Hey all,

I harvested a deer this fall with my CZ in 7.62x39 using the PPU 123gr LRN. Distance was 20 yards on a 145# buck broad side shot that went through the top of the heart and lungs. Deer jumped up, smashed his nose into the ground then ran about 10 yards before falling down. The bullet hit one rib on the way in and one on the way our before lodging in the off side shoulder (it exited the chest cavity). The bullet core separated from the jacket but both were recovered in the off shoulder meat weighting 84GR. So a loss of 39GR and a jacket separation. The bullet did its job but not with the best of performance. All in all, not a bad bullet. Accuracy was good on range tests, being 1" @ 100yards. Buy some if you're the type to hunt with a 7.62x39.

--MK25

When the younger son was doing the youth deer hunt he always like to use unusual arms. He only used the scoped 243 on his first hunt.

Later he was using an AK of sorts, open sights. I did source some ammo with adequate hunting bullets, Hornady I believe. He did get a deer, one shot, very modest range.

It sounds like your shot placement was great, which is most of the equation. With the 762x39, one needs to use a hunting bullet.

I've had good success taking a bunch of hogs with 7.62x39, using either Hornady SST hollowpoints or the old Russian 8m3 hollowpoints from back when you could still get them.

If they work on hogs, they can easily take deer. (At ranges reasonable for 7.62x39...)

Ballistics are similar to the venerable .30-30, which has probably taken more deer than every other caliber put together.

I haven't tried any PPU, but it's noteworthy that they produce a number of oddball or obsolete less common cartridges. A place to go if you want, for example, 9.3x62, 7.65 Argentine Mauser, 7.92x33 Kurz, 7.62 Nagant, 9mm Browning Long, et al.