Thread: Sighting in distance for 7.62x39

Hi bought a little jw103 after looking at some ballistic charts looks like I can sight it in to be hitting poa at 25m and it will be good out to a little past 100m what distance are any users of this cal doing oh and I'm using ppc or ppu factory ammo to get some brass

I use mine in the bush. Sighted in for 80 m.i have not taken an animal farther than that so fare.

I zero at 25 or 30 yards. It'll be an inch high at 80, then will cross zero again at about 125 yards, and be 2 inches low at 160.

Have a play around with this chart, adjusting the zero distance to see what effect it has.

http://www.shooterscalculator.com/ba...php?t=5c4ab97c

Adjust the bullet weight and muzzle velocity to whatever is on the packet.

smack bang on at 100yards...dead animal any closer and a little bit low at 150yards any further past that and you better be shooting at pests like hares or wallabies as energy is getting low and a sure kill marginal
I use 125grn .308 nosler ballistic tips in mine and love it to bits as a knock around/bush rifle
Im getting 2-3" groups and cant see any point in tootooing around to get it tighter as its only a 150yard cartridge...and yes Ive taken wallabies out past that 2-300 on good day but we work on lead in air = hope when targeting those Aussie overstayers.

I would zero it at 200 metres, at 100 you should be 50 mm high and at 225m 50 mm low. So on anything bigger than a rabbit your max range without needing to wind elevation on (point blank range) is 225 metres. Still got 8-900 foot pounds energy, plenty for deer.

sierra manual has 125grn sp at 2300fps as the HOTTEST LOAD we will work with that
at muzzle it has 1468ftlbs energy
at 200yards 918ftlbs
if zeroed for 200 it will be 3.3" high at 100yards

MY rifle does a 2-3" group all day long with most any ammo Ive fed it
worst case if sighted as above it pokes a high shot (still within its group) at 100 yards you will sail over the top
if it pokes sideways it should still be ok...but out at 225 if may well be too far back
personal choice and limits apply
MY PERSONAL choice is to limit rifle/cartridge to 150 yards
if using up close in the bush you can switch to 150grn to up penertration but as velocity is still low no matter what you use you have to be cautious and try to place your shot where it will do most good.
I have dropped 4-5 reds on the spot with wee gun so far at bush ranges of 30-70 yards
have fun with it as they a pleasure to shoot,stick a can on it and its a whole new level of fun,use TB subsonics and its like firing a .177 slug gun!!!!!!

yep its mainly for my daughter to learn with and i was needing a new project i can see me using it as my bush gun as well are you using a jw103 if so do you use steel cased ammo in it ive heard it can break the extractor ive got a spare one for it 100m is the max i would want her to be shooting at an animal at this stage preferably closer as i want to teach her stalking skills as well

I bought a couple of boxes of factory to get me started reloading,got given 2 boxes of norinco which took care of a few wallabies. yip breaking extractor seems to be a common issue but guys are making replacements...I haven't had that issue YET cross fingers touch wood I wont.
Norinco china sport is one I wont use again as I saw a round that had a sliver of case metal folded back inside case neck...I can only imagine the pressure as that round was fired (lucky it was in bro in laws Bakail brick shithouse.
I too originally bought rifle to get child shooting,I own a neat wee .223 but feel this round is better option for close range as a bit more forgiving.
mine got pruned down to 16" and wears a gunworks Spartan can hard up against the docked forestock. as short as std but much quieter.
the hornady loaded with AMAX/SST would be a great bulk ammo to use, they say the zombie load is AMAX in this calibre so should be great,Im happy with the nosler BTs and cant see anything else doing better performance wise..maybe tighten groups if using .310 size but as 150 is my max range 2-3" is ample good enough.

My uncle uses an old Ruger mini30 for the bush. he uses 125 Nosler ballistic tip projectiles in it. They work great at that lower speed. many rusa, reds and pigs all have met their demise to that rusted up old semi.

I am shooting a AR in 7.62x39 fitted with a Leupold 1-4 with a Firedot SPR reticle and suppressor. Ammo is Highland 123gr PSP zeroed at 100m. Muzzle velocity over the chrono is 710m/sec (2329 f/sec).
Ballistic table and reticle calibrations are as below.
Out to 145m you rise and fall no more than 2", and you maintain very close to the 'magical' 1000ft/lb of energy at impact if you behold to that frame of mind.

If you are reloading, one thing to consider regarding projectiles, is try and select something that is designed for the 7.62x39 velocities. A lot of the projectiles out there have optimal expansion velocities that exceed the downrange impact velocity achievable in the 7.62.39, and hence the don't perform that well (poor expansion). This has been the main issue with the 300BLK - all the projectiles out there are designed to perform at higher velocities and the 300BLK can't push them fast enough to get expansion.

Ive just got back from the range from playing with my suppressed 7.62x39 AR15. Even though my bore is .310 it shoots .308 bullets very well.
I tried the 110gr sierra hp, 130gr speer hp and the 125gr Targex hp (all .308 bullets) then tried the 123gr speer sp and the 123gr hornady sst (.310) i loaded them with the same 28.5gr of AR2219 and they all grouped the same 1" @ 100m. The speeds were down a bit around 2130fps but i can live with that for now.
I sighted in at 100m and figure any thing past 150-175 will be safe from me.
The big surprise was some sub sonic loads i tried. 180gr sst and the 194gr Lehigh @ 1078 and 1029fps resp. the little gun never missed a beat, it cycled perfectly each shot. The sst load shot well but the 194gr didnt stabilize, i will take that one on the chin as every thing else i tried worked well from my stock standard Windham SRC

Took it out for a quick try yesterday got it spot on at 25 then tried it at 100 and it was spot on there as well without really trying and rushing as it was starting to piss down it did a 3 shot group at 2 inches then the rain fuked any more shooting the little jw surprised me actually had a pretty good trigger and accuracy was above expectations I think I'll keep it