Is the type 81 worth it

I found the T81 to be more accurate than my old AK but the AK field strips easier.
Adjustable gas is a great option that I have never used past 1 setting. Ak is simpler but can’t bring the AK to the range so there’s that

Vz58?

I have a CZH2003 knocking 6000 rounds with zero (non-ammo) failures... the problem with the Vz58 is the trigger “mushes” over time... that’s nature of the design. No bigs. Get a new sear.

When it comes to an accurate and ergonomic tactical bullet hose... the Vz wins.

If your sitting at the bench shooting paper “hey Vern! Looks dem groups!” Perhaps the Type 81 is “better”. If your offhand and running and gunning... Vz58 all the way.
 
Last edited:
Comparing to the VZ, T81 has a more crisp break, with a tactile reset, and short travel.

Hated the VZ trigger with the reset being the worst part about it. Not to mention the lonnnnng take up.

I agree as well. However i do not agree with anyone stating the Type 81 is better then a VZ 58 lol

Vz58 does most things better. Especially accuracy. My CSA vz58 will put 5rnds of SST easily into a 2moa group. Meanwhile the Type will do 4moa if its lucky. I keep hearing strangers say the type 81s are accurate, but anybody with any credible backing has stated more like 4-5moa even with top notch ammo.
 
I'm surprised anyone is interested in shooting groups with a T81. When someone asks me what type of accuracy I get I tell them it can hit a 6" gong at 100 every time if you do your part. Group size? Who cares?

Laugh2
 
I'm surprised anyone is interested in shooting groups with a T81. When someone asks me what type of accuracy I get I tell them it can hit a 6" gong at 100 every time if you do your part. Group size? Who cares?

Laugh2

I do. And apparently A LOT of butthurt Asians ranting on my utube Type 81 accuracy vid lol
 
I'm surprised anyone is interested in shooting groups with a T81. When someone asks me what type of accuracy I get I tell them it can hit a 6" gong at 100 every time if you do your part. Group size? Who cares?

Laugh2

This is how I am with my VZ. I have barely shot paper with mine. Just my 8" gong. If I'm hitting that consistently at 100m I'm happy.
 
Explain your definition of “better”?

Aesthetics, ergonomics, performance, reliability...

For me the biggest factor is the way it shoots - how it shoulders, handles, recoils and re-sets.
The T-81 has a nice, consistent and fairly soft recoil impulse. I say consistent because 7.62x39 can vary wildly from manufacturer and even lot #.
Aesthetics to me is a draw across the board, and if I'm honest none of it really matters too much to me. Although, I do like that early, first gen. Assault/battle rifle look.
Ergonomics it takes a hit due to the distance between the trigger and mag release, but still workable. I find the VZ mags clumsy and larger in profile than they ought to be.
Performance and reliability is a draw across the board I think.
 
I'm surprised anyone is interested in shooting groups with a T81. When someone asks me what type of accuracy I get I tell them it can hit a 6" gong at 100 every time if you do your part. Group size? Who cares?

Laugh2

100% agree
Comm bloc type weapons are exactly accurate enough.
16" plate out to 300 meters is exactly as accurate as they were designed and needed to be. Probably more considering center of mass of their actual intended targets.
Who gives a s**t about measuring communist semi auto bullet hoses groups with calipers!? Lol
I also owned two CZ858s in the past. They were no more or less accurate than the SKS or now having owned one a type 81.
I have a bolt rem 700 in .223 when I feel like hollowing out twoonies slow and relaxed.
Ive never heard so much bull#### in my life until I got into guns and started reading about people's accuracy claims on the Internet....
 
Last edited:
For me the biggest factor is the way it shoots - how it shoulders, handles, recoils and re-sets.
The T-81 has a nice, consistent and fairly soft recoil impulse. I say consistent because 7.62x39 can vary wildly from manufacturer and even lot #.
Aesthetics to me is a draw across the board, and if I'm honest none of it really matters too much to me. Although, I do like that early, first gen. Assault/battle rifle look.
Ergonomics it takes a hit due to the distance between the trigger and mag release, but still workable. I find the VZ mags clumsy and larger in profile than they ought to be.
Performance and reliability is a draw across the board I think.

Depends on what you like/used to. Everyone is different.

