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Opinions on SP ammo


SP ammo  

33 members have voted

  1. 1. What grain size is best?



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Since what you'll be shooting otherwise will be more like the 124gr I would choose that. velocity tends to go to the lighter rounds while penetraton to the heavier, for soft skinned or thin coated targets lighter wins in terms of basic effectiveness with this caliber.

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i haven't seen much testing on any 7.62 rounds.mostly military rounds.which don't seem to be that great except for penetration.soft point bears,wolf 154,wolf military classic hp(the good ones)i have seen one or two tests and they all seem to work some what.you would think the big name gun personalities would bust out some extensive testing with the aks getting so popular these days.

 

my friends vz58 doesn't seem to like 154 grain even though don't look much different profile wise than the bears we usually use.haven't tried them in my saigas yet but i imagine they feed fine otherwise there would be word on the message boards.

 

i keep fmj,sps and hps all around the same grain weight cause i suspect they will fly somewhat similarly.

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I voted 124gn because that is the closest intended grain bullet for the Ak platform. Yes you can shoot heavier bullets but the AK platform does tend to be picky beyond the designed use. That has been my expierence though, you may find your gun likes or can better handle the heavier rounds with little issues.

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The Bear 125 grain SP performed very well in a test done by one of the Guns and Ammo writers (Fortier, I think) and it performed flawlessly. It was outclassed, though, by 8M3. A couple years ago, there was a thread here where it had photos of Boar devastated by 8M3s.

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154gr Wolf was OK in my SKS Carbine(20" barrel), but sucked balls in my paratrooper(16" barrel). I shot some various SP out of my Saiga to see if it would feed, and found either 123gr Winchester Super-X or 125gr Silver Bear would do the job nicely. 154gr Wolf was worse out of the AK than the SKS Paratrooper. I gave all my Wolf to my cousin when he bought my carbine.

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I had a bunch of 154 sp's, thats what I kept im my mags when I first got my saiga(iz-132). Then I did some accuracy testing at 100yds and found that they werent as accurate as even the cheap wal mart tula 122fmj's. Dont get me wrong, you will be impressed with the way they explode a gallon jug of water, very close to the sapson 8m3 (which I keep in my mags now).

 

Some rifles dent the soft point as it enters the barrel. And I think that messes up the accuracy, or maybe not, it just may be the load itself. In any event, They are heavier than most in their caliber and wont fly the same as the lighter ones. They ended up a couple inches lower and a little more spread out at 100yds, compared to my sapson 'brand' 124hp, tula 122fmj, tula 122hp, silver bear fmj, and brown bear 125 sp.

 

My rifle dented the points of my brown bear 125's and wolf 154's. So I filed my chamber opening edges round and sanded them nice and smooth, now they dont dent but a tiny little spot when chambered. The 154s are still a little more 'all over the place'.

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http://www.brassfetcher.com/7.62x39mm%20Wolf%20154gr%20Soft%20Point.html

 

Plenty of expansion and penetration in gel. Too bad it shed the jacket at 7"

 

 

I'd rather Yugo surplus or Golden Tiger FMJs due to the higher velocity. Forget HP's and SP's unless they are modern stuff like Corbon and vmax.

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wow, hunting deer with a 30 carbine sounds awesome. Here in 'communist hunting law PA' (but quite free gun laws), I cant use anything cool.

 

Id love to hunt with my saiga, but I live in PA, which doesnt allow it. I guess I could buy a 74 carrier and not put a piston on it, so It wasnt semi auto, and use my 5rd mag. Id have to look at the law. But I cant see why I couldnt.

 

Id be stopped by every game warden I came across, having to explain why Im hunting with an ak, and prove its not a semi auto.

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wow, hunting deer with a 30 carbine sounds awesome. Here in 'communist hunting law PA' (but quite free gun laws), I cant use anything cool.

 

Id love to hunt with my saiga, but I live in PA, which doesnt allow it. I guess I could buy a 74 carrier and not put a piston on it, so It wasnt semi auto, and use my 5rd mag. Id have to look at the law. But I cant see why I couldnt.

 

Id be stopped by every game warden I came across, having to explain why Im hunting with an ak, and prove its not a semi auto.

 

 

Wow, what an idea! Never thought of that! Would it really function ok without the piston?

 

I even have an extra '74 carrier sitting around..

 

 

Yeah, i lived in MD for a while, and would have been completely legal to take my AK out hunting with a 30rnd mag, only reason I didn't was due to one regulation, I didn't have the right ammo. (can't use FMJs, wouldn't want to either).

 

But good luck getting a carry permit, or buying magazines with 20+ capacity. (owning 30rnd ak mags was ok, just not purchased from within the state..)

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Yea man, just dont put the piston on the carrier. Its what pushes back and disengages the locking lugs when the shot is fired. Then pull back the action and let it fly. Of course you would need the spring in. But it would be a good bit faster than a bolt

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  • 3 weeks later...

i haven't seen much testing on any 7.62 rounds.mostly military rounds.which don't seem to be that great except for penetration.soft point bears,wolf 154,wolf military classic hp(the good ones)i have seen one or two tests and they all seem to work some what.you would think the big name gun personalities would bust out some extensive testing with the aks getting so popular these days.

hornpic8078.jpg

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I'm not one for being to picky on ammo, I collect anything that's a deal. Hunting with x39, yeah I'd do it, seen deer taken with it.

Good enough for a man, good enough for an animal. Probable don't add much to the subject but here's an old pic of some rounds recovered from hard targets;

 

bullets.jpg

 

FMJ, Heavy Steel core

Soft Point, German Plastic core

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I tried the Wolf 154 grain soft point in my Saiga and in a CZ 527 carbine. Can't report on groups, but accuracy was so much worse than any of the lighter bullets that the rest of that ammo is now trading/plinking material.

 

I must modify this earlier judgment. Lone Eagle reported this stuff did better in his SKS and SKS Paratroop, so I grabbed a couple of boxes and my Norinco SKS for a range visit Monday. I've got a cheap 4X on top with a lace-on cheekpiece and shot decent groups at 25 and 50 yards with that scope, parallax set to 100 yards, most likely.

 

Just loaded some stripper clips and plan to try the stuff at 100 yards tomorrow, will report when it's done. Have to say, I only make it to the range in about 30% of my planned visits...

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Yeah, I made it to the range today. Great weather, not crowded, some guns shot great!

 

The SKS with the scope did acceptably well at 50 yards with the 154 grain Wolf softpoint, but not at 100. Couldn't get more than 5 rounds off the stripper clips into the 20 round after market fixed magazine. Think I'll put back the original mag.

 

The Paratroop shot it's illuminated sight loose, no joy there, either.

 

Both rifles did, however, function 100% with the heavier grain ammo. Friend with 7.62 barreled Mauser fitted with shell shrinker to take 7.62X39 tried some, and he, too, got increasingly poor accuracy as distance increased.

 

I'll bet that at 65 yards and under this would be a great load for almost anything up to and including moose/mule deer.

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I have an Austraila Internationl Arms M10 and the Wolf 154gn is the only thing it will shoot decently. By that I mean 1" - 1.5" at 100yds. I suspect the barrel is rifled for .308 (since they also made a .308 version) and is about a 1-12 instead of 1-14. It is awesome on deer. But, having said all that, it won't shoot for shit outta my Draco sbr

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