Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Powder for 762x39

Well, given the import stuff shoots terrible and isn't priced that great...
I have 500 brass for my Commie rifles, a stack of primers, and am probably going to splurge on 500 ZM 123s.
So -- my last go around with trying to load Commie, I used 322 which shot fine but seemed a bit on the slow side, plus kind of wasteful given my other rifles that love it.
And I ran another small batch with 4198 which was as accurate as the 322 loads.
Do any of you secret apparatchiks have a good capitalist powder suggestion for such a fine socialist round as the M43 7.62x39?

A buddy of mine wanted to borrow a pound of RL 7 to try in his.. the results turned out well enough, they went over to Sportsman's Warehouse, bought home a 5lb jug and loaded up the entire jugs worth over the weekend... split between 2 guys...

so I am just passing this on.. but I know they picked up like a thousand of those Zombie Maxes, an another 10 lbs of RL 7...

these two guys... well I wonder if they think this Zombie apocalypse is actually going to happen...

be it as they may, they really like the accuracy of Rl 7...

I got the recommendation from a guy who used it in a Ruger Bolt Action 7.62 x 39...

Before you go chasing powders, you need to find the right sized bullet. What is the Bore diameter of your X39? Most are .310-.311 some are .308. An undersized bullet can cause accuracy to go to hell.

I have two, one is a .308 and the other a .310. The 308 hates the V-Max or any other secant ogive Hornady bullet. It loves anything Sierra and does fine with the 125gr Nosler BT. The .310 hates the Speer .310 and loves the Hornady 123gr SP. See where I am going here, It's all trial and error finding what works best in your rifle.

As for powders, My rifles like 322, N-130, N-120, H-4198 and 1680. R-7 was always a good performer as far a velocity goes, but accuracy was pisspoor.

They're all Commie barrels. Tried 308s in them, stunk.
I have had good success (after playing with the feed lips) with Hornady 100 XTP 312 pistol bullets. Got them to feed, and that rifle (a Chinese SKS with modified Commie scope mount cut and rewelded) shoots 1.5 five shot groups.
I bedded the action, actually put in pillar mounts, floated the barrel, cut the front stock ferrule away from the barrel, souped up the trigger so it's a poor-mans "set," recrowned, et cetera. No collector value to speak of, it was a hunnat-dollah parts gun, so why not?
I'm just hoping that a good American bullet will get me under an inch consistently with the thing. If not, I have some 308 barrels laying around doing nothing.

So, I have some H 4198 laying around, enough for a test or two. No RL7. What is 1680? What else is good between 322 and 4198?

AA 1680 is a fine ball powder designed for the 7.62 x 39. Delivers top velocities without heavy compression.
http://www.accuratepowder.com/products/rifle/



VV N-130 and N-120. I also have had excellent results with Norma N-200, but it's hard to find.

+1 on the AA1680. I also use WC846 surplus powder (BLC2 equivalent)for heavy bullet loads.

I load for a CZ 527 carbine and an AR with a Colt upper. The CZ shoots 308 and 310 bullets with equal fine accuracy. It also shoots a 180 gr cast bullet with 4227 almost as accurately as the jacketed.

The AR has only had 123 gr Hornady SPs (.310) for hunting and 150 gr pulled military FMJ (308) for plinking run through it so far. I've only had it three months. The former stays close to MOA while the latter averages about 1.5 MOA.

I hope AA quality control is better than the last time I had to dump 32 pounds back on the market as it was junk....

I guess I'll give 1680 a whack for starters along with the 4198. AA powders are more available around here than VV. At least I will have some blasting ammo for my Commie toys -- none of the import stuff shoots for beans.
What DID shoot -- the steel core Chinese on the stripper clips -- and those East German plastic cores -- Klinton took care of.

I'm sure you know there are two 4198 powders, H and IMR, they are not the same and data is not interchangeable. They both work in the x39, H performs much better in my rifles.

Yeah I use Reloder 7 in my Ruger mini 30 and Ruger M77. It gives good acccuracy and performance on whitetails. Both my rifles have .308 barrels and shoot the 125g Prohunter and 135g SSP bullets well. PH

Sure would be nice if Sierra would start making that 135SSP again! Since I ran out I have been using the 110gr Barnes TTSX with good results

That SSP bullet failed more than a few times at 30-30 pistol velocity for us. Just would not expand. I quit using it a long time ago. For non barnes use at x39 speeds, the 125 nosler bt does really nice.

That little plastic tip does wonders to initiate expansion at low velocity. Never had an issue with on game performance with 7mm 120gr in a 14" 7x30 waters either.

That's too bad. Wish I had been around to take it off your hands. I've had nothing but good results with their powders since the 80s.

Yep, you'd have loved this, AA2520, burn rate changed so that our loads were over 200 FPS slower than before, right before national championships, and the accuracy suffered and no matter what we did, we'd get to pressure before velocity...

You simply can't loose 250ish FPS when shooting in national competitoin at up to 1000 yards and loose your accuracy at the same time.

32 pounds of CRAP went cheap.

Took a few MN Whitetails with the 125gr Nosler BT, nothing over 130 yards. Terminal performance was iffy(technical term) at best. They all died and the bullets did their job, but I was not impressed. The Sierra 125gr Pro Hunter is way to hard, pencil through every time. The Barnes 110gr TTSX is a good choice if you like speed and light bullets. For heavy bullets it's tough to beat the 150gr Hornady RN 30-30 bullet. Very accurate and very deadly, slow, but deadly.

Interesting, nephew drives the 125 bt out of his x39 and its never failed us yet. Opens nicely, double caliber size, has always exited, everything has died and dang quick mostly.

Shot a big boar at about 70s once, through both shields, tipped the scales around 270 pounds. Went about 50 yards and nose plowed.

This is a group from my mini 30 when I had it,I think it was a 181 series w/pencil barrel. stock sights useing a lead sled.

Not too shabby for a Mini....
I guess I better get serious about cutting on a 308 barrel for that rotted-out SKS sitting in the back spiderwebs...

AA1680 or surplus WC680. I use WC 860 in 357 Max and 414 and 445 SuperMags
http://www.gibrass.com/gunpowder.html