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Posted: 6/9/2011 5:52:25 PM EDT
| Hey sorry for newbie questions I have been searching around the forums but haven't come up with the answer. What dealer sells the most reliable and accurate PSLs? I heard that ones actually build on Romanian receivers aren't quite as good as the American receivers but not totally sure. Im just trying to track down the most accurate PSL I can get my hands on. Thanks for any help guys. |
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*I am by no means an expert and I will probably (hopefully) be followed by somebody who is more knowledgeable and can correct me. That said, I think that a majority of PSL receivers are made here in the States because there is a BS technicality with the ATF and the configuration of pins used in the original design. Although the original military PSL was never a machine gun, it had a a third pin that could theoretically make it a machine gun. And one a theoretical machine gun, always a theoretical machine gun...  Anywho, I'm going to guess that the American receivers are generally no better than those made in Romania. I am basing this assumption off of the fact that the American receivers are likely produced by Century Arms, and those guys are known to be a little bit special. I apologize if I did more to confuse you than to help you.
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I have ad two Romanian made PSL's. Two because the first one had a fatal receiver failure after 80 rounds and it was sent back. My second one has been an exercise in patience. It took several months to get the bugs worked out so that 3 of my six magazines now work reliably. Several people have not had the same problems with theirs, but it is a roll of the dice.
Accuracy is okay. These are not MOA rifles by any stretch. An MOA of 3 to 4 is fairly normal. Again you results may vary. They have a thin barrel and it strings as it heats up. Think Mini-14's of days past. Still a fun rifle to shoot. It is not a true sniper rifle but more of a designated marksman rifle. Handle one first it you can. The stock is quite short and LOP is a problem for some people. I am a lefty and the scope is no problem for me. |
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From what I have read, the PSL's built by Cugir in Romania have the fewest problems. The Century rifles are famous for having problems. Accuracy with the Cugir made barrels isn't too bad, but you MUST feed the rifle high quality ammo. If you use cheap ammo, the rifle will shoot 2-4 inches at 100 yards from bench rest, scoped. With Good quality sniper ammo (7N1 if you can find it, or something from Lapua or Norma), the accuracy is much, MUCH better. And the other variable is that you can't expect good accuracy out of long strings of fire as the barrel heats up too quickly.
Accuracy tips: 1. Use good ammo 2. Insure that your scope is solid, the reticle isn't flopping around inside the scope tube, and that the scope base, and rings are very solid to the receiver...even if you have to bed the mount onto the side plate. 3. Use a consistent front and rear rest when shooting. Best results are usually achieved with the front rest fairly close to the receiver. You must have the front and rear rest in the same place for each shot if you want any kind of consistency. 4. Don't mess with the flash hider/compensator. Removing the ones that are pinned and threaded on, and trying another kind of muzzle device is almost always trouble. 5. Avoid heavy bullets like 180 grain bullets like the plague as they will batter the heck out of the rifle, and are known for beating the hell out of the rifles rather quickly. If you follow all the above suggestions, and start out with a solid, well built rifle )rather than one cobbled together from a kit), with the 7N1 ammo, I would be surprised if the rifle didn't shoot 1.5-2 inches at 100 yards. An occasional one inch group also wouldn't surprise me. |
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Quoted:
From what I have read, the PSL's built by Cugir in Romania have the fewest problems. The Century rifles are famous for having problems. Accuracy with the Cugir made barrels isn't too bad, but you MUST feed the rifle high quality ammo. If you use cheap ammo, the rifle will shoot 2-4 inches at 100 yards from bench rest, scoped. With Good quality sniper ammo (7N1 if you can find it, or something from Lapua or Norma), the accuracy is much, MUCH better. And the other variable is that you can't expect good accuracy out of long strings of fire as the barrel heats up too quickly. Accuracy tips: 1. Use good ammo 2. Insure that your scope is solid, the reticle isn't flopping around inside the scope tube, and that the scope base, and rings are very solid to the receiver...even if you have to bed the mount onto the side plate. 3. Use a consistent front and rear rest when shooting. Best results are usually achieved with the front rest fairly close to the receiver. You must have the front and rear rest in the same place for each shot if you want any kind of consistency. 4. Don't mess with the flash hider/compensator. Removing the ones that are pinned and threaded on, and trying another kind of muzzle device is almost always trouble. 5. Avoid heavy bullets like 180 grain bullets like the plague as they will batter the heck out of the rifle, and are known for beating the hell out of the rifles rather quickly. If you follow all the above suggestions, and start out with a solid, well built rifle )rather than one cobbled together from a kit), with the 7N1 ammo, I would be surprised if the rifle didn't shoot 1.5-2 inches at 100 yards. An occasional one inch group also wouldn't surprise me. Well I got my hands on 500 rounds of 7n1 so I may have made progress on the hardest part hah. |
| Finding any real 7N1 is quite a find. There was a fellow in Vancouver who claimed to have some 7N1, but when I checked the codes on the box, it was just ball ammo produced by the same factory. There used to be a site that had all the designations and headstamps for the real 7N1 and it's predecessor. |
