Not sure on the battle zero. As for ammo, I only run brass case in any of my guns, which includes AK, SKS, and mini’s. I handload, but for factory I shoot Hornady SST’s and Norma tactical. Both brass case reloadable brass at “standard” ballistics.

 

+1 on .308 Hornady SST's for accuracy. Hornady has ammo loaded with SSTs. Reloads with SSTs in a Ruger American 762x39 shoot really well. IIRC Hornady used to have some steel cased, but pretty sure they have brass-cased.

But who knows: I've heard of cheap Tula or Wolf ammo shooting the best in some rifles, so I'd try some of that as well.

Individual rifle will show what works in it. I'd think possibility of variance would be especially true for an older, foreign-made SKS (.311 barrel + or minus?).

Not sure about AK battle zero. Army friend zeros his M16 at 25 yards, if that helps.

 

Battle Sight Zero (BZO) for the AK is 25 yards. It will put you on.....plus or minus a few inches......for the practical range of the cartridge. There are many You Tubes on the subject. Sights on the SKS might be different. I'm not familiar with them. Trajectory of the round should be similar.

Here's a good one..... the guy is retired military and was an instructor in the sandbox.

If you can order from Target Sports.....buy a case of the Barnaul Spam Can they have advertised. Steel case military over run from the Russian Barnaul Plant made for the military in Belarus. The stuff is hot and accurate.

If you only want a little and are set on brass cased........ try and get your hands on some Igman. Brass cased, it shot very accurate in my Mini. The best brass cased bang for the buck on the market IMO.

The Sellier & Bellot Tactical is also very good. Headspaced longer than most but should work fine in the SKS.

Going rate for x39mm is expensive. .45 cents a round and up for steel case. Any brass cased I can find is running .70 cents a round and up. Let me know how you make out.

Bepe

 

Oddly, Wolf Polyformance 7.62X39 HP ammo is exceptionally accurate in my Ruger American Ranch but that may be less and less relevant as time passes since russian ammo has been banned. That said, there seems to a lot of Wolf ammo still offered for sale.

For accuracy, I have found Hornady 123gr SST ammo to be best. I still have a stash of the old steel case/SST bullet Hornady ammo squirreled away but I reserve it for hunting.

Hornady offers this bullet in brass case ammo and I think I recently got a notification from Graf's that it is (may was, now) in stock. I would pay more for accurate ammo and if I need more X39 ammo, it will be the Hornady 123gr. SST ammo.

Bepe made mention above about Barnaul in a spam can. It might be wise to put some away while it is possible. I don't know what the future may bring but I would rather have it stashed away than not. In any event, I think Barnaul is some of the better russian ammo.

 

Bepe made mention above about Barnaul in a spam can. It might be wise to put some away while it is possible. I don't know what the future may bring but I would rather have it stashed away than not. In any event, I think Barnaul is some of the better russian ammo.

Technically the "Barnaul" that Target has advertised is not Barnaul. It is military spec ammo made for Belarus at the Russian Barnaul Plant.

It is hot and the most accurate steel case I have fired. Non corrosive, FMJ bullet it compares to the Hornady SST steel case in accuracy, except it has way more juice. I've shot a few cases of the Hornady. Only thing I don't like about the Hornady for SHTF is the poly tipped bullet in an auto loader. Nice stuff in a bolt action.

The "Barnaul" comes in the spam can with the rounds bagged in plain 20 round wrappers. No advertising whatsoever. I researched the headstamp and found out what it is. I was reading a review on Target and a buyer was crying that it was not real Barnaul ammo. WHO CARES!!!!! Obviously the guy hadn't shot any because the stuff is 5x better than real Barnaul.

Bepe

 

BOB.....here's a ballistic chart for a 25 yard zero @ 2350 fps. Should give you an idea. If you are shooting higher velocity ammo the data will vary, naturally.

