Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles 7.62x39 AR-15 experience???

Anyone have any experience with this? I just got a barrel on the cheap and am curious to try.

nephew has one. Its killed everything I"ve pointed it at. He points it well also. But then jerks the trigger too often and misses.... but not the gusn fault. 125 ballistic tips work well and i am NOT a BT fan but they are slow enough in that round. True MOA upper.

I dusted a yote around 500 yards with it. Dead calm and I happen to know the distance and drop from us messing with it when he first got it. And the yote wasn't having a good day luck wise either.

http://www.ar15.com/content/page.html?id=558

I looked long and hard at the 7.62x39 in an AR but it was the magazine probs that scared me off. This link also explains some of the feed ramp considerations and also firing pin mods you might need.

I would be real interested to hear how your project plays out. Especially the magazines.

There is a PTR (HK) variant being built these days in 7.62x39 that takes AK mags as well. IIRC it is a bit heavy.

I wish the FAL was chambered...

nephew has a short mag, 10 rounds IIRC, and a 20 rounder. DOn't recall brands. never had an issue.

Model one sales which I was kinda leary of...

NO feed ramp mods OR firing pin issues. Has never not run 100% as is.

I would think as a pure hunting type rifle this would be much better than a 300 blackout. A perfect one would be a pencil barrel carbine length gas tube with standard fore arm and a 4X leupold scope in a simple PEPR mount with the heavy duplex if possible. Add a box of WW 123 grain softpoints a go hunt a deer.

Sounds like a nice reciepe.

If I could get confident about some good/available magazines I would jump on an Armalite off the shelf rifle. They all swore C products was the ticket but then it seems they went out of business or something. And honestly I don't know if they really truly made reliable ones anyhow.

How REALLY reliable do you need a mag for a deer hunt really anyway? First round kills. I've yet to shoot more than one shot from my nephews upper......folks can get to anal about things.

I have a Oly upper, so it came with the modified firing pin and ready to go. I've shot Silver Bear, Tulammo, some white boxed stuff with russian written all over it, and some Fioicchi. Everything has run without a hitch. I killed 9 hogs with the Silver Bear. I think when I get round to loading for it, it will be very accurate. Shooting cheapo steel stuff I can get a 4round cluster all or most cloverleafed, with a 5th round with a flyier an inch or two out from the good part of the group. That's been pretty standard for me with a 5 shot group with that kind of ammo, if I only knew which round of the 5 shots was going to be the flyer, things would be prefect.
As far as magazines go C-products is back and another company called ASC got spun out of the law suit. I have mags from both, the 10 round mags have worked flawlessly for me, since I have no need for the 30 rounders I haven't tried any of those. I've talked to ASC and they tell me the mag bodies for the 10 round 6.8 and the x39 are the same. They use a different follower in each but either should work. I had a 5 round 6.8 mag (they use a 10 round mag body for those with a spacer)that was jacked up so I ordered a new spring and follower from ASC, works great. I like the 10 round mags best because they're easier to manuever in and around vehicles. The 30 sticks out too far for me and seems awkward. I'm basing this on my 5.56 30 round mags, I haven't gotten any 30 round x39 mags, just stuck with the 10. What I've been told is that the taper of the x39 cartridge requires the curved mags and 20 round mags are too short for the curve, the 10 rounds are short enought that the taper doesn't matter. Any way I've had a lot of fun shooting mine and it's realatively cheap to shoot. I have found that finding brass with boxer primers is about as hard as finding 6.8 and at about the same cost. I'll eventually get around to loading for it, but I doing alright with the cheapo rusky stuff at the moment. Good luck.CH

I'm being completely honest when I ask this: Why not an AK? x39 ARs seem... I don't know. 'Wrong' is the word that comes to mind, I guess. Not to mention that you can get a decent AK for the price of an x39 upper, at least that I've seen. Plus, ugh those proprietary mags.

It's a Baskin-Robins world and that's the flavor I chose. I expect my AR to be inherently more accurate than an AK and the AR lends itself to all kinds of easily mounted optics. CH

Chicksaw hit it. Better platform. More versatile. Easier for optics. Mags ain't a big deal, if you can't make do with 1 mag you have other problems. Better triggers available. Overall a much much better choice than an AK. And I have a top line AK, milled and touted and such from many years back. Its even their NM version.... tighter tolerances and such.... its a POS all the way around. Accuracy sucks, trigger sucks poor options on scope mounts and so on. I'd take a good SKS any day over an AK...

Aha. I think we have different uses for our fighting rifles, then... 26 AR mags and 16 AK mags, and counting.

Tapco G2 triggers rock, and the best overall response I would give is that, if you want a match gun... x39 isn't the best gig in town. The Ultimak rail is also great; I don't have the link anymore, but there's speculation that stiffening the gas tube makes the gun have better barrel harmonics, not to mention what you can do with any optics you may choose to mount. There's also the Midwest and also Attero Arms iron-dot style mounts, but because of the gas tube effect, I'd recommend the Ultimak over them. They all allow cowitness, too, except for the Attero rail mount. If you want a 'traditional-style' scope mount (though I'd highly recommend against them for any carbine, AK included), avoid the side rail-based systems. Texas Weapon Systems makes a good integral receiver rail. Apparently, even in use by some Eastern folks... If I find the pic I'll post it up, someone in Russia's SF has one with an EOTech on it (not that that inherently makes it good, just interesting). Avoid anything that's on the dust cover but not connected to anything else; the TWS one is only good because it attached to the rear sight, too.

Honestly, tighter tolerances on an AK strike me as a bad idea, and not a good one. The design's main advantage is durability, and if you've got one, best to preserve that, IMO. And yeah, assuming you've got an A3 upper, easier to mount optics. If not, pretty much the same.

But yeah, since it's a good portion of proprietary parts, I would definitely say a decent AK (Arsenal, probably) is the way to go. Inaccuracy claims are way over-stated; bug GopherGunner to come to the range with me and I'll try to bring back a report!

ya know guys, that is where I am going with this!

I do confess, I was thinking about the Nikon compact P223 scope in 3x....but the longer I consider your idea, the more I like it!

got the barrel M4 type, new, in the white, for $80 delivered

Armalite M15A4 7.62x39.

Hornady 123gr SP .310.

IMI Brass.

26gr AA 1680.

100 yards.



I use Armalite factory mags and have not had any issues so far. Feeds and fires every time.

Rock River recently introduced an AR in 7.62x39, which takes standard AK mags. Looks interesting.

http://www.rockriverarms.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=558

I get similar groups with my Colt Ar with 26gr. 4198 and Speer 130gr HPs

Is your Colt a .308 or a .310 bore? This Armalite is a .310, but my Ruger is a true .308 and loves that 130gr Speer as well.

What 4198, H or IMR?

I wouldn't consider an AR in x39 as a fighting rifle, only a hunting rifle hence the one mag.

As to number of mags for a fighting rifle, I have more than 26 mags around, but as to numbers to utilize I kinda figure the bottom line will be how many I could actually carry... would rather have a handful of good mags and bandoleers of ammo, than too many mags that I can't carry if I have to move on foot.

IMR. I have not slugged the bore of the Colt but it sprays .310s all over the place.
My Mini-30 is an early model. Bore .3085. The magazine is clearly marked Mini-14.