Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Share your 7.62x39mm hunting stories?

If its really a 310 bore it should be just fine. A looser tolerance 308 bore and a tighter tolerance 310 bore are pretty much the same barrel.

Maybe if its an AK made by Eastern Euro sweatshops for Century its not the case, I don't know...but thus far it has been for bolt guns of good repute lol

Many years ago I took my SKS deer hunting. I forgot my glasses, but went on to my ground blind. About an hour later as visibility wasn't good, I saw a nice "I thought" doe. I put a few rounds down and the doe collapsed. My brother came over the hill to check on me as he thought it must be a firefight. I said no, I just shot a nice doe. He walked over to it and lifted a hind leg and, "Brother, you doe has nuts". It turned out kinda small also. A couple weeks later we stopped at the processor's and he said it was ready. He came out with a Playmate 6 pack cooler and handed it to me. Then he said he put a chicken in there to fill the cooler. You know, the story went from Texas to Florida to Minnesota before we left camp to go home.I did buy a 7.62X39 Zestava barreled action and a friend said he had a reamer he wanted to try. He picked up a Shilen blank and chambered it in 270X39AI. I would call it a 270PPC. It turned out to be a very accurate young person's deer rifle. A few years after that I put another barrel in 220 Russian on it. The 220 Russian brass is what we form our 6PPC brass. It is very accurate.

In the early 90s in shooters bible cant remember the years I think 91 and 92 a good friend wrote articles about the 7.6x39 and the ruger mini 30. All three of his daughters and many niece and nephew and neighbor kids killed ther first deer with it. One years article was about loading the 7.6x39 for deer and the next was about the mini 30 for kids to use

Must have been atleast 30 + years ago... I killed a doe with an SKS... shot it, it ran about 20 yards... fell over and died... I would not hesitate to hunt with one again....

Honestly I have thought about one of the CZ carbines bolt guns in 7.62x39 for a long time... wish I would have gotten one... the 527 I think was the model. It would have made a great deer gun in a lot of places I hunt...

Shot my first deer with a 7.62x39 when I was 12. One morning, mainly to get me to stop bugging him and let him get back to sleep, Dad turned me loose with an SKS and five rounds of the best steel case FMJ Eastern Europe had to offer.
I was wandering down the creek looking for a wet spot (very dry that year) and found a pretty big puddle in the shade. I was sitting on a rock waiting to see if something wandered up and after about 30 minutes what i thought was a doe stuck their head above a cedar tree on the far side of the creek. I aimed for right below the head as it was looking right toward me. Couldn’t have been more than 40 yards; it went down like a sack of potatoes. I ran over to it as soon as it quit squirming and noticed it was a four point. Poor guy’s entire head was covered in blood. I ran home, woke up my brother (he called me a liar and dang near beat me) and we woke up Dad and we all sauntered down to the spot. I was still so excited an hour later I almost wet myself. Turns out the bullet went through his nose and out the back of his head.

I’ve learned a heck of a lot since then and had a great many hunts but that little four point rack still adorns my reloading room.

Several years ago I came into a 1916 Spanish Mauser rearsenaled from 7 X 57 to 308 NATO. I was afraid to shoot the 308 rounds in it. Guy from church got it for $16 thru Shotgun News and I assembled a CVA black powder pistol kit to trade for it. I read in the Mauser forums that you could buy a 7.62 X39 adapter from a smith in Alaska for under $30. That’s what I got for my birthday that year. I locktited it in the chamber and made a super cheap truck gun out of it. I shot reasonably well and I killed several does, coyotes hogs and armadillos with it. Very pleased with it and loved sporterizing it. Never put a scope on it. Fun plinker and loaner rifle. Would really like a CZ in this round.

I bought a ranch rifle this past summer. The load I worked up for it is: Norma brass, 123gr. Hornady SP, WLR primers and 26.8gr. RL-7 at 2375 fps. This load in this rifle will put five shots in an inch at one hundred yards.

