7.62x39- How accurate is it really?

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GunNewb

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Ive always felt....skittish about getting into this calibre. Despite the awesome prices I dunno. I guess I feel its too small/innaccurate for someone who wants to hunt eventually and practice with a gun for that. Also, dont really enjoy blasting at the range more of a relax and see how well I can do kind of thing. BUT I had a good time with my brothers SKS.

Convert me?
 
I've had a chance to punch paper with a bolt action CZ 527 (I think thats the right number?) in 7.62x39, nice rifle! If you're wanting to get uber-comfortable with your eventual (deer?) hunting round, I believe it's comparable to the 30-30. Plenty of animals harvested with that round. There are posts floating around here of guys hunting with their CZ 858, perhaps one of them will chime in. My 2 cents, for a 1st hunting rifle I'd get something with a flatter trajectory, more confidence building.
 
I'm no firearms expert by any stretch, everything here is opinion!

From what I've seen and read (and shot out of my SKS), the 7.62x39 is a caliber best suited to less than 300 yard shots.

From what I gather, the round was developed as a Soviet intermediary military rifle caliber inspired by, or to compete with (or both) ideas in the mid 20th century for lighter weight troop rifles and machine guns with which larger amounts of ammunition could be carried. Only guessing at the original intent for range of engagement, but I'd say 200-250 yards for effective killing range and anything beyond that to suppress or harass.

My SKS rifle is fully capable of 2-4 MOA all day every day. I have no problems holding over/sight adjusting up to 300 yards but anything beyond this becomes a real issue for me (both with stock sights and tech-sights). The bullets of this caliber tend to drop off sharply beyond this range, making fine adjustments difficult.

IMO a large part of the 'innate' accuracy depends on the shooter, his/her surrounding conditions and choice of ammunition. The gun helps, but in itself can't defeat the ballistic reality of the round.

I haven't seen or shot a bolt action rifle of this caliber, maybe someone else who has will chime in or has already posted in another thread (are there any in depth CZ 527 or Ruger Hawkeye reviews anywhere?). A good bolt gun with tuned hand-loads would probably be as accurate as any other caliber up to it's own respective limits.
 
For hunting deer, the SKS is at best a 100 metres proposition, anything longer is streching it, get yourself a nice 308 and keep your SKS for plinking and fun shooting... Cheers. JP.
 
by 100 yds the sks is the ballistic equivalent of the 30-30, after that it gets better due to the pointed bullets, obviously the leverevolution ammo is different
 
If your main purpose is hunting, then you're looking at the wrong caliber. x39 will do but, you are seriously limiting yourself. A bolt action rifle in .308 would be my entry level gun if I was getting into hunting. Ammo is available anywhere and is relatively cheap. I can get 20 rounds of Federal hunting ammo for $17.19 at my local store, for example.


If you want a SHTF set up for peace of mind and you are on a budges (can't or won't spends 1000s on an AR15, Tavor or XCR) get a CZ858 and a case of ammo and still be under $1000. I personally won't recommend an SKS because they are junk (in my opinion) and you will outgrow them in a big hurry. 100 yards (if that) is the useful limit on the SKS and the gun itself will stand in the way of whatever little accuracy you can get out of the round.


Having said that, 7.62 x39 is a decent round if you are shooting it out of a CZ858, for short distance engagements and you just can't beat the price of surplus ammo. There is very little that 7.62 x39 won't stop under 200yards. Beyond that, the round starts losing knock down power. You're more likely to injure a deer than kill it beyond 200 yards using x39.

Know what kind of hunting/shooting you'll do and decide from there. Inside 200 yards the round has decent knock down power and is accurate enough for just about anything. I put all my rounds inside a small paper plate out to 200 yards with my CZ858, using iron sighs or an unmagnified Eotech sight. Good enough for a kill on anything.
 
7.62x39 will work fr deer in short distances but is at the lower end of required killing energy.

7.62x39 is NOT equivalent to 30-30 unless you are shooting or hand loading 170 grain bullets. Since nobody does this and ammunition is not available commercially, you are most likely going to be stuck to 125 grain loads. If someone feels that a 125gr bullet is more or less equivalent to a 170 grain bullet, then we can further incorrectly speculate without any knowledge that a 7.62x39 cartridge is also comparable to a 30.06.


Can 7.62x39 cartridge kill deer? YES

Is a 7.62x39 similar to a 30-30 ? NO, not even close.
 
7.62x39 is defiitely NOT too small to take deer. However, the question is how far away are you taking shots? The cartridge was intended for short to medium range. It's not meant to be a long range winner. Here in Southern Ontario most of our shots are within 200 m. This lets me humanely use .223 even, but were I to start shooting deer beyond that range, I'd use my .308. I think the same thing can be said about 7.62x39, within 200 m, no problem, beyond that, you're far better off using something else.

As for convincing you, unless you want to shoot alot of cheap ammo at the range, I wouldn't bother with 7.62x39. The extra anal cleaning of that corrosive surplus was enough for me to sell all my 7.62x39 guns long ago. Buy a reloading set up instead and then you can have fun with custom precision rounds at prices comparable to Soviet surplus ammo.
 
The 7.62x39 is NOT an inaccurate cartridge. Most of the guns in Canada chambered for it are. A good bolt action (or even a quality auto) will put shots into 1 MOA all day.

