Art
01-25-2011, 06:59
Our son just got transferred from Minot AFB in North Dakota to Randolph AFB in San Antonio...Yeah!!
While he was in Minot he bought a little present for himself at the BX. A Roumainian PSL-54 C clone imported by Centuy. I've heard a lot about these weapons, some good, some not so good, so I was thrilled to get to go to the range with him to sight it in :headbang:
The rifle appears to have all new Romainian GI parts except of course the aftermarket reciever. the mechanics are almost pure AK 47 just upscaled for the 7.62x54r round. The finish is quite nice and the wood is very pretty. The fit leaves something to be desired but hey, "beauty is as beauty does." This rifle has the bayonet attachment and the standard AK bayonette attaches nicely. The magazine is very robust and has a little half moon cut out half way down the feed lips the rim of the cartridge fits in when it is pushed down into the magazine. It is then pushed back. This makes double feeds with the rimmed ammo almost impossible unless one deliberately defeats the system.
The scope is a very veteran Romainian PSO that the tritium has long since departed to radiation heaven on.
We bought 60 rounds of Wolf commercial light ball (148gr spitzer @ about 2880 fps) which is the recommended round for this weapon. Heavy ball is supposed to be too hard on the action and the Wolf was non corrosive so what the heck, we spent a few more shekels and went with it.
After checking out the rifle and lubing it we took off to my gun club. First we calibrated the system at 25 yards with the deflection set on zero and the elevation set for 100 meters. This is done by adjusting the top turret adjustment which works just like a Leupold scope adjustment while the lower turret rings (the knurling of which does double duty as the index marks) stays locked in position. The upper part of the turret(s) are locked by two set screws that are losened to calibrate it.
We started off about 6" low and about 8" left but after about 15 to 20 rounds we had the rifle hitting about 1/2" high and centered. We then moved off to a sillouette target at 100 meters. It took about 10 more rounds to get the rifle perfectly zeroed at 100 meters with the elevation turret set for 100 meters and the deflection turret set for "0." During this time our son shot one group that measured 1 5/8" at 100 meters using the Wolf commercial ball. Once we got the system calibrated we locked down the set screws and went to work.
Once calibrated at 100 meters we moved the target to 200 yards, the farthest available on the range at the moment. I dialed the elevation turret to "2" and voila the first round hit dead center. Whopee it actually worked the way it was supposed to. Our son fired off about 15 rounds in fairly rapid succession. There was some stringing as the barrel heated up but nothing too bad.
After I found two loose rounds we had missed and decided to try a clay pigeon lying on the 200 yard birme. I centered the chevron on the clay pigeon and just missed. The second shot hit the clay pigeon dead center. Not bad for a DM rifle and plain old Russian ball ammo.
Impressions of the rifle, good and bad:
1. It is more than accurate enough to fulfill the designated marksman role it was primarily intended for with ball ammunition. I'm sure it would drive tacks with better ammo. Even with ball it should be accurate enough to take out man sized targets cleanly between 500 and 700 meters depending on the skill of the user and quality of the ammunition.
2. Good, it is very reliable and handled feeding, extraction and ejection without a hiccup.
Bad the only correct ammo is Com Bloc light ball or equivalent and other loads can really be hard on the weapon. Non corrosive light ball while not prohibitive cost us $16.00 per box. sometimes the rifle would not feed a single round from the magazine reliably but if two or more were loaded, no problem.
3. Good, felt recoil to us was no heavier than an M-16 due to the weapon's weight, over 12 pounds loaded and a very efficient muzzle brake.
Bad, it is loud, very loud indeed and the Russians still don't believe in flash retardents. We were shooting at 2 in the afternoon and the flash driven out the sides by the muzzle brake I swear rivaled that of a Nagant carbine. At night you'd be visible for miles shooting this thing.
4. Good, the trigger pull is military two stage about 4 pounds. It made my M1 we shot later, which has a quite nice trigger, feel like an absolute beast by comparison.
Bad, the second stage is about 2 lb I figure and if you take up the slack a bit to enthusiastically the weapon can go off a bit sooner than intended. It also has some nasty trigger slap.
5. Good, the Wolf ammo didn't have that nasty Com Bloc smell and was cleaner than most Com Bloc ammo I've fired. It was also more than adequately accurate in this rifle.
Bad, it was still a much tougher clean up job than U.S. or Western European ammo.
6. Good, the optics are excellent, very clear and the reticle is much better than I thought it would be. The rubber eyepiece forces the exact eye relief. Adjustments are very precise and the calibration system seems to work as advertised. More on this when the 600 yard range opens at my club. I could find no downside on the scope system. A variety of Russian scopes are available in this system in a variety of powers and our son says one may be in his future, maybe a 2x-6x with a battery iluminated reticle.
