Pre panic, what was the best steel case hunting or self defense ammo? Soft point or hollow point, doesn't matter. I'm hoping to stack up since 7.62x39 is starting to come down in price and availability is increasing...

Most hollow points in 39 don't expand like they should. I go with soft points.

I too would choose soft point over hollow point in this caliber if you are stuck on steel case. I've heard more than a few anecdotal reports of their efficacy vs. deer and hogs. An acquaintance swore by the Romanian SP for hog hunting back in the day.

8m3 for hp. 8v3 does not reliably fragment/expand.  

All soft point ammo should expand.

Any soft point should be fine. Wolf 124gr or 125gr, Barnaul 125gr, etc. Great expansion and wound cavity in these.

The impression that I get is that no "expanding" bullet with a steel jacket gives any kind of consistent or reliable performance in ballistic gelatin in this caliber.  I base that on tests like these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RVuISLJ3o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v15hknRziWE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOHrY9KiR2A

I speculate that this may be at least partially partially because steel, which the Russians use for bullet jackets because it's less expensive and more plentiful for them than copper, is much harder and tougher than copper.  Bullets with steel jackets may only expand if that production lot of ammunition gets over a certain minimum velocity from the muzzle, and with the Russian export 7.62x39mm you are rolling the dice on whether this batch is pushing 2500 ft/sec or barely breaking 2050.  Small differences in the thickness of a steel jacket might also make it much more or less likely to expand at a given velocity, just because steel is so much stronger than copper.  At least some of these steel-jacketed expanding bullet designs seem to be dependent upon cuts or grooves on the inside of the jacket near the point, number, length, and depth of which can vary significantly from batch to batch, if they are even present at all.  Maybe it expands, maybe it doesn't.  Maybe it yaws significantly, maybe it doesn't.  They are great when they work as advertised, but that's a sometime thing.  You can do better.

As I once heard a guy on the Internet say, that doesn't mean these steel-jacketed softpoint and hollowpoint bullets are Nerf darts.  They're not going to bounce off the bad guy's chest.  But it seems to be questionable whether they'll expand dependably.  They do not seem to be consistent.

I wish the Russians would use copper for the bullet jackets, at least on the softpoints and hollowpoints.  But it's not like they're having any trouble selling the ammo the way they make it right now.

Sellier & Bellot 7.62x39mm softpoints have copper jackets and give excellent performance at 7.62x39mm velocities.  Pre-panic, they were around 45-50 cents per round.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RVuISLJ3o

Prvi Partizan makes a very similar load at the same price point, also using a copper jacketed softpoint bullet.  However, I have never seen any kind of test with it.  If you look on the Internet you will see some posts on outdoor forums from people who shot deer or hogs with them and said they worked, but gave no details.

Generally around the same price per round is Hornady's steel-case 7.62x39mm hunting ammo using the SST bullet with the polymer tip, which also seems to be a very good, very consistent performer in the tests I've seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jn6GiiVrcM

Federal Fusion was $1+/round even before the panic, but the bullet also seems to perform pretty well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEo6avZd9ys

DocGKR said he got good results with Winchester Super-X 123gr softpoints, Lapua softpoints, and the old Hornady VMAX load that with the discontinued 123gr VMAX bullet.

Speer catalogs a 7.62x39mm load with a 123gr Gold Dot softpoint, but I have yet to see a gel test with it.

I’ve found the Barnaul 125gr SP to be one of the best performers hands down in 7.62x39. Suprisingly accurate too, and the necks are sealed and the
cases are lacquered

I'm currently rocking my way through a case of Wolf "military classic" 124gr hollow points.  It was the same exact price as all the other wolf.  This flavor is made by barnaul and shoots good in all my guns.

You might want to rock that case slowly, there's no more coming in.....probably ever.??

Still gonna be trickling in for 2 years or until the lot has been exhausted.

This ammo is still fairly available and seemed to fragment well in a test by the ammo channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbZfxleCa64&t=108s

I also did my own test that I posted on the ak forum against a ballistics gel target covered with two layers of moving blanket fabric made of non-woven polyester using a wasr 10/63 with a 16" barrel loaded with wolf 7.62x39 with a 123 gr hollow point bullet.
https://www.theakforum.net/threads/ballistics-gel-test-wolf-123-gr-hp-tula-124-gr-fmj.316807/

Hornady SST