Lithuanian 7.62x51mm Ammunition: Range and Bench Test

Hey, folks, it's The Cabinet Man. After a long hiatus, I'm back again, stealing space on Fuze's blog for my own purposes.

Today I want to post about some Lithuanian 7.62x51mm ammo I recently purchased from Ammoman. There didn't seem to be a lot of info on the 'net about this stuff so I figger'ed I'd Give Something Back.

Let's get started.

The ammo arrived in a nicely-constructed, well-marked 60 lb wooden case:



Inside the case are five 200-round battlepacks. The plastic material appears to be very strong, much like the South African battlepacks. Unlike the So-African battlepack, though, it lacks a "pull tab" to aid in opening the package. Each battlepack contains ten 20-round boxes:



The ammo is very clean: brass cases with copper FMJ bullets. Neither the bullets nor the cases attract a magnet:



In homage to Carteach0, let's de-construct this ammo; I sacrificed 5 rounds to this test. [sniff...] The powder is "semi-fine spherical" (with grains of varying sizes) reminiscent of H335 but with slightly larger grains:



The charges measured as follows:

Cartridge	Charge (grains)
#1	44.9
#2	44.9
#3	44.8
#4	44.8
#5	44.9

That's pretty consistent charging!!

The bullets are FMJ with exposed lead on the bases:



There is a black, tar-like sealant on the bullets that's not visible until the bullets are pulled. When I dumped the powder onto the scale, a few grains adhered to the sealant that still remained within the case.

The bullets measured as follows:

Bullet	Weight (grains)	Length	Diameter
#1	146.9	1.10"	.3080"
#2	147.0	1.11"	.3080"
#3	146.9	1.10"	.3075"
#4	146.9	1.10"	.3080"
#5	146.9	1.11"	.3080"

The cases are boxer primed and, thus, reloadable. There is thin primer sealant. I'm not 100% sure if the primers are crimped or not.



The cases measured as follows:

Case	Weight (grains)	Length	Neck Diameter	Base Diameter
#1	184.7	2.00"	.3120"	.4700"
#2	184.0	2.00"	.3125"	.4695"
#3	184.4	2.00"	.3115"	.4700"
#4	184.6	2.00"	.3115"	.4700"
#5	184.1	2.00"	.3115"	.4695"

Well, that's all fine-and-dandy but how did it shoot??

OK, here's the backgrounder:

Rifle: DS Arms STG-58A FAL, 21" barrel
Scope: IOR M2 w/ Dragunov reticle
Range: 100 yards from a bench, 10 rounds



As a comparison, I also shot some other ammo at the same time: Australian mil-surp, Black Hills Match (168-grn HPBT), and South African mil-surp. All the conditions were the same and the firing was done in a circular fashion: 5 rounds of Lithuanian, 5 So-African, 5 Aussie, 5 BHM, then back around again. Here are the other groups.

Aussie (my long-time, personal favorite!!):



Black Hills Match:



South African:



For some reason, the BH Match only groups really well in my bolt guns. None of my MBRs seem to appreciate it. Needless to say, I don't feed them the prime rib!! And I've never really had good results in any of my rifles with my one batch of So-African and I'm somewhat glad I didn't stock up on it.

One of the web-sites I frequently lurk upon had a question about the weight of the Lithuanian brass and how it compares to other mil-surp brass. So I fished a couple of spent Aussie and So-African cases from the recycle bucket and here's what I found:

South African (marked B81):

Case	Weight (grains)
#1	181.3
#2	181.2
#3	182.4

Aussie (marked AFF '89', or '68' -- I can't tell which...):

Case	Weight (grains)
#1	183.4
#2	183.4
#3	181.7

Now mind you, these are fired cases and the Lithuanian cases I weighed are unfired. In all honesty, I'm not sure what difference it would make but it might make some.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm tired of typing and fighting with Blogger's table formatting. I hope this helps anyone who's trying to make up their mind about Lithuanian 7.62x51mm ammo. Good luck!!

TCM