I am leaning towards 154gr soft points because they don't lose much velocity from the short barrel and I think you end up with roughly 1300 ft lbs energy and decent expansion/fragmentation even at low velocities.

Thoughts on
* 125 vs 154gr soft points
* hollowpoints viable at short barrel velocities?
* other options

• 125 gr is faster and speed is your friend for expansion, etc. A heavier bullet can maintain speed farther, but I don't have the ballistic data to compare at what distance the heavier bullet will overtake the 123gr. I suspect it may be far enough to be irrelevant. I'm guessing you're in the woods shooting at a hog or deer at less than 150 yds. 154 soft point .30 bullet should perform similar (but not as good due to short barrel) to the 30-30 out of a model 94. Old technology, but plenty of dead deer.
• Hollow points are effective in slower handgun bullets so yes.
• Federal makes Fusion and Power-something in 123 softpoint for Hunting and Hornady makes a 123gr ballistic tip "Black." I suspect they decided 123gr is a sweet spot and the Hornady is advertised for game and self defense.
Is the rifling rate on your 10" barrel optimized for 123 or will it even stabilize a heavier bullet for the distance you want to shoot?

Yes, both 125/154 expand/fragment and there is ample test data out there to prove they work like normal soft point hunting bullets at normal ballistic gelatin testing ranges. BUT....

• There isn't much data about performance vs velocity. Do they stop expanding/fragmenting at 1800 fps? 1500? 1000? No one knows. I'm not aware of anyone using these to kill stuff much past 100m


• From a short barrel, the 125/154 gr loadings are actually somewhat close in terms of velocity. The heavier loadings lose less velocity from a short barrel than the light projectiles, but it's not a huge difference (150 vs 250fps loss going from 16" to 10")


• From a short barrel, the 154gr SP is basically tied with 125gr SP in terms of muzzle energy. And since it has a higher BC, it should carry energy better and drop less out to 200 or even 300m.


• I was thinking the 125gr might fragment better than 154gr due to higher velocity though.

Hollow points for AKs generally work like FMJ except for the old 8M3 projectile from the early 2000s. It supposedly came back a few years ago but I am not confident it's the same projectile.

All AKs have the same super high twist rate and will stabilize even subsonic 200 gr stuff.

For those that have hunted hogs with the 7.62X39, have you noticed any difference between soft points, hollow points, and regular FMJ? I suspect that there is NOT much difference but I have never shot a living thing with the X39.

I've read that the typical Russian SP and HP ammo doesnt expand in jell. But I have also read that they expand well. I also read that there is a difference among the FMJ bullets with some, like the Yugo loadings, tumble more while others (I think Chinese) tumble less.

Given a time machine back to 2019, I'd try to find some Federal Fusion or Hornady's SST loading. Now days I dont even see Russian SP or HP anywhere so we may be asking which FMJ is "best".

I remember seeing a gel test on some Russian made hollow point. I think it was Golden Tiger. I can't say it really expanded, sort of striped off the front part of the jacket and mushroomed a little. Not an ideal hollow point, but slightly better than FMJ I suppose. But everyone seems to gel test at 10-15 yds. I'd be very interested if someone would gel test at 100 and 200 yds. I suspect 7.62x39 would be pretty unimpressive in gel at distance, but then hogs and deer aren't made of ballistic gel.

I think the problem is that the Russians are essentially blind to the concept of branding.

When you buy winchester silvertips or pmc x-tac etc, you have a pretty good idea of what you're getting.

With Silver Bear or Tula, etc, you could be getting powder and projectiles from a wide variety of suppliers, you have no idea.

Even if you pick a particular bullet type and weight, there is no guarantee that it will be the same- 154gr SP from wolf seem to expand reliably while I think it was herters that behaved like FMJ.

If the Russians would tell us on the box what we're getting and keep it consistent over time, a lot of this would be easier. Right now even with testing it's hard to reliably predict how a round will perform.

This looks like good stuff, and I'm glad that I got nearly 1000rds of it when it was available.

That Barnaul soft point looks like good stuff. At least for bulk ammo. But 1. That's from a 16" barrel. 2. It's from what looks like a range of 15 feet. I wish someone would do a gel test at 100 and 150 yards and maybe even with a 10" barrel.

Keep an eye for wear with the 154 gr in a pistol, stopped shooting them in my 7" Draco it was battering the little plastic piece in the back.

But may not make any difference in a 10" and don't remember any wear with the bigger Draco

No idea how the 154 gr are for hunting but against 20lb propane tanks at 50yds they are devastating. Hitting the tank with 122gr FMJ it will wobble it a little but the 154gr SP it knock it over and roll it a few times.