FR7 or FR8 at distance

Slug your bores. Both of these rifles, although very well made, have bores with anywhere from .3075 to .314

The bullets designed for them weighed around 112 grains, had a plastic insert under the tip of the full metal jacket and an exposed lead base to keep them accurate.

They're great rifles, when they're in VG or better condition.
 
bearhunter said:
Slug your bores. Both of these rifles, although very well made, have bores with anywhere from .3075 to .314

The bullets designed for them weighed around 112 grains, had a plastic insert under the tip of the full metal jacket and an exposed lead base to keep them accurate.

They're great rifles, when they're in VG or better condition.
Click to expand...

Oh, FFS, not this load of codswallop again about them being designed for the mystical CETME round. They're designed for 7.62 NATO. Full stop.


For the OP:

Using surplus ammo, my FR7 did best with some South African 7.62, that's not technically NATO spec. I'd get about 3.5" - 4" groups at 100 meters. Good enough for plinking, "minute of Nazi" out to 400 meters. If I'd spent some time developing a load for it, I imagine I could get better results, but it was never a go-to rifle for either matches or hunting for me. Fun piece of kit, nice and light and easy to carry on a sling for wandering around the farm in case the coyotes were pestering the cattle (no need for hollow points for pest animals out here, and 7.62, even solid, will drop a coyote with authority).

Beyond that, for matches I have a K31. Well, my eyes are fading, so that kind of iron sight shooting is a bit beyond me now, I'm afraid.

If you work up a load for it, based off a surplus round that your rifle does well with, and practice, you won't embarrass yourself with that rifle at a service rifle match. The 400 meter "limit" is just the sights, you'll have to spend some time practicing holdover to shoot beyond that. There are better rifles for gravel belly shooting, but it can be done.
 
That came across wrong, my bad.

The Spanish used a 112 grain bullet with a plastic tip inside the jacket and an exposed lead base.

The rifles are plenty strong enough for 7.62 Nato ammunition

I have one Spanish FR7, which has a .311 bore that isn't worn, it was made that diameter. The FR8, which I recently sold, had a .310 bore diameter and it was also in excellent condition.

Both shoot the .312 Cetme 112 grain bullets I have a good supply of quite well. However both are mediocre shooters with .3075 147 grn fmj bullets
 
bearhunter said:
That came across wrong, my bad.

The Spanish used a 112 grain bullet with a plastic tip inside the jacket and an exposed lead base.

The rifles are plenty strong enough for 7.62 Nato ammunition

I have one Spanish FR7, which has a .311 bore that isn't worn, it was made that diameter. The FR8, which I recently sold, had a .310 bore diameter and it was also in excellent condition.

Both shoot the .312 Cetme 112 grain bullets I have a good supply of quite well. However both are mediocre shooters with .3075 147 grn fmj bullets
Click to expand...

They'd probably do OK with 7.62x39 bullets in a moderate loading.
 
enefgee said:
They'd probably do OK with 7.62x39 bullets in a moderate loading.
Click to expand...

I shot CETME bullets through both of them as well as .311 diameter 154 grain bullets I had on hand for Lee Enfields at the time.

They both shot quite well with the larger diameter bullets.

It's quite possible that the bores in my rifles were oversize.

I picked up several thousand pulled bullets from SFRC, a banner sponsor, just after they started to advertize in CGN. I also bought all of the powder they had salvaged from the pulled cartridges. They were nice enough to send me half a dozen full boxes of 20 loaded cartridges but the primers in them had deteriorated and they were hit and miss, or hang fired.

The powder under those light 112 grain bullets was very fast and I use it in cartridges such as the 7.62x39 and 357 Maxi with good results.
 
While on the subject does anyone know of a Canadian source the front sight adjustment tool for the FR-8 in Canada?
I understand the CETME tool is the same item?

Yeah.....I can hear the laughter already.....

Sling is on its way from Frontier.
 
Brutus said:
While on the subject does anyone know of a Canadian source the front sight adjustment tool for the FR-8 in Canada?
I understand the CETME tool is the same item?

Yeah.....I can hear the laughter already.....

Sling is on its way from Frontier.
Click to expand...

I cut a slot out of a roll pin of the right diameter to fit around the post, then filed them down to points to mate with the two holes (took about 2 minutes with a cutting wheel on my Dremel), and another divot across the top of the roll pin to seat a finishing nail (for a bit of leverage), soldered that in place. Worked great to zero, then, of course, promptly lost my nifty little tool in the random pile of things in the garage.

If I need to re-zero, I'll do the same thing I did for my "Russian Sight" guns (SKS, SVT, etc.), and cut something from a rounded out bit from one of my Picquics... you will never find a better SKS sight tool anywhere:


(click for full size)

bearhunter said:
That came across wrong, my bad.

The Spanish used a 112 grain bullet with a plastic tip inside the jacket and an exposed lead base.

The rifles are plenty strong enough for 7.62 Nato ammunition

I have one Spanish FR7, which has a .311 bore that isn't worn, it was made that diameter. The FR8, which I recently sold, had a .310 bore diameter and it was also in excellent condition.

Both shoot the .312 Cetme 112 grain bullets I have a good supply of quite well. However both are mediocre shooters with .3075 147 grn fmj bullets
Click to expand...

Ok, ok, I'll calm down... Just the whole "These guns are made for a pud load" myth is one of those Fudd-Lore sore spots of mine.
 
Brutus said:
Thank you very much grelmar.
I will have to experiment myself.
Cheers
Click to expand...

Thank you for reminding me about the FR7... It had slid to the back of one of my safes, and I kind of forgot about it under the pile. Going to dig it back out, I really did enjoy that gun, even got a bayo for it and everything (standard CETME bayo), which is around here somewhere in a different box.

Off to annoy the wife while I bang around looking for things. Cheers!
 
grelmar said:
I cut a slot out of a roll pin of the right diameter to fit around the post, then filed them down to points to mate with the two holes (took about 2 minutes with a cutting wheel on my Dremel), and another divot across the top of the roll pin to seat a finishing nail (for a bit of leverage), soldered that in place. Worked great to zero, then, of course, promptly lost my nifty little tool in the random pile of things in the garage.

If I need to re-zero, I'll do the same thing I did for my "Russian Sight" guns (SKS, SVT, etc.), and cut something from a rounded out bit from one of my Picquics... you will never find a better SKS sight tool anywhere:


(click for full size)



Ok, ok, I'll calm down... Just the whole "These guns are made for a pud load" myth is one of those Fudd-Lore sore spots of mine.
Click to expand...

Yup, I know where you're coming from and it seems to be rampant throughout the general knowledge base in many aspects of our sport.
 
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