Hunting late season my nephew used the rifle to shoot a young 115 pound six pointer at 70 yards. The bullet entered in front of the right shoulder and exited the left ribcage. The deer dropped where it stood. Below is a picture of the silver dollar size exit.

I live in Saskatchewan, but have a remote bush camp in northern BC that is our summer home. We have a LOT of black bears and a few cougars and wolverines and wolves and the odd grizzly bear that hang around our camp. So I keep a rifle in the cabin all the time, magazine loaded. Just in case. I haven't had to shoot a bear yet, but we've chased a few away while armed, and a rifle in hand gives us more confidence when out for walks or exploring. I like my Rossi M92 .44 magnum trapper carbine for that purpose. Handy, capable in an emergency, very easy to pack along while on a hike. Problem is my wife is not a gun person. She hates that gun. Kicks too much, and she had an accidental discharge once while letting the hammer down to half cock. That scared her. She prefers something lighter also. So I bought a CZ527 7.62x39 carbine with a youth stock as the smallest, lightest rifle possible that is still kinda reasonable to shoot a black bear with, if absolutely necessary.
She likes it a lot! She even took it shooting tin cans a couple times when I was not around. A vote of confidence for sure. Anything bigger just wouldn't be her choice. But I was secretly worried about the rifles capability. So I took it deer hunting back home, for whitetails. My wife and I were sitting in a box blind. I loaded it with Hornady 123 gr. SST. At measured 110 yards, a nice young Saskatchewan whitetail buck presented itself. I was completely satisfied with the little cartridge's performance. Full penetration and exit, blew out both lungs and top of the heart. Death dash was short. She never had any doubts. I now load it with Woodleigh 125 grain bonded bullets for bear repellent. I don't feel she's at risk in camp by herself any more if armed only with that little rifle. But we haven't shot a bear with it either.

x39 is a fine caliber.

I can ring 8" steel at 400 until I get tired of ringing steel... KS-47 from PSA.

MANY deer with a Mini-30.

Great round.

Yeah, I like those little scopes. I bought a 4x one off Ebay a couple months ago that I don't even have a use for yet. Just don't see them come up for sale too much these days.

How do you guys find it kills compared to a .223 with a good bullet in the right spot? Noticably different at all?

Many little people hunted me with the round using the SKS/AK47 and RPD. They all failed. Many of them died for their trouble.

Sammy Small

Thankfully our deer aren't armed and don't have helicopters lol. Be a different kinda hunting if they did!

Late deer season in Mississippi, we killed one deer with a .223 62gr. TBBC bullet and one with the 7.62x39 123gr. Hornady SP. Similar range, size and point of impact, same result. DRT.

I can always count on you to keep stuff in perspective Dan!

I raise a glass to you sir, to the x39 non believers club! Cheers!

Within the context of hunting, and not the enemy's choice of bayonet handle...lol

AA 1680, Nosler 123gr E-tips, a Ruger American Ranch and a Magnetospeed chrony are all awaiting back home, soon as I finish this surverying job and get out of the bush.

Looking forward to seeing what kind of velocity and accuracy they get and maybe how they do on some ribs and bottles at 100 yards. Totally unscientific but I want to see the holes and catch a bullet in the snow

The load that's worked up for my Rancher is with RL7, but I've got 1680 and CFEBLK waiting to try. I'd like for one of them to work so that I can save the RL7 for other things.

Let us know how the 1680 works for you.

Thats cool! If I could find the RL7 I would have went with that honestly...seems its only available in 5 LB jugs and I didn't want to commit before knowing how the rifle liked it.

Hope the 1680 or the BLK is the cat's ass for ya! I'll show some groups/data soon...although not too concerned about how a 150 yard hunting rifle groups as long as its reasonable for deer hearts :P

Was on a control hunt for escaped farm red deer the other day. Was really wishing that the little carbine was here but wouldn't have been allowed to use it anyway.

I use a CZ 527 with cheap Silver Bear 125 SP ammo and all I have shot up to 150 yards have been DRT!

Nice hunting!

Is that a function of hitting them in the central nervous system/spine?