I'll start off by saying I don't have an AK at present, but for the last few years have standardized with the 7.62 x 39 cartridge.
I sold my 5.56mm and all my .308's except for one .308 Bolt gun. I find the x39 to be ideal for my close in needs, and as I'm finding out, fine for my medium range needs as well.
Maybe 10 years ago I had a Romanian AKM, it was way more accurate than I expected with good ammo. Ergo's weren't that great for this left hander, and I had a chance to get a Colt AR in 7.62 x 39. I liked it, it was a tackdriver with W-W softpoints but only the 5 round Colt magazine worked.
I sold it, and got a Mini-30, then another, and another. And I'm liking the 7.62 x 39 more and more every time I go shooting.

I now have a Palmetto AR that uses AK magazines. It came with a bunch of P Mags, but I want to get some steel ones too.
For testing I used the PA KS-47 with a Primary Arms 3 x Prism scope ( and the ACSS reticle for the x39 cartridge), and one or the other of my Mini-30's with a Nikon Scout scope set up.

Tula kind of soured me on Russian ammo, so up until now I've been working on two cases of PPU FMJ I bought a while back. The PPU brass makes excellent reloads with Hornady bullets.
Last year I tried Red Army Standard FMJ, and found them to be more accurate, higher velocity and a bit cleaner burning than Tula.  Sealed primer and bullet, boat tail bullet and the highest velocities I've clocked of all these loads, 2480 fps out of the AR and wood stock Mini and 2550 fps out of the longer barreled synthetic stock Mini. With the higher velocity and boat tail, they are as you'd expect, flatter shooting, but only helpful if you are shooting out past 400 yards.


Fiocchi and Geco brass case can be bought for not much more than steel case prices. I found both to be accurate, but the Fiocchi was really slow. Where as most all other rounds were 2400 fps, the Fiochhi was only 1950 fps, with a couple rounds barely braking 2000 fps.
Silver Bear is my favorite so far, 7 inch group at 400 yards accurate, clean burning, 2400 fps and Zinc plating covering the steel.


The ACSS reticle on the PA 3x is awesome. I've shot it on paper out to 400 yards now, and 500 at steel, and it is right on.


Yesterday though, rather than use the BDC, I wanted to use the same aiming point for all shooting, (the top of the chevron), and see how far several different loads dropped at 300 and 400 from a 200 yard zero. I also recorded the 5 shot group size.
I expected about a foot drop at 300 below the red aiming point, but by the time I started shooting, a quartering breeze came up from my 4 o'clock.
So the groups are about a foot left. I didn't correct for that, shooting all 4 types of ammo at 300.

As shown, I put yellow marker around the PPU FMJ. Silver Bear was black, Red Army BT was red, and my Nosler 123 grain "Varmegeddon" tipped bullets were left ummarked.
I was thinking the cross breeze would blow my shots off the 400 yard target to the 300 yard one, so I adjusted 4 clicks right for the 400 yard groups. This put me closer to the center for the first three strings, but by the time I shot the last group, the Noslers, the wind had died down, and the Noslers hit the bottom right hand corner of the target.

The RAS was the flattest shooting, no surprise there.
The PPU FMJ was the second flattest shooting, but the 400 yard group was probably worsened by some gusts that threw some shots horizontally. The 300 yard group for PPU was much better.
The Silver Bear was great at 400, very consistent powder charges and bullets for cheap steel case.
My Nolser handloads, despite starting at 2350 fps, were hitting lower than the other loads.
But they are very accurate. You can buy those bullets as seconds for 18.5 cents per, great for guys that reload.

Damn, now that I have a bunch of AK mags for my PSA x39, I have to urge to get an AK again !

Good post OP. I think that Red Army Standard is just reboxed Golden Tiger. Vympel makes both loads and has the same purple sealant and BT projectiles.