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Quoted: Quoted: From what I have read, the PSL's built by Cugir in Romania have the fewest problems. The Century rifles are famous for having problems. Accuracy with the Cugir made barrels isn't too bad, but you MUST feed the rifle high quality ammo. If you use cheap ammo, the rifle will shoot 2-4 inches at 100 yards from bench rest, scoped. With Good quality sniper ammo (7N1 if you can find it, or something from Lapua or Norma), the accuracy is much, MUCH better. And the other variable is that you can't expect good accuracy out of long strings of fire as the barrel heats up too quickly. Accuracy tips: 1. Use good ammo 2. Insure that your scope is solid, the reticle isn't flopping around inside the scope tube, and that the scope base, and rings are very solid to the receiver...even if you have to bed the mount onto the side plate. 3. Use a consistent front and rear rest when shooting. Best results are usually achieved with the front rest fairly close to the receiver. You must have the front and rear rest in the same place for each shot if you want any kind of consistency. 4. Don't mess with the flash hider/compensator. Removing the ones that are pinned and threaded on, and trying another kind of muzzle device is almost always trouble. 5. Avoid heavy bullets like 180 grain bullets like the plague as they will batter the heck out of the rifle, and are known for beating the hell out of the rifles rather quickly. If you follow all the above suggestions, and start out with a solid, well built rifle )rather than one cobbled together from a kit), with the 7N1 ammo, I would be surprised if the rifle didn't shoot 1.5-2 inches at 100 yards. An occasional one inch group also wouldn't surprise me. Well I got my hands on 500 rounds of 7n1 so I may have made progress on the hardest part hah. My $.02? Save that 7n1 until you familiarize yourself with your rifle. Regular Soviet ball is ~.$20 a round when bought in bulk and it is not bad. Burn a couple hundered rounds of that, adjust your trigger and scope set so you're in the right ballpark, and then play with the 7n1.  |
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Quoted:
Anywho, I'm going to guess that the American receivers are generally no better than those made in Romania. I am basing this assumption off of the fact that the American receivers are likely produced by Century Arms, and those guys are known to be a little bit special. To my knowledge, NoDakSpud made the receivers for Century... in addition, several individuals on another forum actually organized and started calling people in Century to find out details about the receiver's origins and other details... one little tidbit to fall out of the conversation with a particular Century rep was that Century did not assemble the PSL. The work was farmed out to a number of smith shops where the actual work was done under contractual silence. True or not? Who knows... But the receiver being from NoDakSpud is as close to true without an admission as I think you can get, considering not too long after Century made their production run of PSLs, NoDak had a crop of radius-cut receivers for FPK-style rifles that were leftovers from a contract not delivered in total. NoDak had been selling a squared receiver for those who wanted AK style stock instead of the PSL's specialty radius-cut. So why would NoDak have radius-cut receivers all of a sudden with not annoucement made in bulk unless Century (or TGI, I'll admit) had made an order? Personally, the multiple shop theory has its merits... given the number of rifles that come out of Century's doors, the time span of manufacture, and the size of the company, I find it hard to believe they have the time, tooling, and personnel to actually have done all the work that bears their name. |
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Quoted:
From what I have read, the PSL's built by Cugir in Romania have the fewest problems. The Century rifles are famous for having problems. Accuracy with the Cugir made barrels isn't too bad, but you MUST feed the rifle high quality ammo. If you use cheap ammo, the rifle will shoot 2-4 inches at 100 yards from bench rest, scoped. With Good quality sniper ammo (7N1 if you can find it, or something from Lapua or Norma), the accuracy is much, MUCH better. And the other variable is that you can't expect good accuracy out of long strings of fire as the barrel heats up too quickly. Accuracy tips: 1. Use good ammo 2. Insure that your scope is solid, the reticle isn't flopping around inside the scope tube, and that the scope base, and rings are very solid to the receiver...even if you have to bed the mount onto the side plate. 3. Use a consistent front and rear rest when shooting. Best results are usually achieved with the front rest fairly close to the receiver. You must have the front and rear rest in the same place for each shot if you want any kind of consistency. 4. Don't mess with the flash hider/compensator. Removing the ones that are pinned and threaded on, and trying another kind of muzzle device is almost always trouble. 5. Avoid heavy bullets like 180 grain bullets like the plague as they will batter the heck out of the rifle, and are known for beating the hell out of the rifles rather quickly. If you follow all the above suggestions, and start out with a solid, well built rifle )rather than one cobbled together from a kit), with the 7N1 ammo, I would be surprised if the rifle didn't shoot 1.5-2 inches at 100 yards. An occasional one inch group also wouldn't surprise me. Yup, a big +1 on all of this, especially the "good ammo" comment. I use handloads and get ~1 moa groups with 5 shot groups. Also 6. If shooting for accuracy, shoot slowly, 1-2 min between shots is best, though mine usually puts the first 2-3 pretty close and then starts to wander if I don't let it cool. 7. Get rid of the retarded rubber eye-piece on your scope (if it has one) this will prevent you from obtaining a propper sight picture and will casue you to have parallax problems. This IMO is probably the most underdiagnosed problem people have using these rifles/scopes. 8. Figure out a consistent cheek-weld on the rifle, there are several methods, I taped some foam to my stock to get the propper eye-relief. |
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