ever seen one? ever fired one, ever own one?

Cz has an excellent one. Sst trigger. Fantastic lil carbine.

Imho, as good a utilitarian bolt action as one could ever hope to find in a production rifle.

http://cz-usa.com/product/cz-527-carbine-223-rem/

Zastava made/makes one (M85), and has been imported by various companies. It's a true mini Mauser.



They also made a full length stock model as well.

CZ's carbine is the cat's nuts. I'm still waiting to get my hands on one of the full-length rifles that came out this year.

The Zastava rifle is pretty good; the Zastava carbine has idiosyncratic feeding habits. In both cases, the extractor doesn't necessarily snap over the extractor groove in the case every time you want it to. I did send the carbine in to CAI to solve the problem but it'll only feed steel cases now. This is much less of a problem with the rifle, however, and I think may be something that just goes away with use. Accuracy with both rifles is good enough for hogs with iron sights but they aren't in the CZ's class.

Still haven't gotten my mitts on a Howa, but the reviews for the 20" bull barrel version are very promising.

Yep. Fired a couple. I plan on buying a CZ 527 Carbine. 7.62x39 makes a nice shorter range hunting round, and a handy little rifle in that caliber would be a nice hog/deer gun.



As noted in an earlier post, the CZ carbine is the current best option. Ruger also used to offer a M77 in 7.62x39, and Savage used to offer a 10FCM Scout. You occasionally still see those on the secondary market.

There were a very small number of converted Enfield No. 4s imported from Australia several years ago. They were chambered in 7.62x39 and fed from AK magazines. I love the idea in theory, but quality was apparently iffy, and there's no support.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,

Being a fan of CZ 22lr, I couldn't resist the 527 when I had the opportunity.

Never saw the draw of x39 bolt action rifles. Always seemed like there was a better caliber for the job.

I had the Ruger 77 and it was not a consistent gun having lots of FTF with obviously the surplus ammo with hard primers. My mini 30 tactical is the same way.

How reliable is the Zastava with surplus Ammo?

I had an Arisaka Type 38 carbine re-chambered in 7.62x39. Probably done by the Chinese or some commies a long time ago. Got it at a gunshot from an old guy that had a table full of of Arisakas. Best price I seen on a Type38 carbine and I snatched it up quickly. Got it home and cleaned it. Tried to chamber a 6.5x50 Japanese round. No dice. Tried everything till I looked at the bore and it dawned on me it was a pretty big hole for a 6.5mm. Ran a bunch of 7.62x39 through it chambered and extracted fine. Never fired it though. I was so pissed I sold it for what I had into it.

The CZ rifle in 7.62x39 has always intrigued me though.

quote:

Originally posted by SigSentry:
Being a fan of CZ 22lr, I couldn't resist the 527 when I had the opportunity.

+1. I have a CZ 452 in .22lr and a CZ 452 Varmint in .17 HMR. Owning a CZ 527 in 7,62 x 39mm was a fait accompli. Also, the CZ 527 is cut to C.I.P. specs and is specifically marketed for use with steel case ammo - of which I have scads.

I could almost see the value of a 7.62×39mm bolt action for about the same reasons I have one in 223 Remington: It’s good practice for shooting heavier cartridges, but for less money and less wear and tear on the shooter. Of course so is a bolt action in .22 rimfire, but not to the same degree for a couple of reasons. It seems to me, though, that the problem with 7.62mm Soviet ammunition is most of the cheap stuff is cheap in more than one way, and I suspect the 223 beats it for practice as well.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I could almost see the value of a 7.62×39mm bolt action for about the same reasons I have one in 223 Remington: It’s good practice for shooting heavier cartridges, but for less money and less wear and tear on the shooter. Of course so is a bolt action in .22 rimfire, but not to the same degree for a couple of reasons. It seems to me, though, that the problem with 7.62mm Soviet ammunition is most of the cheap stuff is cheap in more than one way, and I suspect the 223 beats it for practice as well.

Exactly, when you start feeding it quality ammunition, the cost goes up and then you can probably be shooting a 243 or perhaps 300blk.

That depends on what you're shooting at. The market's slowly shifting to provide more options in cheaper ammo. In Eastern European steel-cased ammo alone, you can get good lead-core copper-jacketed FMJ (Wolf) and good frangible ammo for the larger varmints (UM3HP from Ulyanovsk, sold under the Tula brand). Tula will happily sell you a (relatively slow, of course) 154 grain load that seems to enjoy some popularity on the internutz as a hunting round. Hornady also sells steel-cased loads with both their V-Max and SST bullets for more than sardine can ammo prices but noticeably less than Federal Fusion or Winchester PDX.

At the same time, you'll never find practice ammo for a 243 or 300BLK that's anywhere near as cheap as the factory ammo that a CZ will feed, fire and eject all day long.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
and good frangible ammo for the larger varmints (UM3HP from Ulyanovsk, sold under the Tula brand).

Never heard of UM3HP, but I've had good results with the older Sapsan/Ulyanovsk "8M3 Effect" hollowpoints. Unfortunately, those haven't been available for many years. Luckily, I still have a nice stockpile of several hundred rounds left. If that's the same hollowpoint that Tula is using now, then that's good news.

Also, the 8M3 is not specifically a varmint bullet; I use it on hogs with excellent results. It performs well in defensive ammo testing too. (Unless that was just a play on words, and by "larger varmints" you mean large critters like hogs and bad guys. )

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
Hornady also sells steel-cased loads with both their V-Max and SST bullets

The Hornady SST 7.62x39 is an excellent hunting round, and very reasonably priced. It's my other favorite hog round.

Federal Fusion's 7.62x39 performs well too, but I only have limited experience with it so far. It's more expensive than Hornady or the old Ulyanovsk, but still reasonably priced for premium hunting ammo.

So Il Cattivo is correct. There are a number of good options for reasonably priced factory 7.62x39 hunting ammo. And many more options if you reload.

Whoops! I should've said 8M3HP. It's supposed to be the same as the "Effect" ammo despite the fact that the factory didn't put the word "Effect" anywhere on the box or case label. The box label does say:

7.62x39 8M3
124 gr. HP

and the label pasted on the case adds "Hunting Cartridges".

FWIW, here's the link to SGAmmo's blurb:

http://www.sgammo.com/product/...sk-cartridge-works-u

Having said that, I do maintain that a hog, although occasionally edible and a fine college mascot, still qualifies as one of the "larger varmints". And yeah, I have been considering it as a defensive option since the Yugos seem to like it.

very interesting , thanks for your offerings.

can the o.e.m. sights be removed to get a scope lower , next to the barrel ?

( on the cz )

Yes. The rear sight can be driven out of its dovetail and removed, if needed. The front sight hood and the front sight blade are also removable.

Besides the 527 Carbine in 7.62x39, CZ also now offers the 527 American in 7.62x39. It has a ~3" longer barrel and weighs about a half pound more, but has no iron sights. That might be a better choice, if you plan on removing the iron sights anyway.

http://cz-usa.com/product/cz-527-american/

thank you Rogue

I'm a bit late to this. But I have the CZ. Simply for the reason that when a specific ammo runs poorly for me in another semi platform I put it into the CZ and can tell if its the ammo or the gun. Has been very good for this. The CZ doesn't give a hoot and shoots pretty much everything well enough that I can tell what's up.
YMMV, but its a neat gun.

quote:

Originally posted by 2tonicP220:
Zastava made/makes one (M85), and has been imported by various companies. It's a true mini Mauser.



They also made a full length stock model as well.

I've always been a fan of the Mauser, that is sexy right there ... yeah baby!

And there you have it, my weakness strikes again!