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Mine shoots well with standard 150gr Russian milsurp and shoots very well with 174gr Sellier&Bellot.The scope appears to have a BDC turret which will be calibrated for a 150gr bullet, it looks as though it is a very early POSP going by the elevation turret.Zero it at 100m on "1" and you should be good to go.I have converted my scopes to 3v (two 1.5v button cells) as 3v LED bulbs are easier to get hold of.

Barrel twist rate will be 1:320mm or 1:12.6" for the 620mm/24" barrel, which is the same as the original SVD.

For loads of information a good site is dragunov.net, you'll find zeroing instructions for a POSP on there as well as loads of other stuff.The only problem with a Dragunov is they breed, much like Mosins!.

My Russian ladies

Cheers for the info, I've just measured mine to be 1:12.5" ish - my maths says 150gn is as heavy as I can get and still have it stabilised. wonder what a 123gn would go like?

I've been perusing dragonov.net for the last couple of weeks as I waited for the rifle to arrive - loads of jnfo but the navigation is terrible!

I have some S&B 174 on hand so will give them a try and see how I get on.

I don't mind milsurp (corrosive issues depending) but I'm curious to see just how well I can get it to shoot with a modicum of effort on my part.

The corrosive issue with milsurp is only an issue if you don't clean thoroughly, I flush with boiling water to flush out the corrosive salts and then clean and lube as normal and never had an issue...... plus the fact the chrome lined barrel was designed with corrosive ammo in mind as that was the norm.I contacted Izhmash (now KalashnikovConcern) and was told the Tigr/Dragunov will take up to a 203gr bullet, the action is more than up to it as in Russia it is available chambered in 9.3x64 (Tigr-9).I would hazard a guess and say the 123gr would be too light as thats the standard weight of a 7.62x39 M43 round.

Heres an idea of what 150gr steel-cored milsurp can do, shot on a very cold day (-4 at Minsterley Ranges!) after zeroing my 1pn21 scope......

aye, I do need to try a good spread of available ammo and see what works best for me - I'd be daft ruling out milsurp - to be honest my only problem with it is I hate cleaning it out after.

nickb834 wrote:aye, I do need to try a good spread of available ammo and see what works best for me - I'd be daft ruling out milsurp - to be honest my only problem with it is I hate cleaning it out after.

I treat cleaning corrosive as part of the experience!.Another round well worth trying if you can find any is the Hungarian 148gr LPS light ball (silver tip), i aquired about 70 rounds of it and it was bloody amazing for milsurp and it easily cloverleafed 5 rounds at 100m (if clover had 5 leaves you'd know what I mean).......I just wish I could find about another 500 rounds of it!!!.I've shot Prvi out of both mine and it was awful as was some 180gr Barnaul, both were worse than standard milsurp.
The "Holy Grail" as far as milsurp goes would be some Russian 7n1 sniper ammo which the SVD was designed to shoot but it is as rare as Unicorn tears and I would sell my soul for a couple of spam cans worth of it.

nickb834 wrote:

Zilberbak wrote:Nice rifle, would like to hear if anyone knows of one similar up for sale.

Variation already in and expected back soon.

Enjoy.

suffolk rifles had one left when I bought this one - so he may have the last one still? this was about a fortnight ago.

You beat me to that one as l got them to take it out the rack at the show to hold it and they prise it out my fingers to get it off of me.

The one Neal has left is his and l think he wants to keep it as l can't get a price off of him for it.

Very envious, good shooting.

snayperskaya wrote:Leeroy.....if you have one as well perhaps we should have a photo thread of Russian sniper rifles for Dragunovs and scoped Mosins

Sounds like a plan, there must be closet Russian hoarders like myself who want to share, currently with 3 in the cab (was 4 but one had to go )

leeroy7031 wrote:

snayperskaya wrote:Leeroy.....if you have one as well perhaps we should have a photo thread of Russian sniper rifles for Dragunovs and scoped Mosins

Sounds like a plan, there must be closet Russian hoarders like myself who want to share, currently with 3 in the cab (was 4 but one had to go )

I've started one in Fullbore Rifles

This might be of interest to you, cheap for one of these!

eBay item number:201289465699