Author Topic: 7.62x39 for deer hunting (Read 438 times)

levi joseph · « **on:** November 23, 2005, 07:29:17 AM »

hello all,
I'm making my first post so bear with me. I have purchased a cz527 carbine in 7.62x39 and really love this gun,however I killed a deer with it last saturday and made a good heart shot and the bullet passed all the way thru but I got no blood. The deer only ran 30 to 35 yards and piled up but I am concerned about their being no blood trail at all. I back tracked him just to see and their was none at all . This is something I cannot live with, if I have to put this gun back on the shelf so be it. The question I want to ask is any one here loading for this caliber and if so what kind of results on game are you getting and what bullets are you using. The shells I was hunting with consisted of the winchester soft point bullet over a charge of IMR 4198 weight of which I cant recall off the top of my head cause I'm not at home and cant access my notes on this load. I do remember it was about mid-range of what was listed in the book. They will reliably cycle the action on a sks. I reload for this gun For the reason of enjoying reloading not to save money as I do with my handguns. I have a friend who has hunted with a sks quit a bit and has taken several deer with it and some of those I was around to inspect the results and The deer I seen Him shoot have all left decent blood trails {The one that ran at all}and he was shooting the cheap import ammo. Does anyone recommend switching to this ammo. Cause I heard the primer can be hard and misfires have occurred. don't want that to happen while hunting!!! any suggestions are welcome

Thanks levi

Mikey · « **Reply #1 on:** November 23, 2005, 08:42:15 AM »

levi - did you slip that slug between its ribs? If so, it wouldn't really matter what ammo or load you may have been using. Apparently the bullet did its job as the animal piled up quickly. You often get blood trails when you bust through ribs on the off-side leaving a lot of exit wound damage or if the bullet has upset while coarsing through the body and exits keyholed, leaving a much larger exit wound, and often an attendant blood trail.

One of our other forums has a thread about the same problem with the 6.5 Swede, so the problem may not be that uncommon. HTH. Mikey.

R.W.Dale · « **Reply #2 on:** November 23, 2005, 11:40:40 AM »

I have the little CZ carbine in this caliber I have had exactly 2 misfires in a couple of hundred rounds of imported ammo in fact I've had more misfires using handloads with those infernal CCI primers. I had the exact oppisite problem you have had. Saturday I put a seirra 150gr SP in the lungs of a doe about 80yds out I got great blood right from the start but after about 200yds of tracking the trail kinda petered out :oops: I have yet to find the doe.

FYI the Wolf 154gr sp loading is very accurate in my rifle with a velocity of 2150 FPS average.

Redhawk1 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 23, 2005, 12:00:50 PM »

Quote from: levi joseph

hello all,
I'm making my first post so bear with me. I have purchased a cz527 carbine in 7.62x39 and really love this gun,however I killed a deer with it last saturday and made a good heart shot and the bullet passed all the way thru but I got no blood. The deer only ran 30 to 35 yards and piled up but I am concerned about their being no blood trail at all. I back tracked him just to see and their was none at all . This is something I cannot live with, if I have to put this gun back on the shelf so be it. The question I want to ask is any one here loading for this caliber and if so what kind of results on game are you getting and what bullets are you using. The shells I was hunting with consisted of the winchester soft point bullet over a charge of IMR 4198 weight of which I cant recall off the top of my head cause I'm not at home and cant access my notes on this load. I do remember it was about mid-range of what was listed in the book. They will reliably cycle the action on a sks. I reload for this gun For the reason of enjoying reloading not to save money as I do with my handguns. I have a friend who has hunted with a sks quit a bit and has taken several deer with it and some of those I was around to inspect the results and The deer I seen Him shoot have all left decent blood trails {The one that ran at all}and he was shooting the cheap import ammo. Does anyone recommend switching to this ammo. Cause I heard the primer can be hard and misfires have occurred. don't want that to happen while hunting!!! any suggestions are welcome

Thanks levi

First off Welcome to Graybeard.

Not all deer you shoot will leave a blood trail right away. I have shot deer that have left a big blood trail and I have shot deer that have left none, using the same bullet. It all comes down to how far up you hit, how much damage you caused and so on. If the deer only went 30 to 35 yards, it might not of had time to drip blood. Sounds like the bullet did its job, the deer was kill very quickly. JMHO

jerkface11 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 23, 2005, 12:47:53 PM »

I wouldn't blame the gun. I put a .50 cal muzzel loader bullet thru both lungs and one chamber of the heart and the deer ran off. She barely left a blood trail. Luckily she ran towards a road and dropped dead in almost in the ditch.

sgtt · « **Reply #5 on:** November 23, 2005, 06:03:18 PM »

These are neat little guns. My daughter has been using the Wolf 154's and they are accurate. Has anyone had any results with this bullet?

levi joseph · « **Reply #6 on:** November 23, 2005, 06:06:32 PM »

Thanks for the replys, I didn't think about at the time but what mikey said about it not hitting a rib could be the answer. I usually try to break a shoulder when shooting a deer I prefer to lose a little meat than lose a animal. But this one I did hit right behind the shoulder and exited thru the meat of the leg on the off side with no big bone hit. I know it wasn't the guns fault but this was my first deer shot with this caliber and the bullet performance made me a little nervous. I think I will try to test some more bullets out this winter on a few yotes if I'am lucky enough. Those 154 gr wolfs sound like something worth trying. I like the thought of a little more weight in my bullets for this gun. thanks again guys

Levi

Leftoverdj · « **Reply #7 on:** November 24, 2005, 12:51:11 PM »

I'm also shooting a CZ 452 carbine. I get some misfires with the Russian stuff and a lot of misfires with UMC. My handloads work perfectly.

I'm not much of a hunter and have no game reports, but a load I like a lot is 28 grains of H-322 under the Sierra .311 150 grain bullet. Takes a drop tube to get it in the case, but it's worth the effort. Excellent accuracy and 2200 fps.