If you were to examine in detail what each cartridge can offer the shooter or hunter, you might find some things you’ve overlooked. The 7.62x39, made famous by Mikhail Kalashnikov, who designed the AK-47, is a good example. Rarely considered to have a sundry of uses, this Russian military cartridge will surprise you with its diversity, especially in a bolt rifle where it’s not required to operate the action. Even though most Americans were first introduced to it from the bullet end during the Vietnam War, it has become at least moderately popular here in the States.

My interest in the 7.62 has been only marginal since I attended an OPFOR (opposing force) weapons class in the service. However, when CZ offered its Model 527 carbine in this chambering, I considered experimenting with it. I’d all but forgotten that when a friend called not too long ago and told me he had purchased one of the cute little rifles. “I want to use it on everything from fox squirrels to whitetails. Want to help with the load work?” Like a lawyer, he already knew the answer to that question or he would not have asked it.

Our goal was to produce three loads with different uses in mind for each. We wanted a deer-hunting load, something that would offer ballistics similar to the 150-grain .30-30 Winchester. We hoped to find an accurate varmint load suitable for ground hogs, coyotes and fox. And, we wanted to develop a super-accurate, low-velocity, cast bullet load that could be used for squirrels and turkeys. We also wanted this low-recoil round to be inexpensive to produce, providing ammunition for practice and training new shooters.

Multiply 7.62 millimeters by the conversion factor listed in the Speer Rifle & Pistol Reloading Manual 13 and you get .2999994 inch, which for all practical purposes is .30 inch. If you pull the bullet from a 7.62x39 cartridge and measure the diameter, it will be somewhere between .308 and .311 inch. It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some 7.62x39 bores like those from Ruger will measure .308 inch groove to groove. Factory ammunition with bullets from .308 to .311 inch will work in either a .308- or .311-inch barrel, just don’t expect sub-MOA groups. At least that’s what I thought. (Most reloading die manufacturers offer both .308- and .311-inch expanders with 7.62x39 dies.)

The deer load came easy. We found a slightly compressed charge of 25.5 grains of Reloder 7 produced 2,222 fps out of the short 18.5-inch barrel with the 155-grain Sierra bullet. Groups at 100 yards averaged .88 inch. We tested this load in wet paper at 100 yards where the impact velocity was 2,029 fps, and the bullet showed good expansion and weight retention. The Speer 150-grain load was just a trifle slower, and groups averaged 1.3 inches but did not hold up as well in the wet paper.