Howdy Mike--glad to see another veteran of the great Michael Moore message board wars
We all know he closed his boards because we were winning. I'm usually over on THR these days but want to make a good on-line record of this load since it took so long to come up with.
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Due to the inherent weaknesses of the Mosin Nagant action I've been keeping pressures on reloads down to slightly below the levels of .308 Winchester factory ammo. Loading to about 150 fps lower velocity levels than factory .308 ammo.
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Where did you get the idea the action was weak? It's as tough as a Mauser '98, or tougher. The design includes a truly massive steel receiver that can tolerate anything the 54R can crank out. A fellow over on the Collectors Forum did a test a few years back with plugged bores and excess pressure loads on Mosins to see how much it took to blow them up. The receivers held, though the barrels didn't. No bolts were blown back. They have two main lugs plus a massive steel bolt handle that acts as a backup lug--making them three lug safe just like a Mauser '98. Gas gets ejected down into the magazine via the claw groove.
I have fired thousands upon thousands of rounds through Mosins of all types and as long as their headspace is good they can digest loads as far up as the reloading manuals go--and probably a lot more. There are also a lot of antique receivers from the 1890's floating around in Finnish Mosins, and nary a one has blown up.