Vz58 Mars - .223 or 7.62?

[sconie]

After a bit of faffing around with police Scotland I did get authorisation for a Mars action. I was looking at the 7.62 version as I like the calibre, but early reports seem to have good moa with the .223, I still have a spare slot for a straight pull AR and I gather that the VZ will not match that for accuracy, so before I literally pull the trigger (twice) I would appreciate your recommendations on either calibre and the barrel length and twist you would go for.

Cheers

[snayperskaya]

personally I would go for 7.62x39 as milsurp in cheap enough and accurate enough and you will probably get through a fair few rounds with that trigger release.Pinpoint accuracy isn't what these things are about, same as the AK, so is it worth shooting more expensive ammo?........plus the fact the VZ was designed for the 7.62 round.

[sconie]

Thanks, that was my original thinking and with mil surp 7.62x39 almost half the price I could have more fun for my £, as I said I fancy a lantac when funds allow.

[Blackstuff]

I would check local prices and availability on the ammo. Local to me .223 is cheaper than 7.62x39 (as only commercial stuff is available). Obviously you could go to a gun show/make a trip if you were buying like 1000rds of milsurp to make it worth your while. Also remember that some of that stuff is corrosive and the barrel needs to be flushed almost as soon as you finish shooting it, so if you're not on top of your maintenance regime you could ruin the gun.

Personally i'm going with the .223 as its cheaper to run and more readily available (to me), i prefer the look of the gun with straight mags rather than the banana 7.62 type, i'm planning in getting a beta-C drum which i'm not sure they make that fits a VZ58 in 7.62, and .223 would be more readily available in this country come the zombie apocalypse :lol:

[snayperskaya]

I would check local prices and availability on the ammo. Local to me .223 is cheaper than 7.62x39 (as only commercial stuff is available). Obviously you could go to a gun show/make a trip if you were buying like 1000rds of milsurp to make it worth your while. Also remember that some of that stuff is corrosive and the barrel needs to be flushed almost as soon as you finish shooting it, so if you're not on top of your maintenance regime you could ruin the gun.

Personally i'm going with the .223 as its cheaper to run and more readily available (to me), i prefer the look of the gun with straight mags rather than the banana 7.62 type, i'm planning in getting a beta-C drum which i'm not sure they make that fits a VZ58 in 7.62, and .223 would be more readily available in this country come the zombie apocalypse :lol:

Corrosive ammo isn't a problem unless you dont clean.VZs and AKs have hard chromed barrels as they were designed to shoot corrosive ammo, they don't rust the moment you finish shooting and its only the primer thats corrosive.My AKM has had thousands of rounds of corrosive milsurp through it and the barrel is as good as new and I only use a normal cleaning routine and have never actually flushed the barrel, I just use regular gun oil etc.I get 7.62x39 milsurp for £26 a hundred, if you can get 223 for that then fair play.If you run these on brass-cased commercial ammo you've got money to burn!.

[DanTheMan]

I get 7.62x39 milsurp for £26 a hundred, if you can get 223 for that then fair play.If you run these on brass-cased commercial ammo you've got money to burn!.

Barnaul .223 is £21 per 100 from HPS and I think you can still get the Hornady training ammo for less than that. At least with that calibre you can achieve decent accuracy once you get bored of mag dumps.

[phaedra1106]

Mark, have you heard anything back from Durham about your variation?, only contact I've had was a call asking me to re-send the email sale notification for the Howa even though I dropped off a Form 202 with all the details in and the variation request, never mentioned me asking for the MARS action type.

[Blackstuff]

No is the short answer before we hijack this thread

RE the ammo - The only 7.62x39 ammo i've found locally is PPU stuff which runs at around £12 per 20, as mentioned about Barnaul .223 is around £20-25 per 100

[snayperskaya]

If Barnaul 223 is anything like their 54r I wouldn't bother.I tried some in the Dragunov and the group sizes were awful, far worse than Russian milsurp, to the point were I thought my scope was knackered.

[leeroy7031]

If Barnaul 223 is anything like their 54r I wouldn't bother.I tried some in the Dragunov and the group sizes were awful, far worse than Russian milsurp, to the point were I thought my scope was knackered.

Their .223 62g isn't bad, about 1.5" at 100m which is ok for plinking, quite dirty as well.

Surely the Baurnal can't be any worse than the 74 milsurp I've been using. :cool2: