Romanian PSL

Edmond;
A shooting buddy has the Chinese variant of this weapon. He has a couple of scopes for it and a scope mount for using a one inch scope.
He has never found accurate ammo for this rifle. We have thought about reloading for and did a bit of checking on bullet availability and recommended bullet weight.
In your experience would the 173 to 175 grain spitzer be the bullet to work with.

Jim

in a .311 bbl diameter, I got excellent results with both .308 and .311 bullets between 150 and 165 grains.(new weapons)

Reloading or shooting costly ammo like Lapua was the only solution. In the end I produced a big batch of ammo with CIP proof (Saint Etienne), Lapua brass, RWS Primers, VV N150 powder and 155 grains Sierra MatchKing bullets. Low pressure and I could choose right eye or left eyes @ 150 m on the target.

with ball powder (French spherical powder) I used CCI BR primers.

in my opinion, the Romanian PSL is far superior to the Chinese Norinco copy of SVD. (New generation made in Cugir is even better, made on western european made machinery)

The PSL is not a clone of SVD as commonly believed, it is entirely developped from a project in Romania based on an enlarged Kalashnikov Light Machine Gun frame.

Nothing is compatible with SVD, not even the magazine. Only the optics of Varsaw Pact type can be used since it is a common rail like STANAG for NATO but the calibration of optics is not the same with SVD.

I have one of these and love it. Shoots great, hard hitting, with minimal recoil. I need to find some more magazines though and would like to find a scope and base or at least a base for it.

Do you know if the Cugir magazine works? If so, what model is that?

Thanks.

It is a PSL, Cugir is the location of the factory. so magazine for "PSL" or "Cugir" works.

Easy to find a SVD scope mount and scope everywhere in US and scope mounts for 1" optics.

Nice example Edmond! I have a PSL that I plan to shoot in the future. I suppose that since I don't have dies for this caliber I will try Privi Partisan ammunition as it has worked well in other 7.62x54 rifles.

Sure looks like it means business -- and could be put to very good use in eastern Ukraine.
I've always wondered about the accuracy potential of these big Kalashnikovs. How is the trigger, Edmond? Do you have to be careful loading the magazine because of the rimmed cartridges?

Both the Russian SVD and the Romanian PSL are reliable and theere is no feeding problem with the rimmed case.

PSL is a false Dragunov since its frame is the one derived from the LMG "FPK".

Trigger is typically russian, a long course and a peculiar breaking, nothing in common with the westerners' two stage trigger or a direct trigger.

Accuracy is usually good but there is no real "precision grade" or "Match grade" in former Warsaw Pact countries.

Handloads reduce the dispersion by half compared to service grade ammunition.

Romanian rifles are more constant in quality than soviet/russian rifle but a selected SVD can match a good bolt rifle around a MOA.

Edmond
Is there any gun smith books on the Dragonov in English out there?
Has any one done an accuracy work on these rifle?

Jim

I don't know any.
The only accuracy work is to select one that is accurate and use handloads, except Lapua that is costly, there is no precision ammunition in 7.62x54mm R

About 15 years ago I was offered a left hand PSL made in Romania. I shot it with the then cheap surplus ammo and noticed it had good potential for long range accuracy with good ammo.
I loaded up some of my match ammo for the rifle and went to the range.
My first target was set to the minimum accuracy range of 200 yards.

I was impressed and moved out o our normal shooting distance of 500 meters.

While the pencil thin barrel heats up fast and the bullet wanders a little it still does a very fine job for what it was designed to do.