The recoil impulse never bothered me. It’s a symptom of the very fast cyclic rate and I learned how to adapt my shooting style for it. With a good comp you can achieve very fast follow-up shots. I use the Zendl comp... best comp in my opinion. It’s just me perhaps as I can grab anything and shoot it well... except hand guns... I’m useless with a handgun. lol.

As for ergonomics I’ve been using the Zendl mag and bolt release. You can release the bolt and drop the mag with you trigger finger. If the mag sticks you cab knock it out like an AKs.
 
Last edited:
100% agree
Comm bloc type weapons are exactly accurate enough.
16" plate out to 300 meters is exactly as accurate as they were designed and needed to be. Probably more considering center of mass of their actual intended targets.
Who gives a s**t about measuring communist semi auto bullet hoses groups with calipers!? Lol
I also owned two CZ858s in the past. They were no more or less accurate than the SKS or now having owned one a type 81.
I have a bolt rem 700 in .223 when I feel like hollowing out twoonies slow and relaxed.
Ive never heard so much bull#### in my life until I got into guns and started reading about people's accuracy claims on the Internet....

But yet you and your like are so quick to proclaim a gong size and the distance the gun is consistently able to hit it out to. .... basically the same thing as measuring a group.
 
But yet you and your like are so quick to proclaim a gong size and the distance the gun is consistently able to hit it out to. .... basically the same thing as measuring a group.

No... that’s not a fair thing to say. It reminds me of the cheap SKS hay-day a few years back. Many where saying they were crap because they were “inaccurate”. Many of those people’s experience and expectations are based on bolt action hunting rifles. Which tight groups are a requirement. With hunting rigs you should fine tune to make sure it’s a one-shot deal. A modern type intermediate cartridge military rifle is about fire power on man size target. Not four lagged beasts. Big difference.

To expect tight groups from these types of rifles is an exorcise of futility.
 
But yet you and your like are so quick to proclaim a gong size and the distance the gun is consistently able to hit it out to. .... basically the same thing as measuring a group.

Might be well under 16" at 300 might be way less at 100 meters.
Point is it doesn't matter if it's 1.3" or 15" at any of those ranges as long it can hit it consistently then the rifle is exactly accurate enough for what it was designed for and my expectations. Realistic, real world expectations shooting comm bloc semi auto battle rifles fast and hard.
 
Last edited:
Of the SKS, CZ858, AK47 and the Type 81 all of which I've fired quite a lot, the Type 81 had the least amount of impulse and muzzle jump though.
It was very very stable and I found it very easy to get back on the plate and shoot it fast and still effective.
Only from personal experience on that but the difference was noticed immediately compared to its x39 cousins.
It's well balanced. I'd love to try one on FA!
I find the 1k tag a bit steep for what it is though. If it was priced around the 600 mark (realistic value with a decent profit margin even at that price) it would just be the cats ass!
 
But yet you and your like are so quick to proclaim a gong size and the distance the gun is consistently able to hit it out to. .... basically the same thing as measuring a group.

Not really. I don’t care if it can put 5 shots into the center of the gong that you can cover with a twoonie, or if they are random across the edges and middle of the gong. I’ve got lots of guns that I’m interested in group size accuracy. T-81 isn’t one of them. :$
 
Might be well under 16" at 300 might be way less at 100 meters.
Point is it doesn't matter if it's 1.3" or 15" at any of those ranges as long it can hit it consistently then the rifle is exactly accurate enough for what it was designed for and my expectations. Realistic, real world expectations shooting comm bloc semi auto battle rifles fast and hard.

That makes zero flippin sense man ^

The ratio of hits made on target if the shooter does their part is directly a result of the guns grouping capability. The 5moa Type 81 may hit the 10" plate 5 out of 5 times at 200m. But that doesnt mean it will do nearly as well at 500m. Measuring the average group your rifle makes lets u have a understanding of what its capabilities are and anyone who disagrees with that is just making themselves sound like a 9 year old.
 
My Type 81 has a mind of its own. Sometimes it throws out these really impressive 2 - 2.5” 5 shot groups. Then other times it puts out the typical 4 - 5” 5 shot groups at 100 meters. I have a feeling it’s the cross bolt on the inside of the hand guard making contact with the barrel. They clearly took the time to grind it out to not touch the barrel but I can see marks on the barrel from it making contact with the barrel.
 