Bepe

 

Of the minor details that are very important , in the chart above . it is using the default 1.5 inches for line of sight above bore center . This is a close approximation for typical scoped bolt action hunting rifle .

Iron sights can be half that
AR and such like can be twice that .

Measure the actual height of the Tech Sites over bore center , and plug into any of the plethora of online trajectory calculators .

 

Oddly, Wolf Polyformance 7.62X39 HP ammo is exceptionally accurate in my Ruger American Ranch but that may be less and less relevant as time passes since russian ammo has been banned. That said, there seems to a lot of Wolf ammo still offered for sale.

For accuracy, I have found Hornady 123gr SST ammo to be best. I still have a stash of the old steel case/SST bullet Hornady ammo squirreled away but I reserve it for hunting.

Hornady offers this bullet in brass case ammo and I think I recently got a notification from Graf's that it is (may was, now) in stock. I would pay more for accurate ammo and if I need more X39 ammo, it will be the Hornady 123gr. SST ammo.

Bepe made mention above about Barnaul in a spam can. It might be wise to put some away

 

Oddly, Wolf Polyformance 7.62X39 HP ammo is exceptionally accurate in my Ruger American Ranch

My experience with my American Ranch....... is that it shot most everything very accurate.

That said....you are 100% correct about ammo accuracy being gun specific. What shoots well in my gun, may not shoot well in yours.

Bepe

 

Must be non-corrosive

I think I have seen some corrosive ammo offered on SGAmmo. I think it was described as Yugoslavian and I speculate it may have some age on it. In any event, I have not bought such and won't. Just a cautionary comment.

 

I think you need to watch this. 7.62x39 Ammo Selection - YouTube

 

Interesting video. I forgot to mention the Belom. It also has a reputation for good accuracy. I think it won the accuracy test. Interesting on the Wolf. Highest velocity and worst accuracy.

While informative.....the accuracy portion only applies to Harrell's AK.

I shot this target at 100 yards with my Zastava and the "Barnaul" overrun. A few loosy goosy, but all in all, a respectable showing for steel case and an AK. 5 inch bull and a red dot for an optic, which probably helped.

The Sellier & Bellot Tactical shot a one hole group from my CZ600 Trail. @ 50 yards. One of the worst in Harrell's testing.

So basically comes down to what was mentioned. What one gun likes.....another may not.

Bepe

 

@Biggfoot44.5 foot......correct. I didn't plug the info in, only copied from a previous post a few years back on PU Forum. Just passing it along to Bob as a baseline.

I have found that information to be very close with irons. Especially considering the accuracy limitation as compared to a scope.

Bepe

 

Fiocchi.

 

The link above in post #11 had Harrell testing several brands of x39mm ammo. Accuracy and velocity. Fiocchi was included in the test batch. The Fiocchi was clocked at 1900 something FPS and the accuracy was in the bottom tier. Every brand of ammo tested had an average of at least 2200 fps or better. A few averaged up in the 2300's. 400 FPS faster than the Fiocchi.

Belom was near the top in both accuracy and velocity. That was out of Harrell's AK.

Bepe

 

Three rounds of Fiocchi, 100 yards. And that is a dime, not a quarter.

Reasonably priced, functions flawlessly.

 

@RIBob .......Bob....where are you? Drop the inquiry and then go AWOL.

Bepe

 

Sorry. Still reading and learning.

 

And you are using a single person's data point on velocity.

Bottom line, 99% of the time the gun is not the limiting factor on accuracy, much less the ammo. It is what is behind the gun.

 

I wasn't using a "single persons" data point.......I was referring to what his "chrono" recorded for an 8 shot average. Considering the chrono recorded velocities in the "average" range with all the other examples of ammo......I don't think it was faulty with the Fiocchi numbers.

No where in my posts did I say that the "gun is the limiting factor on accuracy". I said that accuracy of a certain ammo will vary from gun to gun. What shoots stellar out of one gun might shoot horrible out of another.

