Deer killing gun...sks?
- Thread starter BigTree1
- Start date
Just be sure when and if you buy N.A. hunting ammo for it. Some of it may be .308 in diameter instead of .312. This could cause an issue with accuracy.
I killed me a muley doe in Wainwright with my SKS back in 2004 (cost me $137.00 then at Milarm so I bought 2). The 7.62x39 is an excellent cartridge equal to 30-30 and flatter at that!.
A year later I purchased a Norc JW-103 and that killed me a whitetail doe plus hundreds of gophers and 3 yotes.
I reloaded my hunting ammo using H335 and Hornady 123gr IL(.310 dia). Complete pass thru, both shots under 100yds
You can reload a 150gr IL (InterLock- Hornady brand) too.
I killed me a muley doe in Wainwright with my SKS back in 2004 (cost me $137.00 then at Milarm so I bought 2). The 7.62x39 is an excellent cartridge equal to 30-30 and flatter at that!.
A year later I purchased a Norc JW-103 and that killed me a whitetail doe plus hundreds of gophers and 3 yotes.
I reloaded my hunting ammo using H335 and Hornady 123gr IL(.310 dia). Complete pass thru, both shots under 100yds
You can reload a 150gr IL (InterLock- Hornady brand) too.
Well, I was also planning on using my SKS for hunting deer in tight bush, But, so far I have only used surplus ammo and it sucks at hitting anything at 100 yards. I have changed the stock, bedded the stock, tried two different scopes and the results stay the same, fun to shoot, not accurate at all. I am real happy for the guys that have one that shoots great, but so far I am real disappointed in mine. I have some Tula 152 grains, but haven't tried them yet, maybe that might tighten things up. The 7.62x39 would be super as a bush round !
Upgrade the open sights then, fiber optic? All my bushguns,2 94's and a TC .50 all wear either Williams Fool Proof or Williams Firesights.
7.62x39 is adequate for deer at closer ranges, but it is not at all ballistically equivalent to the 30-30.
Mark
- Location
- Georgetown Ontario
Who's loads are .308 dia.? Any load for the x39 I have measured have usually been right around .310
The smallest was .3095 or 6 I think. I have reloaded Remmy 150's that worked good in a couple of my SKS's but the other 4 would not group them at all. I really miss the old Wolf 154grs. SP's.
When Ruger 1st came out with the Mini-30 they had surplus .308 bbl's that were being used for the XGI. Therefore I believe Federal or Win etc made their soft point ammo .308 instead of .312. However, in the summer of 1990, Ruger switched from .308 to .310
I'm going off what I read this in a Guns & Ammo mag years back and what I googled and found on Rugerforum dot com.
*Taken from Wikipedia* The 7.62x39 mm has similar ballistics to the well-known .30-30 Winchester.
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7.62x39 has less energy than the 30-30 inside 100 yards, beyond 100 yards it has more due to the efficiences gained by using Spitzer bullets. Also the Spitzer improves the lethality of the 7.62x39, above the level of the round nose typically used in the 30-30.
dinsdale
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Just outside the Ottawa City Limits!
My brush gun is a '53 Tula with Williams firesights front and back.
Good for 150 yards no worries.
Prvi is pretty accurate but the S&B I found to be complete garbage. Best success so far has been with my hand loads and that is on paper. No experience hunting deer with the SKS though.
Try a chinese military.
They are consistently accurate, IMHO.
4" groups at 100 with surplus is all you can expect with surplus (well with the stuff I have, specs are very loose)
easily 1/2 of that with hunting ammo.
Mind you, my Izhevsk with TS-200 peep sights is pretty much as accurate as the chinese.
They are consistently accurate, IMHO.
4" groups at 100 with surplus is all you can expect with surplus (well with the stuff I have, specs are very loose)
easily 1/2 of that with hunting ammo.
Mind you, my Izhevsk with TS-200 peep sights is pretty much as accurate as the chinese.
there are two answers to this.
1) The 7.52x39 round is fine for deer at the ranges you are talking about.
2) The SKS is sometimes capable of making hits at that range. It depends on the particular gun. Don't change it. Try it first. If it works well, leave it alone. I wasted hundreds of dollars trying to get mine to shoot better than the 2" group at 100 I was getting with iron sights. Everything I did made it worse. I eventually sold it at a loss and bought a Mini 30. Now that is a great platform for the 7.62x39 rounds.
1) The 7.52x39 round is fine for deer at the ranges you are talking about.
2) The SKS is sometimes capable of making hits at that range. It depends on the particular gun. Don't change it. Try it first. If it works well, leave it alone. I wasted hundreds of dollars trying to get mine to shoot better than the 2" group at 100 I was getting with iron sights. Everything I did made it worse. I eventually sold it at a loss and bought a Mini 30. Now that is a great platform for the 7.62x39 rounds.
I have a scope and bipod for my SKS and it's no problem to shoot pie plates with it out to 200 yards.I'd say go for it! Practice and don't forget you can't use military surplus ammo to hunt.SKS seems like a good choice if you hunt in heavily wooded area.