One member here used a special gauge that measures bullet ogive and separated surplus ammo into batches of 10 rounds with same measurements. I believe he was shooting 1.5 MOA with it out of an SKS or 858.
 
Its is plenty accurate when used in a good bolt gun and its a good enough round for hunting. the CZ 527 rifle is a great rifle to shoot it out of. The benefit of the round is cheap surplus ammo. You can get a lot of range time with a crate of ammo and bolt rifle, save the good ammo for hunting.

Are there better? of course, there always are, it doesn't matter what caliber you talk about . that is not the issue, the issue is it is an accurate round, the answer is yes....to a point.
 
7.62x39- How accurate is it really?
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This glorious round produced in the Motherland is the glimmering diamond atop our most priceless Fabergé egg . In the hands of a mere child, it can take out fascist animals from 250m away, and has. It does not use decadent brass like the capitalist pig dog Americans (Spits on floor) baby 5.56x45mm round for their garbage plastic toy guns. Instead it is encased in the finest steel that our citizens pots and pans could produce! So good is this round in training the troops, that it literally eats your glorious Red rifle to bits should you become lazy. When the comrade commissar sees this you would be beaten mercilessly until you bleed cabbage juice!


(lol, sorry. Always wanted to write one of those!)
 
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Major Sights said:
This glorious round produced in the Motherland is the glimmering diamond atop our most priceless Fabergé egg . In the hands of a mere child, it can take out fascist animals from 250m away, and has. It does not use decadent brass like the capitalist pig dog Americans (Spits on floor) baby 5.56x45mm round for their garbage plastic toy guns, it is encased in the finest steel that our citizens pots and pans could produce! So good is this round in training the troops, that it literally eats your glorious Red rifle to bits should you become lazy. When the comrade commissar sees this you would be beaten mercilessly until you bleed cabbage juice!


(lol, sorry. Always wanted to write one of those!)
Click to expand...


All in favor of enacting a rule whereby all posts in the red rifle forum be written in this manner say aye.


So is that cz 858 that much better than a sks?
 
GunNewb said:
All in favor of enacting a rule whereby all posts in the red rifle forum be written in this manner say aye.


So is that cz 858 that much better than a sks?
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да! (AYE!) (or at least one in every thread)

The CZ is better accuracy wise, from what I have read (no personal experience) but the main reason, IMHO, it is popular is that it has that look to it, and less cumbersome detachable mags.
 
GunNewb said:
All in favor of enacting a rule whereby all posts in the red rifle forum be written in this manner say aye.


So is that cz 858 that much better than a sks?
Click to expand...

"Aye". The 7.62x39 is accurate enough. Problem is, the majority of guns chambered for it are not sniper rifles, they are military surplus, etc. With that being said, their accuracy will often surprise you. I remember the first time that I really took my time with my CZ858, surplus ammo and open sights. It surprised me thoroughly. Some of these guns can really shoot. I use mine regularly for deer and have never lost one. How far would I shoot a deer with this gun. Depending on the optic - 200 yards. The sights limit me more than the cartridge. I am sure that the 7.62x39 will punch through both sides of a good sized jumper out to 300+ yards. Being able to hit it in the right spot is more the issue.

Now, out of a good bolt with a scope ... the 7.62x39 is plenty accurate. Probably shoot with just about any other caliber out of a similar platform.
 
i think the cz/vz is better than the sks i own both and i prefer the cz it is tighter grouping.. but then again the cz is brand new the sks is a refurb.
 
Major Sights said:
This glorious round produced in the Motherland is the glimmering diamond atop our most priceless Fabergé egg . In the hands of a mere child, it can take out fascist animals from 250m away, and has. It does not use decadent brass like the capitalist pig dog Americans (Spits on floor) baby 5.56x45mm round for their garbage plastic toy guns. Instead it is encased in the finest steel that our citizens pots and pans could produce! So good is this round in training the troops, that it literally eats your glorious Red rifle to bits should you become lazy. When the comrade commissar sees this you would be beaten mercilessly until you bleed cabbage juice!


(lol, sorry. Always wanted to write one of those!)
Click to expand...

Classic!! :D

In America, gun eats ammo. In Soviet Russia, ammo eats gun!

The SKS will never be mistaken for a sniper rifle. It wasn't meant to be anything more than a shorter range carbine. So the guns we usually shoot them through aren't built to take advantage of a cartridge's inherent accuracy. Also, the stock SKS rear iron sight doesn't lend itself to consistently perfect sight picture, which you'll need to punch great groups at 200m and further, because the leaf edges appear blurry and out of focus, so your POAim can easily be off by at least 3 inches at 200m.

The surplus ammo we usually put through these, is not made with the level of consistency we get from Canadian or American surplus, or Western hunting ammo from known manufacturers.

Sooo...if you take 40 year old Commie surplus of dubious tolerances...and shoot it through an ancient SKS that's not been modified, don't expect particularly great groups.

On the other hand, if you get a good SKS with a great bore...smooth up the trigger mechanism...make the stock fit a bit better to the receiver and barrel (there are a couple of threads here)...replace the sights with either a rear peep sight, or a truly solid receiver mounted scope...and use good premium fresh ammo...then yea, apparently you CAN get quite good results from a slightly modified SKS in 7.62x39.

I also tried one guy's Mini-30 that had a heavy contour stainless barrel and scope...I think with good hunting ammo it was doing right around 1 MOA of accuracy, which IMO is doing well. Dunno how much that cost him though!
 
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