Ok - School me in 7.62 x 39 ammo ....

[abbynormal]

alrighteeeee -

Ok, so I am now the proud owner of a brand new CZ 858, and holy jeez - it's not 5.56 !!!
(I am of course joking ...).

Anyways, what do I need to know about this caliber?

Corrosive or non-corrosive?
(yep, 'don't mind ripping my firearm apart, love it in fact - but if I can avoid the nasty salts - happy days!).

Is there such a thing as non-corrosive surplus?
(if so - what brand and who flogs it?).

Normally I would turn my nose up at steel cases (hard on the extractor - but that's another debate), but as these rifles a pretty much made for it - so be it.
(They better be, as I'm not sure there are many spare parts floating around for them)

Having said that, is there any milsurp brass cased ammo out there?

Once again, 'don't need a sermon which is 'better' - just what are the options out there - and which CGN vender's sites I should start lurking on.

Thanks mates - Abby

 

[Phat Eagle]

CanAm is working on a new batch on non-corrosive Chinese made x39... Apparently it will be in shortly.

There is NO such unicorn as non-corrosive x39 surplus... DESPITE what Lever Arms claims!!! Fear not, it's easy to clean up with a bit of hot water followed by a very light oiling.

I know of no brass surplus. Again, fear not... As you state, these rifles were built to consume this ammo.

RELAX, and embrace the Red Rifle!!

 

[Stevo]

alrighteeeee -

Ok, so I am now the proud owner of a brand new CZ 858, and holy jeez - it's not 5.56 !!!
(I am of course joking ...).

Anyways, what do I need to know about this caliber?

It has the trajectory of a football.


Corrosive or non-corrosive?
(yep, 'don't mind ripping my firearm apart, love it in fact - but if I can avoid the nasty salts - happy days!).

Depends on how much money you have and how lazy you are. I shoot both kinds in my XCR and AR.

Is there such a thing as non-corrosive surplus?
(if so - what brand and who flogs it?).

Not really. You may run across some South African and I have some Sako NC, but it's not commercially available.

Normally I would turn my nose up at steel cases (hard on the extractor - but that's another debate), but as these rifles a pretty much made for it - so be it.
(They better be, as I'm not sure there are many spare parts floating around for them)

Having said that, is there any milsurp brass cased ammo out there?

Some Romanian is brass. You can tell by the case markings but I don't have that info. Other than that, not really. Some exceptions as with the SA/Sako previously mentioned, but not commonly commercially available.

Once again, 'don't need a sermon which is 'better' - just what are the options out there - and which CGN vender's sites I should start lurking on.

Thanks mates - Abby

Canada Ammo is supposed to have well priced NC coming in. Not sure of the timeline or details, maybe check their forum.

 

[abbynormal]

Ooooh - CanAm .... 'no problems spending my money with Ryan or Chris!

I'll give them a call tomorrow - thanks.

Abby

 

[nick237]

Corrosive or non- as far as wear no difference as long as you run hot water through the barrel and bolt after light oil no problem. It's just a pain to have to do fairly soon after you go shooting. I shoot both, but non corrosive when I don't feel like breaking down the rifle and running water through preventing rust. It's easy as long as you plan ahead if you blast a crate or half a crate of non corrosive you should still clean the rifle anyways so why not the cheap stuff if circumstances permit.

I don't think there is much non corrosive surplus around maybe if you consider Norinco silver box but I think that was commercial anyways.

Parts kits at least from wolverine are all gone so I read here somewhere. There getting wood stock kits soon though

I think you can get brass cased ammo from hornady, seller and Bellot and maybe fiocchi but why bother it's much cheaper to just buy steel cased ammo at this point in time. I honestly am not sure if you would get a much more accurate ammo by reloading out of a cz 858 I could be wrong, but it can't be that much improved imho. Not sure if there ever was brass surplus be interesting to know.

 

[canmic]

see my comments

alrighteeeee -

Ok, so I am now the proud owner of a brand new CZ 858, and holy jeez - it's not 5.56 !!!
(I am of course joking ...).

Anyways, what do I need to know about this caliber?

Beyond 100 yds, think "shoot it like a bow and arrow"

Corrosive or non-corrosive?
(yep, 'don't mind ripping my firearm apart, love it in fact - but if I can avoid the nasty salts - happy days!).

Corrosive = $0.20 per shot, non-corrosive available now = $0.42 per shot. If you clean properly same day you shoot, no real difference to wear and tear, is your barrel chrome lined?

Is there such a thing as non-corrosive surplus?
(if so - what brand and who flogs it?).

Surplus? probably not, armies want ammo that lasts forever in the crate and that means corrosive. bulk non-corrosive is out there from Norinco and Tula, the only stuff I've seen for sale right now is Tula, canadaammo is supposed to be getting some kinda bulk non-corrosive in soon

Normally I would turn my nose up at steel cases (hard on the extractor - but that's another debate), but as these rifles a pretty much made for it - so be it.
(They better be, as I'm not sure there are many spare parts floating around for them)

Spare parts are around, wolverine, dlask, various places. Good idea to get a spares kit somewhere if you can find one (not a crate, those are unobtanium)

Having said that, is there any milsurp brass cased ammo out there?

