I picked up a PSL-54C from a fellow arfcommer and headed strait to my property to try it out. I got the rifle with the cleaning kit, 2 mags, mag pouch, scope cover, some other goodies, and almost 400 rounds of ammo for $600. I started shooting it at 100 yards and it was printing 3-4MOA, during one of the cool down period I was messing with stuff and noticed the scope mount was pretty loose on the rail. I tightened the rail and immediately the groups tightened up and it was printing MOA groups (so much for them being 2-3MOA guns). I set up my piece of steel on top of the my mountain and went back up hill do try some long range stuff. The target ended up being at 558 yards according to my Swarovkie LRF so not knowing the dope for this rifle I spun the elevation turret to 550M  and cracked off 5 rounds and every rounds smacked it, I couldn't believe it. I went up to check the target and couldn't believe what I saw, 5 rounds including a first round hit under 6" with some shitty surplus ammo. I left the the target as is and didn't shoot anymore because I didn't have my calipers with me to measure the exact size size of the group. Low and behold the group measures 5.190, it looks like I've got a keeper. I'm going to go back down in a week or two and shoot some more LR groups with my rifle, but I doubt they're going to look much different.

Sounds to me like you found a winner.  PLS's can be finicky on what they're fed.   Mine perfers laquered/steel-cased '50's Polish light ball (of all things) but Russian light ball isn't too far behind.  With surplus ammo so cheap, I don't think I'll ever get around to reloading for it.   Never thought I'd find a rifle I like to shoot more than an M1, but the PSL is real close.

I'm not really sure what ammo this is, it's some kind of surplus light ball in a spam can. I am going to find out though and get more of whatever it is and stockpile it. I will probably try loading for it only because of ease of cleanup. While the cleanup wasn't too bad, it would still be a lot nicer if I didn't have to hose it down immediately without fear of damaging it from corrosion. I would also like to put a little higher magnification scope on it which means having to remove it to remove the gas tube/upper handguard to clean it. As accurate as this rifle is I may try to find a good LR load it likes and shoot only non corrosive ammo from it, and then pick up a second to blast corrosive ammo with. As cheap as they are why not?

I've wanted a PSL forever  :[

"I would also like to put a little higher magnification scope on it which
means having to remove it to remove the gas tube/upper handguard to
clean it."
I have the 8x42 scope and it is possible to remove the top cover with the scope on the rifle but not the gas tube.  If you shoot non corrosive ammo, there's no need to remove the tube any more than every 500 rds or so.  In any case, if the scope is properly adjusted for the rail, removing and reinstalling will have very little or no effect on your zero.





HTH





 

you and me both, and now that I have the money for one, I can't find any

The one 300ultramag snagged from me sat on the EE for over 6 months!

Glad you like it, It seemed like it was pretty damn accurate I just never shot it much.

Yeah I still can't believe it sat that long, I'm very glad it did though until I stumbled upon it. From time to time you get one of those guns that you know you will never sell, this is one of those. I can't wait until the buttpad and cheek pad get here, lop and cheek weld are the only things I can complain about. I just hope the barrel life on these is good because at the rate I'm going I'll have 2-3k rounds through it before the year's over.

What are you using for the buttpad and cheekpad if you don't mind me asking?

I ordered the AK/PSL buttpad from kalinka optics, and the ITC Railrest from ITC Marksmanship. These were both recommended by Rick-A who seems to know his stuff about PSL's.

I too love the PSL.  Low recoil, inexpensive ammo, can use combloc optics, very accurate for what it is, and very sturdy.  The "shitty" suplus ammo is not as shitty as many would have you believe.  The Bulgarian LB seems to be what my PSL likes best, followed by the Russian stuff.  As for the LOP, it helps that I am 5'5", the height of a starved Romanian conscript.  The only thing I don't like about it is the terrible metal finish so common on Romanian rifles.  Tip about using the scope: commie optics are kind of notorious for having bad parallax error, so having a consistent sight picture in the scope may help a fair amount for better accuracy.  The rubber eye cup used on these scopes allows you to index your eye to achieve a consistent sight picture almost like a consistent cheek weld allows you to do this in a more conventional scope setup.


Also, has anyone tested out the Romanian LB in a PSL yet?

ETA: great shooting OP!

http://www.ammoengine.com/find/ammo/7.62x54mm  they usually have about 50 choices... maybe the search engine is being worked on.  I use sportsmansguide.com (cheap shipping and fast)

http://gun-deals.com/ammo.php?caliber=7.62x54R

psl at 600 yards  check other psl vids under sgtking11b

I have not tested it... but when I looked up specs on www.sportsmansguide.com for both russian and romanian they were exactly the same.  

both were copper washed cases and had exact same specs.  

I do not know if they are exactly the same....  and have no other knowledge except what I looked up a few months ago.  

my psl does not feed the russian copper washed very well in any of my magazines but the hungarian, czech and bulgarian run right thru and I can double tap those without jams.  psl will make a great low budget hog gun.