Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7.62 X 39 FOR HUNTING?

I would ask do you already have one or are you thinking of buying one? If you have one it will do if sufficiently accurate. If you are thinking of buying get a 308 WCF and if you desire that power range load it appropriately.

My wife has killed a truck load of deer with her SKS and Wolf hollow point bullets. The majority of them were killed DRT, but most were shot at under a hundred yards.

Just curious, did those Wolf hollowpoints show any signs of expansion?

The 7.62X39 works well on deer and hogs at reasonable ranges. I use a Hornady 123 grain SP out of a 16" AR Performance barrel.You can load 150 grainers, but I have found the 123's work just fine.

Here is a pic of my latest:

I have had many SKS Rifles and with open sights can easily do 2 to 3" groups at a 100 Yds.AK 47`s are a different story.

My experience with the SKS has shown it to be quite a bit more accurate than the AK. That is a sample of Russian and Chinese SKS, and Chinese and Romanian AK's.

YMMV.

Had a CZ 527. Very accurate with 123gr Horn handloads. I killed four head of big game with it. It was a 50-50 split on effectivness. One large mule deer doe dropped within 25yds from a heart shot at about 50yds. Another large mule deer doe ran a half mile with a neet little hole through the heart, shot at 100yds. Whitetail doe DRT head on shot at base of neck about 35yds. Whitetail doe not recovered after being hit a bit far back at 200yds. Neet little rifle but I sold it. I would not consider the cartidge ideal for animals over 50pounds or at ranges over 100yds.

Personally, I've had much better results with a 223 loaded with 60gr Nosler Partitions and would suggest that as a rifle/load for the seriously recoil shy.

To bruinruin:
Most of them expanded about like an X-bullet. They are not a soft bullet.

60 gr. NPT's, 65 gr. Sierra Gamekings and 64 gr. Winchester Power Points all work well in the .223 and similar. I use them in my .223 custom Ranch Rifle and my .22-204's.

I pick and choose between these three bullets, based on how each individual gun shoots them. I see them as fairly equivalent on small to med. game.

I had an AR upper in 7.62x39. I wasn't that impressed and it went down the road. Maybe I didn't work with it long enough. Still, no regrets and I don't see going back.

DF

Thanks, I've always been curious about those HPs.

I need to do some loading for my CZ527 carbine. I've got 3 boxes of Hornady 123 sp bullets-I've heard good things about them.

5.56/223 is not deer legal in MN but 7.62x39 is. A friend of mine had shoulder surgery and I let him use my Ar-15 with Colt 7.62x39 upper. He killed his deer and didn't wreck his shoulder. It's a deer killer in the MN woods anyway.

I know a guy who takes young hunters out with his Ruger compact in 7.62X39 and they get deer. It seems to work well out to a hundred yards or so. I'm not of the opinion that the Soviet round can hang with the .30-30 WCF especially if 170's are used in the latter. I've killed a Bull Moose witht he .30-30 and I wouldn't even want to try one with the combloc round.

I like the idea of the little ruger compact, but I don't know if I'd like the reality as much.

I like the .30-30 very much, all the way around.

Ya never heard of cowboys and AKs have ya now?

I bought one of the Ruger Compacts for the kids I sponsor to use from the deer stands. They all absolutly love it. Don't kick much, is really accurate. But out of the box is way too compact for a big guy like me, feels like shooting one of those little chipmunk rifles.

I would highly recomend it for any kid where the shots are going to be inside of 175 yards so that all they have to do is center the crosshairs and squeeze.

They were shooting the Mini 30s. Sorry for the delay in replying--we are in Costa Rica and the ISP was down for about 24 hours.

For me one of the attractions of the 7.62x39 as a hunting rifle is the compact bolt action rifle like the K-var model 85 using the zastava mini mauser action. It's a much better looking rifle than the Remington 799 version using the same action.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I believe the Wolf 122gr HP is a military style round designed to tumble on impact, not expand.

Late to the table with the above. I 'm not convinced the 122gr HP is the best projectile for that round.

No problem! Hope you are getting time to fish. I'd love to wet a line in that part of the world someday.

That's a much nicer looking gun than the Remington version.

What are your best loads and what kinda groups does it shoot?

DF