Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 7.62x39 - How to Get the Best of it

I recently purchased a CZ 527 in 7.62 x39MM. I was really surprised what a tiny thing it is when I opened the box. I have a fetish for small guns since I collect the old Remington 600s and 660s. I bought it for short range whitetail hunting in East Texas. The deer are small compared to what most of you guys hunt and the ranges are usually 100 yards or less. I had surgery and just got back into form and I am ready to start shooting it now. It's short, light and it don't kick.

There is a pretty good selection of factory ammo. out there for hunting with pretty good .30-30 like ballistics, pointy bullets and a good selection of cheap (relatively)steel cased ammo to play with. I bought some Federal Fusion and PRVI soft points. Have plenty of AK ammo in stock too. I will start there. Not reloading for it is a sin to me though.

I have reloaded it before since I once had a Ruger 77 in that caliber which is now very valuable. I gave it to a friend for his kids to deer hunt with and he won't give it back! I remember it being very frustrating in that:
1. It was very hard to get the max. powder charge to fit in the case, even with ball powder.
2. I could not duplicate the velocity or accuracy of steel cased Red Army ammo. in that rifle. It may have been the Ruger barrel now that I think back about it. I have another old Ruger in .257 Bob that won't shoot at all. A gunsmith told me to sell it.

Is there a favorite powder and set up anyone likes for the Russian? There are good bullets available in both .308 and .310. I'm sure not many people here reload it because of the type guns it comes in and it's not your typical sporting round. I needed to liven up this bunch anyway, it's dead around here because everyone called in sick to go hunting.

Thanks BT

Just sharing the results of my latest test loads. With powder availability being what it is lately we may have to try powders that we don't normally load with. I recently found 2 pounds of Alliant's Reloader 7 powder to go with 3 boxes of Hornady .310 123 grain FMJ projectiles that I bought last week.

I don't normally load with R7 but my notes from several years ago said that 20.5 grains of R7 was an accurate load at about 2000 fps and 26-27 grains was "ok, not great" for accuracy. I had not retained any of the test targets and those were the only notes for R7 in my load book.

So I loaded five each of 20.5, 21, 22.5, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 grain loads in 7.62x39 with the Hornady FMJs. The cases were fairly full even with 20.5 grains and the 27 grain load was surely compressing some powder while I was seating the bullet.

I took an iron sighted Norinco SKS to the range and tacked up paper plates at 100 yards. It was about 20 degrees F and I was shooting off a rest on a bench. The front sight just about covered the paper plate at 100 yards, so I was not expecting cloverleaf patterns.

The first load that I shot was the 20.5 grain load. It missed the paper plate entirely 5 out of 5. I thought that was odd but found later that all shots had been low. The 21 grain load put 2 shots half an inch apart at 6 o clock and the rest off paper below the plate. 22.5 grains put all shots in a playing card sized group on the lower half of the plate (not bad for iron sites and my shooting!). This was the best group I had. The 23 grain test group was abot six inches wide but all over the plate. Oddly the 24 grain group was a beautiful vertical string 5 shots an inch or so apart straight up and down the 8 inch plate (I'm not sure why). The 25 grain load had 4 shots on the outer edges of the plate. 26 grains had 3 shots on paper. 27 grains had only 2 shots on paper. Maybe I was getting cold and tired by the time I got to the last groups, but the results seemed to agree with my previous notes.

Someday I might try tweaking the load development more but I was happy enough that I loaded up the rest of my brass with the 22.5 grain load. I won't be hunting with the FMJs and that load was surely good enough for plinking.

Thank you Mssgn. I suppose this caliber is still not on the hit parade for reloaders since it may be cheaper to buy loaded ammo. than some have paid for .22's lately. I have some R7 and I will try it. That's a very good powder for a lot of stuff I load.

I mounted an old Banner on the CZ. I think it is 1.5 -4.5x. It is an old straight tube variable. Bought some PPU 123 SP loads and it is very accurate. Found some old loads dated 1999 that I have made for the Ruger. They were almost max loads with H335 and Hornady 150 gr. FMJBT. Not exactly a great choice for this caliber. I remembered how hard it was to at get any max load of any powder in the Russian case when I shot them. Didn't have my chronograph set up but I'll bet they didn't make 2k FPS in that short little barrel. They were same hole groups at about 75 yards so it likes them. This a fun little rifle with no recoil that a kid could be taught to shoot very easily and well. They would have to get used to the backwards safety though.

I appreciate the messages in your signature line also.

Blowtorch

I just picked up a mini mauser. Compiling components.

Midway has a good price on hornady v-max.

Do you have any lead on brass?

I'm leaning toward R7 also.

How close to Houston are you?

Dave

I've also had good results with Imr 3031 and BLC2

Look at aa2200 it was made for 7.62x39. I use it in my 6.8spc but it's the cats meow in 7.62x39

4198 with Barnes 110 gr(no longer made) and Speer 130gr Hps gave inch or less groups with my Colt AR.

Accurate 1680 can get you 2475 FPS out of a 21" barrel, using a 125 grain bullet. See new reload data.

Note that the pressures shown are nearly 10 KPSI lower than what the normal maximums are for bolt action rifles. I suppose that the lower pressures are to accommodate the weaker SKS and AK actions.

I would think that with a load like that and 130 grain TTSX bullets, you'd have a very nice setup.

With a 155 grain cast bullet sized to .312 over 2400 powder I'm getting good accuracy too.

6 year old post but I'll answer anyway..... CFE BLK