Hi there, I have been running domestic made soft nose ammo "Hornady, Winchester and Remington" in my AK's as a "force multiplier" for the 7.62X39 round, a good expanding bullet always helps on thin skin critters. I ran across a good supply of the Russian "sporting" soft nose ammo awhile back, good accuracy but I've never run a expansion test on it. Anyone have any insights on how well this stuff works concerning expansion?

__________________
Stay safe people!

I shoot a lot of 7.62x39 some I reload but I shoot a lot of Russian and Chinese ammo. some I have is hollow point and soft point. I have never tested it for expansion because the Russian and Chinese ammo has a steel jacket covered with a copper jacket and I am sure it would not expand properly even though it is listed as hunting ammo.

Stick with US made. The Russian soft point is inconsistent. It will still do plenty of damage, it's not exactly going to bounce off but if you want consistent performance this ain't it.

I have always read NEVER to shoot U.S. commercial made 7.62x39 in an AK or SKS as they do not have spring loaded firing pins and can cause slam fires & out of battery ignitions on soft non-Milspec primer ammo. As a matter of fact I saw that happen at a range when a fella shot Win. ammo in an SKS.

Ok?!?!

I can see this with the SKS but never heard of it happening in an AK and I've shot a lot of ammo though a lot of AKs. I downsized my AK collection to about 10 and I frequent AK forums. Have never heard of this for the Ak

The SKS will easily slam fire and turn into a machine gun with softer primers. I had two that I purchased new about twenty-five years ago when they were very cheap.

Never had a slam fire with foreign surplus ammo, but handloaded ammo, using the same primers that some ammunition manufacturers use, would slam fire on occasion and quickly empty a magazine with one trigger pull. This was with only one of my two guns, but many other persons have reported the same situation with the SKS.

So far, it appears this is only a dangerous shortcoming when the SKS is used with non-military type ammunition, something the gun was never designed for anyway.

The hazardous condition was corrected by my gunsmith. He installed a spring kit in both my guns that is available from Brownells and designed specifically to address the problem. It worked.

I wouldn't bet money on it.The steel jackets are very soft.
Russian made 9x18 Makarov with the steel jacketed hollowpoint bullets expands every bit as well as American made Makarov ammo.
I wouldn't bet my life on the Russian hollowpoint 7.62x39 ammo expanding reliably, because it's a tiny cavity.
The Russian and Yugo softpoints? I wouldn't put it past them.
The Chinese softpoints? Don't know. Could go either way.
I need to run some expansion tests on different steel jacket sofrpoints.

The Russian LVE 203 grain 7.62x54R softpoints expand well.
I don't remember if they're copper jacket or steel jacket.
I think I have a box left. I'll have to check.

__________________
What would Jim Cirillo do?

Some of the Chinese softpoints had a flat base copper jacket bullet.
The Russian softpoints I have seen have steel jacketed bullets. I have
some Russian hollow points made several years ago that have steel
jackets and a decent size cavity and expanded when I fired them into
wet newsprint.

I would guess about like a a comparable 30-30.

Herter's (Russian) makes a 154 grain soft point which I've always wanted to try. I think it would be a good combo of penetration and expansion if you don't trust a foreign hollow point. - Joe

I have killed a number of deer with the cheapest **** I could find over the years, not one lost animal. It all works.

I have seen a friend shoot broadside through a 300 lb. boar with the Vympel 123 gr. softpoint and there was no evidence of expansion. I wouldn't count on expansion with any of the foreign made steel jacketed softpoints.

On the other hand, I shot a large whitetail doe with a Barnes 123 gr. XTS. The bullet penetrated the entire length of the deer and I recovered the bullet just under the skin of the back leg. Expansion was perfect, just like what you see in their ads.

I don't believe that Russian primers are any tougher than or even as tough as certain American primers. Back when my Yugo 59/66 was piercing primers it would pierce Russian primers but NOT the CCI 200 primers in my handloads. And my Norinco SKSS will slamfire when I seat the Tula KV24N Berdan primer too deep.

Dave Sinko

The Russian wolf 154gr soft point ammo power wise it's equal to a 30-30.
It's proven to be more accurate than the fmj ammo. I haven't tested the Russian barnaul or wolf brands of soft point ammo.

I have seen the 30 caliber round nose bullet stop perfectly in a bears back side. It was so perfect I could reload it. It didn't expand at all. I was slicing steaks when I found the bullet in the meat. It was healed over.
Test your rounds in clean wet sand first before you go hunting.

If you don't have any wet sand............

two 5 gal. buckets full of water back to back, might also do the job...........

unless you have access to some wet newspaper and some string.