If you watched part two of Harrell's testing you would have seen a prime example. He brought a second AK to the testing. Fired groups from the two rifles with the same ammo. Accuracy varied significantly between the two.

And as far as the shooter being the bottom line on accuracy......that statement couldn't be further from the truth. Shoot ammo the gun doesn't like and the best gun or shooter in the world isn't going to get top performance.

Here's a good example of that from last weeks range trip. Federal and Winchester ammo shot from my PCC9. The gun liked the Federal ....didn't like the Winchester. As far as I remember it was me shooting both groups......same shooter.....same gun.

Seems you want to misquote peoples posts or change the meaning of their text for the sake of argument. Things are getting ridiculous once again.

Enough of a thread drift on Bobs thread.

Bepe

 

New member here but have been lurking on this site and long time member on other Mini sites. Good to see some old familiar user names still around. Lots of knowledge there.

I have to comment on oldag's post above about velocity of Fiocchi x39. Sandog did a bunch of ammo testing some years ago. He found the same low velocity with Fiocchi. I would assume these two tests were done at such a different time that the samples were nowhere near the same lot from Fiocchi. So, this wasn't just a rare "bad" batch.
I don't have a way to measure velocity but I did notice that my shots with Fiocchi printed about 1 1/2 inchs lower than Win. white box (but tighter groups) at 100 yards.

 

Sandog did a bunch of ammo testing some years ago. He found the same low velocity with Fiocchi.

THANK YOU.....you saved me searching the PU Forum. I recalled Sandogs testing and also remembered that it included the Fiocchi and was far below standard back then. I literally was going to the PU Forum when I read your post.

Harrells chrono was accurate with all the other brands of ammo. While it could have been a bad box of Fiocchi......I was thinking back on that test circa 2017 area or around then.

While good accuracy is certainly possible in some guns, the ammo is still sub par as far as velocity. NOT on my shopping list.

Welcome to the Forum. What took you so long? Good to have you back.

As you know......many refugees from the PU are here.

Bepe

 

Check PSA.

 

I don't have a dog in this fight. X39 that is, but to be honest, I'd only buy steel case ammo (not that much) for some target/practice shooting. I'm a firm believer in BRASS Boxer primed ammo. IF I had and shoot that caliber, I want 'reloadable cases, not one & done ammo'. IMO, that's just me, no matter the caliber.

 

All depends on the gun. My Zastava AK gets only steel cased. That is what it was designed for and it digests it reliably.

My Mini 30 gets only brass cased. While it will shoot steel....I don't. Same with the CZ x39mm bolt guns. Brass only for them. If an emergency the Mini and CZ's can fire steel. Not on their regular diet.

The OP RIBob is gearing up for his SKS. That also was designed for steel. Not a problem if he is wanting brass.

Some AK's and variants can be extremely hard on brass, making it almost unusable after one firing. More so if they are overgassed. The other day at the range there was 100 brand new Belom x39mm cases laying in the dirt. I actually scrounged them up and brought them home. Inspection showed they were mangled. The primers had the telltale AK square firing pin indent. They were beyond help. (one and done) Under those circumstances the brass cased ammo is basically a waste.

Bepe

 

Me I use steel case tula in my sks, and ak's. Have the mojo rear click sight on my sks. I save the brass reloads, that were winchester white box ammo I bought, then fired. I use a 123 nosler varmageddon in that with H322 in my mini 30 with great results.

Zero all mine at 100 yards.

 

I haven't weighed in until now because I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what an SKS thread is doing in the Mini-14/Mini-30 forum.

I have no idea what to recommend for an SKS, but I guess this has turned into a general 7.62x39 thread. So I can say Fiocchi was pretty awful in my Mini-30.

Terrible groups (if you can call them groups) and the lowest velocity for x39 I've ever registered over my Chrony. Barely 2000 fps.

I was disappointed because I have Fiocchi 357 Magnum that I like a lot, even though its velocity is about 200 fps below advertised. Fiocchi uses a 10-inch barrel for testing revolver cartridges rather than 4-inch.