After shooting the PSL-54 C we put a few clips through my trusty Danish return M1 and headed to the house.
While he was in Minot he bought a little present for himself at the BX. A Roumainian PSL-54 C clone imported by Centuy. I've heard a lot about these weapons, some good, some not so good, so I was thrilled to get to go to the range with him to sight it in :headbang:
The rifle appears to have all new Romainian GI parts except of course the aftermarket reciever. the mechanics are almost pure AK 47 just upscaled for the 7.62x54r round. The finish is quite nice and the wood is very pretty. The fit leaves something to be desired but hey, "beauty is as beauty does." This rifle has the bayonet attachment and the standard AK bayonette attaches nicely. The magazine is very robust and has a little half moon cut out half way down the feed lips the rim of the cartridge fits in when it is pushed down into the magazine. It is then pushed back. This makes double feeds with the rimmed ammo almost impossible unless one deliberately defeats the system.
The scope is a very veteran Romainian PSO that the tritium has long since departed to radiation heaven on.
We bought 60 rounds of Wolf commercial light ball (148gr spitzer @ about 2880 fps) which is the recommended round for this weapon. Heavy ball is supposed to be too hard on the action and the Wolf was non corrosive so what the heck, we spent a few more shekels and went with it.
After checking out the rifle and lubing it we took off to my gun club. First we calibrated the system at 25 yards with the deflection set on zero and the elevation set for 100 meters. This is done by adjusting the top turret adjustment which works just like a Leupold scope adjustment while the lower turret rings (the knurling of which does double duty as the index marks) stays locked in position. The upper part of the turret(s) are locked by two set screws that are losened to calibrate it.
We started off about 6" low and about 8" left but after about 15 to 20 rounds we had the rifle hitting about 1/2" high and centered. We then moved off to a sillouette target at 100 meters. It took about 10 more rounds to get the rifle perfectly zeroed at 100 meters with the elevation turret set for 100 meters and the deflection turret set for "0." During this time our son shot one group that measured 1 5/8" at 100 meters using the Wolf commercial ball. Once we got the system calibrated we locked down the set screws and went to work.
Once calibrated at 100 meters we moved the target to 200 yards, the farthest available on the range at the moment. I dialed the elevation turret to "2" and voila the first round hit dead center. Whopee it actually worked the way it was supposed to. Our son fired off about 15 rounds in fairly rapid succession. There was some stringing as the barrel heated up but nothing too bad.
After I found two loose rounds we had missed and decided to try a clay pigeon lying on the 200 yard birme. I centered the chevron on the clay pigeon and just missed. The second shot hit the clay pigeon dead center. Not bad for a DM rifle and plain old Russian ball ammo.
Impressions of the rifle, good and bad:
1. It is more than accurate enough to fulfill the designated marksman role it was primarily intended for with ball ammunition. I'm sure it would drive tacks with better ammo. Even with ball it should be accurate enough to take out man sized targets cleanly between 500 and 700 meters depending on the skill of the user and quality of the ammunition.
2. Good, it is very reliable and handled feeding, extraction and ejection without a hiccup.
Bad the only correct ammo is Com Bloc light ball or equivalent and other loads can really be hard on the weapon. Non corrosive light ball while not prohibitive cost us $16.00 per box. sometimes the rifle would not feed a single round from the magazine reliably but if two or more were loaded, no problem.
3. Good, felt recoil to us was no heavier than an M-16 due to the weapon's weight, over 12 pounds loaded and a very efficient muzzle brake.
Bad, it is loud, very loud indeed and the Russians still don't believe in flash retardents. We were shooting at 2 in the afternoon and the flash driven out the sides by the muzzle brake I swear rivaled that of a Nagant carbine. At night you'd be visible for miles shooting this thing.
4. Good, the trigger pull is military two stage about 4 pounds. It made my M1 we shot later, which has a quite nice trigger, feel like an absolute beast by comparison.
Bad, the second stage is about 2 lb I figure and if you take up the slack a bit to enthusiastically the weapon can go off a bit sooner than intended. It also has some nasty trigger slap.
5. Good, the Wolf ammo didn't have that nasty Com Bloc smell and was cleaner than most Com Bloc ammo I've fired. It was also more than adequately accurate in this rifle.
Bad, it was still a much tougher clean up job than U.S. or Western European ammo.
6. Good, the optics are excellent, very clear and the reticle is much better than I thought it would be. The rubber eyepiece forces the exact eye relief. Adjustments are very precise and the calibration system seems to work as advertised. More on this when the 600 yard range opens at my club. I could find no downside on the scope system. A variety of Russian scopes are available in this system in a variety of powers and our son says one may be in his future, maybe a 2x-6x with a battery iluminated reticle.
After shooting the PSL-54 C we put a few clips through my trusty Danish return M1 and headed to the house.