I'm looking into getting one and just wanted to see how they were working for folks.

Hodges

I have only fired about 20 rounds in mine, but will give my first impression of it. The recoil impulse is much lighter and smoother than I anticipated. I am not great with iron sights, but my first 2 shots were touching one another at 20 yards in a dark indoor range. I would imagine that rested and scoped these weapons will be impressive given their price range. Mine was the V02 with integrated sight. It is a work in progress. Optic is next. I love it and want a couple more of them.

 Uploaded with ImageShack.us" />

 Uploaded with ImageShack.us" />

That's the one currently $699 at CFS isn't it?  Is that a welded cap at the end of the barrel?

Welded blind pin. Easy to remove though.

They are amazing, truly, love mine. 1-2 MOA with cheap Brown Bear ammo if I do my part, well-balanced, pretty much dummy proof and ultra tough, nothing says i'm here to chew bubblegum and kick ass like showing up to the party with a semi-auto .308 and where else can you get one for 700 bucks?

If referring to  mine, yes it had a welded transverse blind pin. In other words, it doesn't go straight into the barrel.

evl....

Some of the longer barreled ones are in, do yall think a couple more inches in the barrel is worth a couple hundred $ when it comes to .308?

I finally got a chance to shoot a .308 Vepr. I have to say that I am pretty impressed.
I only fired 100 rds today but had zero failures of any kind.


Recoil is pretty heavy but not bad, I would put it in the "heavier than a FAL but lighter than a G3" category.
Feeding and extraction is violent, It does destroy the cases so my tests with premium ammo may not happen as planned.
With the top cover on, the cases ejected at about 2 O'clock to about 5 yds away with the closest ones at my feet .
Typical case damage with top cover on;


I fired a few rds with the top cover removed, the damage was considerably less.
The cases now ejected at 4 O'clock out to 18 yds with the closest ones at 5 yds.
Cases dented at mouth with a little nick on the side (probably from the charging handle);



Ammo on hand today was some surplus British RG L2A2 from the 80s.
It's pretty hot stuff but has not been very accurate in anything I have fired it in.
I think the Vepr has been the best so far but I only tested for accuracy out to 50yds.


I had an Aimpoint M2 on it today so I only did accuracy test at 50 yds. I was shooting over the hood of my truck
with a bipod, not the best way to make accurate shots but for today it will have to do. I was trying to use the top of my red dot
with the brightness turned down is low as I could still see it, but the orange sticker dot was the same color as the sight dot.


I'm pretty sure I pulled the 2 on the left. 100 deg. and sunburned, my patience was depleted at the end of the day.  
The other 8 are about 1.25" so 3" at 100 yds maybe. That's pretty good for this ammo, the best I have seen is 3.5" at 100
and that was with a bolt gun. The trigger on mine is surprisingly good, it has a long take up then a pretty good break.
I have heard reports of really bad triggers so I am very happy with this one.

Next time out I will be using a 3-9 Viper and shooting from a more stable position, we'll see what 100 yds really looks like.

Perhaps I didn't pull those two rounds after all. Did the "ARFCOM 1 MOA All Day Challenge"

Shot 5 more groups at 50yds and got about 3.852 MOA with this ammunition.

sitting at 33 yards i got a three shot group (just sighting in) at about 2 inches. my first group was rough though, they were all flyers .

with how i slap the trigger im ok with that, it should only get better as my shooting improves.

now i just have to get a scope and stretch it out

Long time lurker...  
Soo close to pulling the trigger on this. Any updates, thoughts or insight I'm missing for not having bought yet?

I am picture retarded at the moment but I put a us palm grip on it, a nato length stock from kvar, a 6x psop, and a tapco birdcage.

The iron sights were just about dead on. just had to tweak elevation.

It hasn't jammed yet with Russian cheap stuff, or Remington hunting rounds. I cant give you any real accuracy report, i haven't taken it past 25 yds for sight in. I could get most of the rounds to touch that close though.

I haven't gotten rid of the wood for end even though it is cracked. I just sprayed it with some black truckbed liner to give it better grip.

cspec mags are the only way to go.

overall its pretty sweet.
" />

I just got back from the range today. I was sighting in my Vepr Hunter. With Cheap Chinese ammo, it shot pretty good. The groups would vary due to the ammo. However, once I put in the 170 grain BTHP, things got real interesting. I had a five shot group at 100 yards that was close to sub MOA. I shot for a couple of hours and began to get tired and the groups began to open.
With American Eagle 150 FMJ BT, I did pretty good as well. No problems with the gun.
Sorry no pics but I was very pleased. I was using a Weaver 3x15 tactical scope and Burris Rings..

Here is my target sighting in my Vepr Hunter. I am using the weaver tactical 3x15 scope. The target was 100 yards shooting from a rest. The first shot was high from a newly cleaned bore wet with gun oil so no surprise there. The second group is a three shot fairly quick fire showing the scope needed some adjustment still. The final three shot group was really nice as they were touching vertically. I allowed the gun to cool between shots.


At 200 yards, the group began to widen to a bit. I don't think the 172 BTHP is the best load for longer ranges. I am going to have to experiment to find out what makes a better long range round.

If your wondering if the Vepr is capable of decent accuracy, I hope this helps. I am no marksman by any means. The results were not bad for an AK variant.

Mine with the 8x32 POSP scope.

Shoots Minute of Clay Pigeon out of the box with irons.  Haven't had a chance to shoot with the scope yet.



Can someone tell me what the thread pitch on these things are?  24mm?

Muzzle is threaded M14x1 left hand thread.



 

Thanks

Does anyone know if the Vepr mags would work in a .308 Chinese NDM-86? I can't find those mags anywhere and these Vepr mags look pretty close to the 86 mags.

Maybe, I expect you would need to modify the mag a good bit though.

Who has .308 VEPRs in stock?  I haven't been able to find one, only in 7.62x54r.

Obama banned the import of Russian rifles so nobodies getting new VEPRs in now.  What you see is all thats left.  

Now the used market has plenty still, or guys who flip guns on gunbroker but thats another story.

Vepr rifles still damaging brass?

the bottom bolt lug hits the shoulder of the next round upon extraction

the case then hits the edge of the dustcover


my vepr brass is rather banged up

down loading the magazine so the rounds are under less pressure helps the shoulder hit

My 54R vepr isn't that hard on brass. The necks some times get a little bent or I see a line in the shoulder. nothing a good fire forming cant take care of.

the extracting is rather harsh. I have had some bullets ripped out of the case by cycling them trough the action. granted they where not crimped in tight but still pulled the bullets out.

I got this for my birfday about 10 years ago. Got a bunch of 5 and 10 round molot mags but never shot it. I was going to sell it so I brought it up to the range after mounting a different scope on it (4 - 16 Veber). I was surprised how accurate it was shooting Tula steel case... so much so I decided to keep it...

Very nice!