Range time with my '43 SVT-40

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lalunette

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Went to the range to make holes in paper and ring the gongs.

I was using Bulgarian and Chinese surplus ammo.

Anyhow, this happened with the Chinese ammo.

This one got pinched by the bolt.


This one got caught as it was heading out.
 
Hmm.. I can relate. I had the same issue with Chinese ammo. 1 out of 30 rounds would do the same. After burning through the Chinese crate, I never had the problem again.
What is your gas setting?

1943 svt? Nice!
 
4307 said:
Hmm.. I can relate. I had the same issue with Chinese ammo. 1 out of 30 rounds would do the same. After burning through the Chinese crate, I never had the problem again.
What is your gas setting?

1943 svt? Nice!
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Gas setting was 1.5.

My '43 SVT is in a Naval stock (aka ex-AVT stock) and there is a stock repair where the automatic fire inlet was located.

It is very nice overall and I'm looking forward to years of enjoyable shooting !!
 
My experience is that the Bulgarian Silver Tip ammo is a little on the "hot" side. This may sound like a good thing, but it leads to problems as you increase range. With the sights adjusted for zero at 100 meters on Silver Tip, I don't move the rear graduated sight to 200 until I'm actually at 300 meters, and then 300 meters at 400 meters actual range, and then 400 meters and aim a bit low at 500 meters actual range.

With the Chinese ammo, I've found that the trajectory is very close to matching the graduated rear sights. Zero the Chinese at 100 meters, and then move the rear sight up according to your distance and you're pretty much good to go.

Of course, with these old rifles varying a lot, and the ammo batches being different from one crate to another, you'll probably get different results.

In terms of cycling, well, you've got a couple of SVT-40s, I'm sure you know how the difference in how hot the rounds are affects what you need to be doing with the gas setting.

My rule of thumb : Once the SVT is broken in a bit (a few hundred rounds after cleaning out the cosmo to make sure all the kinks have been worked out after sitting in storage for decades), grab a box or two of 54R commercial hunting rounds. They have heavier bullets (usually) but actually less powder behind them (as a safety valve given the near century and a half of rifles out there, in varying conditions, that might be firing them). Set your gas to be able to cycle that ammo, and then you should be good to cycle any surplus you come across, quite vigorously.
 
deagle2008 said:
Clean the chamber. SVT doesn't function well with dirty chambers and also try adjusting the gas valve
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Chamber was clean when I started and had only about 15 rounds through it when this happened. The gas setting was 1.5 which has worked well for the '43 in the past.

I'm blaming the ammo. LOL
 
grelmar said:
My rule of thumb : Once the SVT is broken in a bit (a few hundred rounds after cleaning out the cosmo to make sure all the kinks have been worked out after sitting in storage for decades), grab a box or two of 54R commercial hunting rounds. They have heavier bullets (usually) but actually less powder behind them (as a safety valve given the near century and a half of rifles out there, in varying conditions, that might be firing them). Set your gas to be able to cycle that ammo, and then you should be good to cycle any surplus you come across, quite vigorously.
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The only 54R commercial hunting rounds I have available around here have 203gr of powder in them while the surplus stuff usually has around 150gr (more or less) I believe. I don't plan to go hunting with my SVTs so I'll stick with the milsurp stuff and keep the 54R commercial hunting rounds for my Mosin Nagants. :)

Thx for the advice though.
 
If the Bulgarian stuff works great, I guess your problem is the Chinese ammo. You must adjust your gas setting for the Chinese ammo.

I also heard some of the Chinese 54R don't work very well in SVT40's.

I fire mostly russian, czech and others ( well lets say european stuff ) and my gas setting usually stay around 1.3 or 1.5.
 
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lalunette said:
The only 54R commercial hunting rounds I have available around here have 203gr of powder in them while the surplus stuff usually has around 150gr (more or less) I believe. I don't plan to go hunting with my SVTs so I'll stick with the milsurp stuff and keep the 54R commercial hunting rounds for my Mosin Nagants. :)

Thx for the advice though.
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That's not the amount of powder in the casing.

The weights on the boxes of ammo are 203gr (grain) SP (Soft Point) Bullet, and 150gr bullet respectively.
 
Desert_Fox said:
That's not the amount of powder in the casing.

The weights on the boxes of ammo are 203gr (grain) SP (Soft Point) Bullet, and 150gr bullet respectively.
Click to expand...

Ah, thx for pointing that out. We have a French-Canadian saying for this and it translates roughly as... "I'm going to go to bed less dumb tonite." LOL
 
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