7.62x39 Ammo Accuracy

Ganderite

Ganderite

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Farm south of North Bay
I am hoping my 13 year old grandson can join us at a ORA Sporting Rifle shoot. This involves a 100 yard standing and then 200 and 300 yard prone off a rest.

I know the 200 and 300 yard prone won’t be a problem for him, but I am looking for a rifle that he could comfortably shoot standing. I have a Norinco 7.62x39 BushRanger, which weighs even less than an SKS (although he might prefer the SKS because of the cool factor) so today I shot the Norinco with a variety of milsurp ammo to see how it does and to check the zero.

The Norinco BushRanger results were poor with milsurp, running around 3” to 4”. It has a 3-9 scope on it, and results were about the same as my iron sighted SKS.

I also had some milsurp Mexican-match. I pulled the 123FMJ and substituted a Horandy 123 soft point. This grouped at 2.00” This is quite acceptable.

I also took the opportunity to shoot the same ammo through my Remington 788 that I made up specifically as an accurate heavy barrel rifle for testing ammo. I used one of my old 308 target rifle barrels and re-chambered to 7.62x39. It has a 20” barrel.


This rifle shot the milsurp at just under 1.5”. Not bad for military ammo.





The Mexican-match made with 130 gr Speer 308 Soft points grouped at 0.65” Very nice.


When I used the 788 for ammo testing a couple of years ago it tended to misfire about 50% of the time. It usually fired on the second attempt. The hard military primers were an issue.

I subsequently installed a heavier than stock Wolfe spring. I tried a few shots and it still misfired. So did the Norinco.

I took the bolts out and stuck a brake cleaner nozzle in the firing pin hole and washed out the inside of the bolt. I left the bolts on a pad of paper towel to drain and noted some grease stains. Then I squirted in some G96 as a lubricant. problem solved. 100% ignition with both rifles.
 
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Nice groups!

Earlier this year I ran my CZ527 at a 600m shoot event. The round performed well until about 400m. I hit 12x12 plate on first shot at 100,200,300, and 400m. But at 400m the group starts to open up and I see a few misses. I didn't bother dial in the turret settings past 400m as it's 4 mil hold-over plus 3 turns on the turret. I believe my load drops to subsonic just past 500m.
 
I have made Mexican match with 155 match bullets. They group under an inch at 100 and probably would do fairly well at longer range. I did not chony them or try at long range.

I will try these 125gr Mex Mtch at 200 and 300.
 
Have you tried the Czech surplus ammunition? I've found that it is the most accurate in my Sabatti bolt gun. AE was really horrible. From what I've been told, the stuff is not actually the correct calibre, much like tossing a golf ball down a drain pipe. The embarrassing thing is that the cheap Czech stuff is more accurate than my hand loads. Perhaps a re-think on my part is in order.
 
I had a 14.5” NEA AR in x39, I found Hornady SST was the best over the counter ammo available. It was capable of MOA at 100yrs with a 3-9 scope, unfortunately the rifle tended to explode.

As far as surplus goes I found the czech and romanian shot the best respectivly.

Ganderite If you are already equiped to load x39 I think that will be your best route, the SST was $2.50/ round the last time I checked.
 
Dave in Calgary said:
Have you tried the Czech surplus ammunition? I've found that it is the most accurate in my Sabatti bolt gun. AE was really horrible. From what I've been told, the stuff is not actually the correct calibre, much like tossing a golf ball down a drain pipe. The embarrassing thing is that the cheap Czech stuff is more accurate than my hand loads. Perhaps a re-think on my part is in order.
Click to expand...

Yes, I have a couple cases of the CZ, too. The Mexican Match was made with the CZ cases.

Today I re-shot the rifle and same ammo. Also shot CZ surplus. 4 into o.6 and a flyer out to 1.55" Result was about the same as the other flavours.

The only surplus I found that was poor (in a good rifle) was the Polish.
 
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