after a lousy winter, with nothing to do but wait for spring, i picked up a 7.63 x 39 handi at the local gun shop. paid $229 plus tax and shipping for it. it was a little bit cheaper at walmart and i probably overpaid but i refuse to buy anything at walmart any more. sorry, but walmart is nothing more than a retail outlet for china which is probably why they won't be selling handi's any more (well, maybe the pump...)
so the 7.62 x 39 looks like a overall lousy cartridge except maybe for interior ballistics. being the parent for a few good cartridges, it may have promise for narrow spreads in velocity, but i think it will end there.
the plan is to shoot cast 110 grain gas checked lyman spire points in this gun, i may also try the 130 grain round nose lyman still offers if i can't tame the 110 gr.
for optics, i picked up a "barska" 6-24 x 42mm varmint scope with a mil dot. keeping in stride with the 7.62 x 39 russian motif, barska sounded russian to me, but then i noticed the "made in china" declaration on the box after i got home. earler in the day i picked up simmons 30mm red-dot but the screw centers on the mount didn't line up with the slots on the scope rail.
this should be a fun spring project gun once i move back to the lake.
sg
