Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7.62 x 39 and deer ?

so the wife wants to hunt with the mini 30, I reload and would like advice on bullet choice?

plab

I would say Hornady. With that being said though, I saw several different types of factory soft point ammunition when I last visited a Sportsmans Warehouse. Remington, Federal blue box and Federal Fusion, if I remember correctly. Also had Winchester and Sellier and Bellot.

I've got dies for the 7.62x39, but don't think I'd bother these days.

In the '90s I hunted with my Mini 30 a couple years. There wasn't much soft point ammo available then. I loaded the Hornady 130gr Single Shot Pistol bullet. I took one buck with it, hit him twice, once broadside a bit far back and the second quartering away at the rear of the onside rib cage. Both were pass-throughs and did a good job wrecking his plumbing. I sold the gun to my nephew and loaded him 50 rounds with the 125 gr Barnes XBTs. He's taken 2 deer with it and both were bang-flops.

If it's .308 bore, I'd load 125gr Nosler BT's.
If it's .311 Bore I'd load the 125gr Sierra spritzers.

built a custom Mexican mauser for my nephew in 7.62X39


ran 125 gr sierra's in it.. kills deer just fine

The 7.62X39 is in the same class as a 30-30 and should be in terms of performance similar as well which is pretty good for deer sized game

would like to see Ruger chamber the American Predator in the 7.62 x 39...

I'd buy one of those.

How bout one in 6.8SPC?

That'd be interesting too, just not as cheap to shoot. I believe the SPC would be a dandy cartridge for the compact version with a youth length stock.

What powder you folks recommend?

A while back I painstakingly loaded some Hornady 123gr SST's over AA1680 for my AK. With great care it would do 3 MOA with a cold barrel, and Minute of Jihadi with a warm barrel

A light bolt action in the caliber would be pretty interesting, though...

Does your sponsor, BSA Optics, make a "sweet SPC" scope, or better yet, a "Sweet Russian" for the 7.62x39mm?

Seems like Reloader 7 and 1680 were the powders I used when I loaded for one.

I had one of the distributor run Ruger 77mkII Ultralights, with the boat paddle stock.

Seems like I loaded the 125 grain Sierra for it too.

A Ruger American Predator in 7.62x39 would be damned nice.

The Mini-30 we had wouldn't keep all its shots on a pie plate at 50 yards. Too bad, it was a neat little riffle.

Just for [bleep] and giggles, I killed mule deer for a few years with a Weatherby Varmintmaster I rebarreled to the .308X1.5". Basically, the round is equal to the 7.62X39.

I killed twenty or more deer with the round and used the 130-grain Speer SPFN. Literally every buck was a bang-flop.

Cheers,

kd

There's some Zastava mini-mausers being imported now, which are fairly reasonable in price.

Same here. Always wondered why no one took that idea and ran with it.

CZ has a 527 Carbine in 7.62x39, also, that has a SST and is nice, short and light. I'm a little CZ poor at the moment, but I'm still thinking about buying one. Heck, one more won't hurt anything.......... loaded right, with RL-7, 1680, 680, 4198 or something similar is a dandy little cartridge. I'd use the Hornady, if I bothered to load for it. With all the cheap foreign ammo around, I doubt I'd worry much about loading for it. Buy a couple of boxes of factory ammo for hunting, and plink with the ball stuff.

I just bought a new CZ 527 carbine in a 7.62x39 this AM off of GunBrokers. It is really fascinating reading on the internet about all of the ammo, primers, cases and bullets that may or may not work in this rifle. Because I bought it just for the pure hell of it, I am planning on trying all sorts of stuff to satisfy my curiosity about this little round and rifle. I�ll certainly pass on my findings�CP.