Ruskie Refurb Range Report

[Ganderite]

My Russian refurb has a cheap NcStar scope on it. It worked well at Camp Borden a couple of weeks ago. I noticed that the repalcement receiver cover/scope base had a bit of wobble in it, so I shimmed it with a piece of Coke can.

Yesterday I re-zeroed the rifle and used the opportunity to compare some handloads agianst the CZ surplus ammo.

4 of 5 CZ rounds grouped into 4". The 5th opened it up to 6"

150 FMJ, 22gr powder 4 into 2", 5th opened to 4.5"

150FMJ, 24 gr 5 into 2.1" Nice round group.

For the Gun Nutz Shoot at Camp Borden I am loading 23.5 gr because this is the max the case will easily hold.

The bullets are steel core milsurp. The powder is surplus extruded from 7.62x51, about 3031 in speed.

I have not Chronyd this load, but it feels like it is full power.


Conclusion: CZ surplus is not as accurate as I thought it was. Even with military bullets, hanloading improved groups. Looking forward to trying some 150 gr flat base hunting bullets. They won't use so much powder room and typicaly group much better than milsurp bullets.

 

[millwright]

Hey Ganderite.when you pulled the bullets did you weight the powder charges that where in the cases to see how consistent they were. Nice to see that a little work will bring up the accuracy level.

 

[Ganderite]

I did not pull any bullets.

i shot the CZ ammo without modification.
The handloads were made with virgin IMI (Israeli) brass and pulled 147 gr 7.62x54 bullets that I bought. I did not pull them.

I don’t know how much variation there is in the CZ ammo. Does not matter, really. What matters is the results, and 6” at 100 does not impress me.

I was really impressed with the improvement with the hand loaded military bullets. Being steel core, the bullet is quite long at 1.265”. I just found a box of Hornady 150 Spitzers. They are a tenth of an inch shorter, so I can load more powder or load with less compression. As a rule of thumb, I expect a quality hunting bullet to shoot a group half the size of a military bullet, all other things being equal.

But the SKS has limitations as a test rifle, so if the military bullets group 2”, then it is possible the rifle variables will mask any further improvements in the ammo, regardless of the bullet.

I am shooting my SKS at the Gun Nutz Shoot at camp Borden in 2 days, so will test all three loads there.