Maybe they use a different length barrel than the 20-inch standard for testing 7.62x39 as well. Whatever it is I'll never buy that stuff again. Glad I only had 40 rounds of it.

And what Bepe said. Something that performs great in one gun might not in another. Vympel Golden Tiger and Barnaul Silver Bear have given me great groups in my Mini-30 and sub MOA groups in my CZ 527 bolt gun, but YMMV.

 

I haven't weighed in until now because I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what an SKS thread is doing in the Mini-14/Mini-30 forum.

Yes , this is a Ruger centric forum . But we also discuss lots of ammo , ballistics , shooting and carry techniques, and so forth generally, so long as the topic at least tangents also touches upon a Ruger product .

With my SKS ( Poly Tech , came to me with fixed aftermarket stock , and cheap red dot . The dust cover with built-in scope base rattled on the gun., red dots don't play well with astigmatism, and the red dot ultimately failed . Some day to come , I will finally play with my 7.62 AR upper .

Generic FMJ all gave 2- 2.5 in at 100 yds. I declared that was within both original application criteria, and within my expectations. My limiting factor was the optic , and probably would have done better with irons .

My shooting / hunting partner #2 had an early Mini 30 , and did better with his handloads with hunting bullets. But I don't recall his loads off the top of my head .

 

Steel options abound but the “best“ milsurp x39 is the brass-case M67 IMO. Post 90’s stuff made by PPU is non-corrosive and occasionally available at good prices, albeit not as cheap as steel.

 

Well, I’ll throw in my two cents worth (yes it’s overpriced advice). I am far from an expert on 7.62x39. I can say this based on a bunch of different ammunition, several AKs, several SKSs and exactly one Mini 30…the Mini 30 is in a different league. Maybe I spent more time with my Mini, maybe it is using glass optics, maybe my shooting improved (nope).

I love my Mini. I wouldn’t use anything else to launch commie rounds at enemy deer.

PS - my somewhat extensive Mini 30/ammo test revealed two standouts; Belom and Herters branded mystery steel case stuff.

 

And in fairness to Harrell , he always very carefully disclaims his pictured results are that lot of ammunition , thru his gun(s) , his chrono , that particular set of environmental conditions, etc , and may not represent results with other guns , equipment, or conditions.

7.62x39 is blessed with large differences between guns , and between different ammunition. More than most calibers, in 7.62x39 you really do need to test everything in Your gun .

 

And in fairness to Harrell , he always very carefully disclaims his pictured results are that lot of ammunition , thru his gun(s) , his chrono , that particular set of environmental conditions, etc , and may not represent results with other guns , equipment, or conditions.

7.62x39 is blessed with large differences between guns , and between different ammunition. More than most calibers, in 7.62x39 you really do need to test everything in Your gun .

Not for nothing, but Paul Harrel has said he has been diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, so his future vids are problematic. Never seen anyone go through 2 years after being so diagnosed, many folks suffering a shorter time. My Dad died from pancreatic cancer.

As far as I am concerned, looking for Mil-spec, non-corrosive, reloadable 7.62x39 ammo. Suggestions requested.

 

Love mine, yugo 59/66. I do not believe in aftermarket stocks, the aftermarket mags are crap, perfer the traditional version, with the improved mojo click sight that's elevation and windage adjustable.

AK – SKS – VZ58 | Mojo Sights

Mojo Sights - Peep Sights by Mojo Sighting Systems

www.mojosights.com

 

This is what I use then reload.

Winchester 7.62 x 39 mm Russian 123-Grain Full Metal Jacket Ammunition - 20 Rounds | Academy

Winchester 7.62 x 39 mm Russian 123-Grain Full Metal Jacket Ammunition - 20 Rounds is crafted for consistent performance and ideal for target shooting or practice. ...

www.academy.com

 

 

Hmmm... "Mini 13". You and Joe been talkin?