is easy to rip the rim off and have a case stuck in the sizer as I did several times. I adjusted the die upward to size only enough for the case to fall freely into all chambers and then had no more problems. The 32/20 seater is not designed to seat a bullet below the case mouth, I modified mine to do that. The seater also crimps the case mouth sort of like a bottleneck and not quite enough to permit perfect function, the factory loads have the case mouth reduced smaller than can be done with the LEE die set.
I was seating bullets just deep enough to permit crimping the mouth ahead of the bullet. The highly accurate Russian ammo had a wadcutter bullet seated very deep into the case. In the future I will try reducing the HP-38 load to 2.5 gr. and seating the Hornady HBWC down on the powder.
Anyhow, with some effort and ingenuity it is possible to produce accurate and reasonably powerful loads for the Nagant Revolver. No one seems to KNOW exactly what pressures these little revolvers are designed to withstand and for that matter I haven't been able to find the exact ballistics of the original military loads, some say about 700 fps and some say over 1100 fps. At any rate, I see them as good only for small game and plinking where high velocity is not needed so I have no interest in exploring loads much hotter than a .32 S&W Long. I'd like to try some of the plated bullets as posted by Ben T but that will have to wait a while.