My Type 81 has a mind of its own. Sometimes it throws out these really impressive 2 - 2.5” 5 shot groups. Then other times it puts out the typical 4 - 5” 5 shot groups at 100 meters. I have a feeling it’s the cross bolt on the inside of the hand guard making contact with the barrel. They clearly took the time to grind it out to not touch the barrel but I can see marks on the barrel from it making contact with the barrel.
Noticed the same with mine, would be interesting to shoot the gun with no lower handguard at all and resting off the receiver and see wat happens to the groups.
 
That makes zero flippin sense man ^

The ratio of hits made on target if the shooter does their part is directly a result of the guns grouping capability. The 5moa Type 81 may hit the 10" plate 5 out of 5 times at 200m. But that doesnt mean it will do nearly as well at 500m. Measuring the average group your rifle makes lets u have a understanding of what its capabilities are and anyone who disagrees with that is just making themselves sound like a 9 year old.

I don't see any point in gauging any comm bloc semi auto design past 300 meters using irons (the only way I shoot them). That's at max effective range of the ammo and the platform anyways.
Even picking up my neon orange painted 16" plate in brown and green bush at 300m is challenging. But if I can still get consistent hits with any SKS, CZ858, or Type 81 (they all did) then in my eyes and taking the gun for what it is and what it's designed to do, then measuring which one gets 4 - 5 MOA and which one gets 3.8 - 4 MOA etc etc is irrelevant to me. I think it's irrelevant in general for these firearms but we're never going to see eye to eye on that obviously.

I like to be 100% honest about capability all the time. Even with the Type 81 when I first sighted it in and shot for groups to get the sights as bang on as I could, I could muster a group as tight as my slightly tuned SKS with Tech Sights (honest and consistent 5" to 8" group at 100m resting on a bag off the ground) shooting bulk Chinese ammo. Other groups it would open up and some groups it would be even tighter. That's an average over many groups with no special barrel cooling stupidity or long rest periods.

For the record I shoot 10 round groups. Anyone can shoot 3 or 4 or 5 round groups until they get a lucky one off and pretend that's what it really is.

I've not seen any difference from a lot of personal experience firing them over the last 15 years that's consistent, tangible or definitive between any of the available comm bloc x39 guns in Canada (including the AK47 which is not available) to make accuracy a relative point in weighing one against the other.

Maybe if you add scopes, custom hand loaded ammo, modifications yadda yadda. But taking them all at stock config using surplus ammo with stock irons, accuracy is about the same. And I'm not saying it's bad. It's exactly good enough. That's my personal experience and not reading the absolute bull#### of superhuman "2 MOA comm bloc anything" groups. My Colt SP1 using match .223 Rem couldn't print that with irons and I shoot A LOT.

The topic of the debate here is "Type 81; is it worth it" and it always seems to go to accuracy comparisons for any of these com bloc type rifles for some odd reason when they all shoot more or less exactly the same which is exactly accurate enough as they were designed for.
Just like I said, accuracy is irrelevant in these platforms. It comes down to weighing them against handling, ergonomics, reliability and most of all price point since they all do about the exact same thing after the trigger gets pulled.

I've since sold my Type 81, CZ858s and I've gone back to the good old Chinese SKS with a home trigger job and tech sights for this same reason:

4eMDgZd.jpg


B8RmMmG.jpg


09WXfhS.jpg


wo0p2EZ.jpg


SHDVCOw.jpg


That's 10 rounds, 100 meters Chinese surplus prone off a bag with my SKS with a home trigger job and tech sights. I didn't measure it because again, I don't care.

Type 81 is worth the $1k for what it is IMHO in Canada because it's the only affordable, available, stamped steel one like it. It's still cheaper than an 858. I think the design is more robust than the 858. The rifle just felt a lot more sturdy and components more simple and robust. I liked it when I had it. But my SKS did the same thing for 1/5th the price. So I sold it and bought tech sights and thousands of rounds of ammo :D I liked the gun, I liked the ergonomics, I liked the simplicity and the reliability. it was well balanced and it was exactly Comm Bloc rifle MOA accurate.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom