Finally I managed to go out in the desert and try out my junk Romanian PSL and the superior quality rifle Yugoslavian M76.
First thing that I noticed is that PSL is lighter and makes it more easy to carrie around the different terreins. And PSL feels a bit better in hands, feels confortable.
Mainly I went to sight in the scopes on both rifles, I set up a target up to 100 meters. I wanted to shoot at 600 m but I was wasting too much time and it was getting dark so I will do that next time. I don’t consider myself good shooter.
The PSL-54c shot fine, and I was able to sight the scope with Bulgarian ammo, the bipod is proven to be a disadvantage on the gravel, it needs smooth surfice to sit nice, so nice gun rest would be better option for shooting, I was shooting from laying down position as the real snipers do and not prima-maddona like on a nice shooting table. The PSL shot 1.5 inch with cold barrel and when the barrel got hot the spread went down the sheet, so as long as the barrel is cold PSL will do what it was made to do, with some nice sniper ammo it can do 1 inch moa easy. I was not trying hard to make better group because my main goal was to sight in the scope. I did shoot some at 700 meters, I found distinctive rock and shot that far and all I could say it that I hit the rock that is about half meter in size so the PSL did just fine. When the PSL got hot the lower grip got more lose and that sucked with bipod attached to it.
Here you can see the target shooting PSL with hot barrel: http://www.photodump.org/stored26/targets2004.jpg
So what I would say is that my PSL-54C performed well and there for I would say it is nice rifle and not junk.
Now the superior sniper rifle Yugoslavian M76 with hard hitting 8mm mauser round it performed as same as PSL grouping similar results with surplus ammo.
Yugo M76 is more heavy so when shooting standing it is a big strain on the back that’s why I feel more comfortable with PSL. And yugo has more recoil that may be to heavy grain yugo ammo. And that 50s yugo ammo is nasty, the gun power turns into tough crust inside the barrel, I had to use brass brush to get it all lose to clean the barrel. The PSL looks to me it has nice chrome barrel so it cleaned easily and that Bulgarian 80s ammo is nice.
So end results is both rifles are accurate to factory standards, and yugo factory calls for accuracy of 10.5cm wide group and both rifles did much better than that.
Nice! I have both rifles as well. I have been looking to get a Russian SVD, Tiger and Chinese NDM-86. But for now may add another couple PSL and M76 rifles while they are still around. Personally I do tend to lean more toward the M76 over the PSL for shooting but it may just come down to personal perference and what features matter most.
I have some of the 1953 8mm ammo but it's essentially crap, but the 1975 ammo is great. I saw the 7.62x54R Bulgarian yellow tip around but didn't get any yet as I thought is a bit heavy, though now I may have to get a case for some trials at the range.
BTW, I did manage to track down some extra mags for my Yugo M76 at [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (a site sponsor I believe), however, it appears that they are sold out now.
You gotta admit tho, both rifles are fun shooters!
- Black Blade
__________________ When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America , you get a front row seat. - George Carlin
I was complaining about PSL and its cosmetics, I knew that I can fix all the problems, but out of the box both rifles will have problems. I had more problems with my yugo.
Black blade, can you post the photo of the bolt face of that Yugo that you have? The 50s ammo has a nasty primer it makes a groove in the bolt face
sweet i like the yugo a little more than the psl just got to break down and get me one. both are great rifles, hell might have to break down and 1 of each
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buying up all the guns and ammo i can just PISS OFF the liberals To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
I got the 1953 surplus crap too but I don't use it in the M76 because too many misfires (but works okay in some of my mod.98 rifles). I use the M75 1975 Yugo ammo without much of a problem. It's one of those CAI builds I picked up through J&G Sales. I've been thinking about getting it worked over a bit (too bad we can't get all original parts eh?).
I'm getting a polymer stock and hand guards for the PSL sent in a couple weeks. Hopefully there will be no issues with a good fit. I also ordered another PSL as the SVD I bid on went well over my limit (Damn! Foiled again).
Anyway, here's the best I can do for now on the M76 while balancing the rifle and a surefire dangling outta my mouth. Since you mentioned the markings on the bolt face you peaked my interest. I really don't see much beyond what could be attributed to the usual wear and tear after several hundred rounds. Sorry for the poor quality:
This is pretty much what I shoot:
- Black Blade
__________________ When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America , you get a front row seat. - George Carlin
Black blade, as I can see on the bolt face of your M76 there is some trace of a wear by using old ammo. See that ring around the firing pin? That is from 50s yugo primers, gasses leak between the primer capsule and case and they tend to errode the bolt. Thats because M76 is made to shoot new ammo late 70s and up is considered new. I have the yugo M76 field manual that i am translating and they are saying to use only M75 sniper ammo in it. My M76 got the bolt face totaly erroded that I had to weld the bolt face then mill it down and redrill the firing pin hole, wow. Do you have a problem of magazine follower fails to hold the bolt open after last shot? Why do you whant another PSL, you already got one
I tried the old 50s ammo at first and have discontinued using it and now have access to enough 70s ammo (in picture) to keep me busy. I saw that "ring" but didn't think much about it at the time. I noticed the old 1950s berdan primers seem to be set a little deep maybe? Anyway, I am using up whatever little of that ammo in some of my K98 carbines without too much problem (some rifles seem to eat it up and others don't).
As far as getting another PSL is concerned, I figure they are rather cheap and I could use another three or four to stash at my "bug out" locations with sufficient ammo in case of a more restrictive gun ban under the new occupation government. I am also considering another M76 as there are some available at J&G, SOG and a few other places for around $1750 (add another $1K on Gunbroker and some sites for the same rifle). Besides, somewhere down the road one wears out and could become a source for "parts". I have a slight feed problem with the M76 (could be the solitary magazine it had). I may take it in to my gunsmith to look it over after I try a couple things and swap in some new mags. Otherwise it's dialed in and shoots great.
BTW, how's that translation on the manual going? I'm interested if and when you get it completed.
- Black Blade
__________________ When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America , you get a front row seat. - George Carlin
You probably have feed pad issues that is on the ORF receiver, I had the same issue and I fixed it, now it works smooth it never jams. Magazine failed to stop the bolt from closing so I fixed that issue too. Translation is going well but it is time consuming. it will take me a while, because there are 170 pages. This is not only a manual for M76 it is a total yugo sniper training book.
PSL-54C vs Yugo M76 results
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