Well I grabbed one over the weekend. With no sign of the K1V .223's or 1B .257 Roy that I wanted, I decided to work with a Russian Ruger. No figure in the wood but some mineral streaking, and real good grain flow through the wrist. It's fairly blond in color. The trigger is a little heavy, but crisp.
I'll probably swap a 1.5-5 VX-3 on to it this week, and try some loads with 1680. I have some Hornady Zmax and soft point 123's on hand from my AK experiments, and a fair amount of good Lapua brass. The chamber is much tighter than the AK (surprise) and fired AK brass won't begin to chamber.
The throat is not excessively long on it. The Hornady 123gr Zmax touches the lands with about .16" of bullet in the case neck, which is fine for a single shot. If I decide to try 150's it should work fine without excessively deep seating.
The 7.62x39 has a mild report, and I think tends to disturb deer less in a given area. I'll probably pop a spike on this ranch later this year, but there are some nice bucks I wanna grow another year so I hope I don't spook them. There is also at least one big sow on the ranch I'd like to put in the freezer.
Last edited by tex_n_cal; 12/01/15. Reason: add last paragraph
