Just got one and was wondering what the twist rate is.

Try wrapping a patch around a bore brush and measure the distance the rod is pushed into the bore before it makes one complete revolution. This should give you a pretty good indication of twist rate.

I compared my WASR-3 to my AR-180B and the twist on the WASR seems to be faster- maybe about 1/8".

I did that and it couldn't have been right as it made one complete rotation down the length of the barrel.  I'm hoping that it is 1x7 but 1x9 would be ok too.

Sorry for the delay.

I think your rod may be un-screwing as you push the patched brush through the bore.

Try using just the bare bore brush and see if that works any better. Also try using the slotted jag with a tight-fitting patch to see if that works any better.

Finally, you could always just buy a couple of boxes of 75 and/or 77gr ammo and shoot them at 200m+ (if you aren't accustomed to shooting that distance, try and find someone who has done so accurately before). If the barrel twist is too slow for the bullets, you'll get keyholing or horrible accuracy (> 10 MOA).

Let me know what you find.

Sounds good, I will give it a whirl.

I believe the .223 is 1:9 according to tantal...I think the 5.45x39 was slower...either 1:10 or 1:12...I could have been 1:16...think it was 1:12 though -which would explain a lot about that bullets tumbling abillity along with the true millitary ammo's bullet design. I'm 99.9% sure the .223 was a 1:9 twist though to answer the original question.

I remember reading that the SAR3 had a twist rate of something like 1/8.x. Doing my rod test, the twist rate in my WASR3 is definitely faster than my AR-180B- this is after testing three times.

The difference seemed to be about an inch in rod length.

My patch and bore brush method came up with 1:8.5. So probably is 1:9

Hootbro

I think it may actually be 1/8.x as the Romanians use metric measurments. Since my AR-180B is 1/9, and the twist of the WASR is definitely faster by between 0.5" and 1", I'd say it's safe to assume that Romanians erred on the tighter side.

Based on this, I think one should be able to use 75gr and maybe 77gr bullets as some 1/9 twist barrels can stabilize 75gr.

Thanks Hootbro!

Thanks Hootbro, I never got around to doing it again so this will save me the effort.