It’s the ammo, stupid.
Many years back I acquired a 93 Mauser, or at least several component parts therof. The previous owner had put his hands on an octagonal muzzleloader barrel of 45 caliber and had intended to use it to make a 45-70 bolt action. Thankfully, he passed on before he could perpetrate this grenade on anyone.
As it was, the receiver is not particularly pretty, and the turned down bolt handle I have for it is not pretty either, but a little garnet blast will, I’m sure, make it good enough for my purposes.
Knowing the inherent strengths (Or, well, weaknesses) of the 93 mau, I originally thought about a quarter incher, but you can even find hot factory loads in 257 Roberts, so I cast about for a cartridge. Turns out that the 7.62 x 39 is a common rebarrel for these, the max loads well under the safety factor for the action, and Numrich had a kit!
So I saved my nickles and dimes and bought one. Pitiably, they are no longer available, because it was a nice kit. You got a new magazine spring and follower, and a magazine spacer. The spacer is a tight fit in the magazine, the follower fits in like the original, and the barrel is short chambered.
Thus was the Commie Cannon project born. A couple months ago I took it to my friend’s shop where he had collets that would hold that barrel snug, and I reamed the chamber to match the receiver. Headspace is dead on commercial spec. I wrung the receiver in place on the barrel while it was still in the lathe, and put it together. We shot a handful of rounds through it to make sure it wasn’t going to explode, and then I drilled it and tapped it for scope rings. I put a cheap scope on it, loaned to me, and a tinmey trigger, and took it out and shot it.
And then hid it in the garage for a couple months. I knew the barrel could shoot better than I was shooting, and I just naturally assumed it was me. I have been quite busy but finally last weekend I put a better scope on it (A Bushnell Buckmaster, the scope that has been on my meat gun for many years) and went back to the range.
I sighted down the barrel to get the shots on paper, and I refuse to show you what I shot with the Tulammo at 100 yards, I will not do it. I have deleted the picture from my phone, so there. Then I shot the Wolf ammo, and it seemed to get some better, but I thought I should still be able to do much better than that at 100 yards, I know these barrels are well made.
Those squares are an inch. At 100 yards, this is pathetic. I could probably throw stones. And I throw like a girl.
I checked and rechecked everything, and shot five more rounds, and they were just as disappointing. But hell, I thought, it is probably me, I’ve probably totally lost it. “Try some of this Remington” Werner says, and I load five rounds, and do this:
That group is just a tad under an inch center to center, of the widest shots. And I shot three more that looked just like it. Back to the Wolf, and it sprayed lead everywhere.
So now I’m gonna find a stock a little nicer than the bubbaed 93 original, and blue it, and make it all come together. it may end up being my new meat gun now that the law has changed. I felt a lot better knowing the ammo was the problem, and it was a solvable problem.
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If that top target has five shots through it, it looks like the bullets were tumbling when they hit it.
Several years ago I bought a metric buttload of reloading gear from Midway Arms and took my change in Wolf 150 gr. 7.62×39. I fired about 50 rounds of it in my Yugo SKS that I had whittled the grenade launcher, bayonet and mounts off of, cutting the barrel about 1.5″ shorter and making the thing a quick change strait pull or semi-auto and light as a Win. M94. I will put the Wolf bullets into a 6″ paper plate all day if the driver pays attention. Now, 6″ isn’t to get all wound up over but a 150 gr soft point into the boiler room of a Coast Blacktail deer puts it down with prejudice. I like that POS Yugo sks and with the 275 rounds I still have and the hairbrush like foliage in the area I have access to, I’ll be eating venison until I kick the bucket. BTW I paid less than $50 for the SKS on my C&R license and it looked unfired. I bought three so I could re-model one, put one in the rack to admire and one to trade off.
Gerry N.
Yeah, that’s about how my old yugo used to shoot. Fun gun for the money.
Until you start testing different brands and bullet weights, as well as reloading, most people don’t understand the relevance of ammo.
That’s my next deal, to test a box of the major brands.
“Minute of SUV” is bandied about by some folk in terms of 7.62×39 accuracy, but a lot of it is the shooter.
You might try the 154 Gr Soft Points before you get too crazy with reloading, they seem to be much more accurate than the standard FMJ and HP TulAmmo sold at ChinaMart.
I’ve got a buttload of them from the first Panic back in the early 2000’s when standard FMJ jumped from $80 a thousand up to over 150…and the SP rounds were still running just around 100. Bunch of guys bought them for “Blaster” rounds “cause it’s cheaper”. I bought some to have…it’s more accurate and, well, its a Soft Point.
Yeah, I’m gonna try to get a box of each and see what does what best.
Had a Ruger M77 Bolt Action in 270 Winchester that pulled the same stunt… It absolutely would not group Remington ammo regardless of bullet weight but thought Winchester White Box 130gr PSP were gumdrops.. Shot such tight groups with it that I didn’t even bother to try improving the groups by reloading
Ammo is a key spec for most shooting irons.
I used to have a Mini-30. Unbeknownst to me when I bought it, it was designed for the US version of 7.62×39, which mikes .308. Commie ammo mikes .311. Slug your barrel & measure. If you have a .308 barrel, load .308, and NOT East Bloc ammo in that rifle. If you have a .311 barrel, find the best commie ammo you can.
When I got the AR, I wanted to see how the steel-case stuff would work; nothing I’d want to use in it regularly, but if had to wanted to know if it’d work.
Wolf worked. Gave 3-4″ groups at 50 yards, but it did work. Using PMC ammo or good handloads, I do my part and the rifle will shoot 1″ groups or a little over at 100, and on good days I’ve had three-shot cloverleafs.
Oddly, the same ammo in a Yugo SKS will break clay pigeons at 100 every time…