Milsurp = berdan primed = non-reloadable so why bother with brass?

Once again, 'don't need a sermon which is 'better' - just what are the options out there - and which CGN vender's sites I should start lurking on.

Thanks mates - Abby

 

[Temps]

No surplus that is non-corrosive although some packaging looks convincing that is is non-corrosive it actually is. When I first got my SKS I was told from an old timer to treat all ammo as NC to be safe as most of the stuff you find is and will damage your rifle. As for cleaning, always clean same day. All I've ever used is G96 and have zero issues.

 

[boltonscouter]

Noncorrosive is overrated & over priced if it's FMJ in a semi auto. Maybe for a CZ bolt action but not an 858. You're going to clean anyways so if you do it properly, corrosive isn't an issue! If you don't need soft point hunting ammo then you're allot further ahead economically shooting the commie goodness! The way the 858 ejects cases you won't be picking them up at your feet LOL to reload so may as well shoot steel! The rifle is built for it.

 

[Scamaniac]

Hello and Welcome to CGN!
Sorry I couldn't resist.

 

[CanadianBaconPancakes]

7.62x39 is what the SKS shoots and will explode your CZ because its not chrome lined.

 

[CanadianBaconPancakes]

It alllllllllll works.

Czezh surplus
Romanian surplus
Ukranian surplus
Polish surplus
Chinese surplus ( stripper clips )
Norinco non corrosive
Dominion arms non corrosive.

I hear barnul has issues but I never use it.

 

[Slamfyre]

Lever arms surplus Chinese did turn out non corrosive for me. I've had about 600 rounds of it through my CZ858 and there's no trace of any corrosion anywhere. And I've left it dirty, marinating in the burnt residue of this surplus for many days and on several occasions. I even documented it with pictures on another thread.

Here's said report:
While non-corrosive, this ammo did leave, IMO, more than the usual amount fine soot that got everywhere. For lubrication I usually use a heavier, more viscous oil. When the soot is mixed with this oil, it forms a black grease like substance - see image of piston at the base where the spring would go. I don't think this is detrimental to function. It just looks nasty. From now on, I'll only use G96 for lubrication on the CZ 858.

After the 275 round session, the piston face that receives the full direct brunt of gases had a rough surface. I lightly scratched a little bit of that roughness to find out what kind of residue it was made of. It looks like it is made of leftovers from the copper wash. The scratches revealed reddish bright metallic color tone of copper. The opposing side on the gas cylinder didn't show any signs of this metallic copper residue.

Did not do any grouping on paper to test the accuracy, but I can say I was consistently ringing a 9"x9" gong standing offhand at 100m. I did find some cartridges that had some small dents somewhere in the case. I also found some split necks. In spite of these, all fired reliably except for one: there was one case of a failure to feed that was quickly fixed with a forward assist. Later on, as I was reloading the stripper clips I found a cartridge that had a longitudinally bent case. I suspect that the one failure to feed was also due to a longitudinally bent case.

All in all, I'm happy with the results. Please excuse the defective focusing prowess of my camera phone for macro close ups. I also tried to get good pictures of the inside of the barrel, but I was disappointed. Suffice to say that after 96 hours the barrel looked very clean giving out a very slightly dull shine. Now here are the photos of the dirty rifle after 96 hours:

 

[DT741]

Shoot the cheapest you can find (corrosive), enjoy it and clean after like everybody said and you'll be good. If you have money to spend and absolutly feel like paying for non-corrosive, go for it but I like to shoot more so cheapest ammo the better for this one.

As far as accuracy, I have chinese copper wash stuff and stays in a regular "post it note", 100m, prone, 10 rds

 

[safehunter]

Hornady makes SST in 7.62x39.
Get some and go hunting
It'll be worth it to watch the FUDD reaction

 

[abbynormal]

Thanks all for the info !

You've all pretty much said what I've been able to glean from around the web - but it's useful to have it all in one thread.

Abby

 

[shootnprep]

I only shoot non corrosive. After a day at the range I rarely have the time to clean my guns. I normally clean them the next day. For the cost difference it's not worth it to me to HAVE to clean it as soon as I get home.

 

[870P]

I can leave my Melonited 858 for as long as I want after shooting corrosive, it isn't going to rust. It cleans up a bit easier also.

 

[ShawnC6]

I only shoot non corrosive. After a day at the range I rarely have the time to clean my guns. I normally clean them the next day. For the cost difference it's not worth it to me to HAVE to clean it as soon as I get home.

Same.

It's not like it's super expensive either.

 

[abbynormal]

Once again, thanks for the feedback guys ....

I wandered into a local shop on Saturday and lo and behold, there they were - a small pile of Dominion Arms 7.62 X39 non-corrosive (new production Ukraine manufacture) sitting on the floor!

Walked out the door a happy camper with 5K worth of joy !!

Abby

 

[Robert Nicholson]

Once again, thanks for the feedback guys ....

I wandered into a local shop on Saturday and lo and behold, there they were - a small pile of Dominion Arms 7.62 X39 non-corrosive (new production Ukraine manufacture) sitting on the floor!

Walked out the door a happy camper with 5K worth of joy !!

Abby

5000 rounds???!! You bought up the remaining supply - good for you! I shoot that as well as surplus and it groups better than surplus.