Found a 7.62x39 compact today...

[Joe S.]

Went into the shop looking for a x39 CZ 527 carbine and found this instead.

Feel like the price was decent so i snapped it up. Buddy says i paid too much but i dont mind. I love the wood and i love the feel of the compact.

Gonna try to order a Weaver 1-3x20 scope for it.

 

[Buckeye Bill]

That is a good looking rifle and I have shopped for them in the past.

Would like to get a range report or at least some of your views about performance.

Nice pictures! 8)

 

[Joe S.]

Hopefully we can try it out tomorrow.

Hopefully.

 

[Joe S.]

So are these 308 bores? Or 311?

 

[Joe S.]

lady at Ruger told me today it is a .308 bore...

and that was an "I think"...

i looked ruger.com and cannot find anything confirming it either. a guy on a reloading page i started on bookface says it is a 308 bore, according to an old Ruger rep he used to have.

so my question was can i shoot the factory stuff in it safely, since all i know about this round is that it comes loaded with .311" bullets.

hornady manual said they used .311" bullets in their Ruger test rifle and had no bad results.

it makes sense to me that it has to be ok, since Ruger recommends strongly against using reloads in their guns, and they cant really make a gun that wont safely shoot factory made .311" bullet equipped ammo, but i aint the brightest bulb in the pack.

i did buy some Tula steel cased ammo, but i also got some Speer bullets (.311"), brass and dies to reload.

 

[dfletcher]

I went with the CZ 527 and am thus far very happy, but I do like the looks of the Ruger better.

I reload and like using the Hornady 123 grain .310 diam VMax. For some reason Grafs has them much, much cheaper than anywhere else and accuracy has been excellent.

 

[Joe S.]

Will try those. Thanks.

I LOVE the CZ. But it was 2 hours away (a trip i didn't have time to make) and found this by accident for $100 cheaper.

I want the CZ in 223 now tho...

 

[Snake45]

Beautiful wood on that. Might be the nicest piece of wood on any 7.62x39 ever built. :wink:

 

[Joe S.]

It sold me!

Tonight i pulled five bullets from some bulk ammo i had and dumped the powder. Replaced it with 6.5 grains of trail boss and cast .310 round nose boolits. Just playin...

 

[rugnelli]

Great little rifle.

 

[dfletcher]

It sold me!

Tonight i pulled five bullets from some bulk ammo i had and dumped the powder. Replaced it with 6.5 grains of trail boss and cast .310 round nose boolits. Just playin...

I use Trail Boss, and others probably know this, for "about speed of sound" loads in a variety of calibers. By filling the case about 70% full you tend to be around 1,200 fps with most bottleneck rifle cartridges. Hornady uses TB for their "shhh, I don't want anyone to hear" 338 LM ammo for use on silencer equipped rifles.

I know "fill it up" goes against what we've learned as reloaders, took me a while to trust it, but it does work and is listed in a few reloading manuals.

 

[Joe S.]

I load some 30-30 for a friends contender pistol with about that same volume of trail boss. Shoots about a ragged hole at 50.

 

[Snake45]

I've been meaning to work up some Trail Boss loads for a .303 Brit Enfield No. 5. Got everything I need to do it except the time. I bought some cheap 7.62x39 bullets for it to play with (.311).

 

[mrbumps]

So are these 308 bores? Or 311?

I have one of these and always assumed it was 311, since the Mini-30 is 311.

I slugged mine today and it was .310. I've been getting about 1.5" groups with Barnes 123 gr TSX which are .310. I have some Hornady 123 gr SST, which are .310 also, but I have not tried them yet.

 

[mjoinercpd]

Main topic.......Groove diameters..........
and this applies to all guns, not just the 7.62x54R Russian.
First off, the Ruskies make their .30 cal. bullets usually .310" diameter, which includes most of the 7.62x39 AK type ammo as well. Many of the barrels for the 7.62x54R Russian reportedly have groove diameters upwards of .312" or larger, Russian bullet diameters also are reported to sometimes be upwards of .312, yet I am advocating rechambering .308" groove diameter US barrels to the Rusky.

This raises alarm among some fearing excess pressures as a result of putting a larger diameter bullet down a smaller groove diameter barrel.

The Finns it is reported rebarrelled a lot of the Russin Mosin Nagant rifles with .308" groove diameter barrels, named them 7.62x53R, and conceded the 54 ammo could be shot in their rebarrelled rifles with the smaller groove diameter. That is my understanding at this point anyway.

Ruger, I have mentioned before, made the Mini-14 in 7.62x39 (.310" bullets) with .308" groove diameter barrels.

Bullets larger in diameter than the barrel's groove diameter is not a problem at all, IF the throat is not too small for the bullet.

quoted from Mike Bellms Thompson Center newsletter. Hope this helps.

 

[Joe S.]

Thanks m joiner

 

[Joe S.]

Had to do a little traveling this week so i stopped in at a shop up this way and they had these on clearance so i got one. Right around $225 OTD. Not bad i feel. The vari X 2 in same power is pushing $300.

Hopefully get it mounted and try it all out this weekend.
Still havent shot it yet. :-/

 

[Joe S.]

Got it on.

Just clears

And the obligatory barn pic

 

[Joe S.]

Ok my non scientific results show that 147/308 fmj and 26 gr aa2230 shoot about 1.25" at 100
26.5 opened up to about 1.5"

28.5 gr with 125/308 fmj and 125/311 sp shoot about 1.25".

I messed up the settings on my scope so dont know what 28.0 grains do but one two shot group (my last 2 shots) placed about 1" apart...

I have 1k 125/308 sierra prohunters coming to try

 

[Joe S.]

Back today. Using 311 speer soft points

Didnt like IMR 4198

Re-7 was better.

This was a winner gonna make more and try these again. Also gonna try this load with the 308's when they arrive.