Hunting with an semi-auto AK-47

whm1974 said:

Ok some years ago I use to into agruments how semi-auto AKs were useless because you can't
"hunt with one", Saiga rifles notwithstanding.

So what makes an AK less suitable to hunt with compaired to let's say a Mini-30?

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Hell I don`t know, I use a MAS 49/56, just a quicker follow-up shots if needed.

Not. A. Thing.

Great for hogs.

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Absolutely correct not a thing wrong.

Deer… Hog worst case scenario you shoot them with at most two 154 gr. shots they usually go down with a good clean shot after the 1st. The only thing not really needed on the rifle is the 30 round clip… that is just for fun plinking around.

I think my Hakim (10 rounds 8x57 mauser semi auto) is a better hog gun. It's like 14 lbs, though, even more of a pig than the AK. Never hunted with it. Would be kinda like hunting with a BAR.

Just curious which ammo you guys who hunt with SKS and AKs are using. Mine don't seem to like the 154g soft point stuff at all. They feed the FMJ fine but I'm not one to use that for shooting game.

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I've only killed two deer with my SKS, both with 135 Sierra Pro Hunter handloads (bullets now discontinued). 154 wolf works fantastic in my SKS, though, 2.5" accurate at 100 yards, and shoots to POA of the FMJ stuff. I have to raise the sight to 300 yards for my handload. I've shot a couple of hogs with the 154 and have no complaints. It's my go to when I can order it. Right now, everyone's out.....of course.

Re: 154 soft points. Neither of my Yugo SKS will feed them (one has the standard top-load captive mag, the other uses the Tapco mags). Same with the Yugo AKs. One shot and then a jam. Usually the jammed round comes out with the soft point damaged. The reloads sound promising, I'll need to consider picking up a set of dies in the future. Both my SKS will shoot about 2-2.5 MOA with the 123gr Wolf FMJ.

Here we go with apples and oranges. Absolutely nothing wrong with using an AK for hunting. I don't have an AK, but I have used a CETME for deer hunting, that is until I traded it for guess what, .... an AK on steroids, a PSL. Now I occasionally break out the PSL for deer hunting along with my M48 Yugo Mauser. I used to LOVE the looks I got when I pulled my CETME out of the truck at the hunting camp.LOL Some looked like this..., and some were like this...... and some were like this.... But I knew what I was doing, I was using a .308 rifle.

I don't really care for the 7.62 x 39 but if other folks want to use it why that is there business. Just like they don't care to hunt with a 30/06 but I really like the 30/06. The 30/06 was adopted by the military at one point. They both should be fine guns for any critter a fellow might want to hunt around here in NC. If someone was to try one of them there home invasions around here I might have to shoot some holes in him with whatever I can get a hold to, even a 7.62x 39.

I'm no hunter, but isn't those cartridges overkill for deer?

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I THINK that was his point, not sure. Anyway, I find 7 mag a GREAT deer killer, especially at extended ranges like in west Texas and New Mexico where I've taken some deer pretty far out there.

Is there really any such thing as "overkill"? Dead is dead, use the right bullet and you won't even damage that much meat at SHORT range.

That said, I don't use the big 7 in the woods. I have a .257 Roberts and a .308 which are fantastic rounds for deer and I love the guns they're chambered in. And, this year's 9 point with the SKS went down fast at 30 yards. It's just a .30-30 semi auto.

We can't always choose who we work with. Some of us also have more then one hobby.!

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Agreed, so talk cars to your lib friends, bolt guns to "old school" gun guy's etc. No need to debate, I save that for range time. There are many that I have changed their views without ever saying anything more than "you want to try it?"

Suppressors and guns without wood being at the top of the list.

I love to hear anti-gunners claim that AKs can't be used for hunting. They've never hunted so they presume to try to tell others what can't be done with something they've never used but fortunately nobody pays attention to them, they don't really add anything to the argument except their hysterics, their polls and their "moral outrage".

They don't protest or rally over one time; Even now they're hanging their anti-gun hopes on Gabrielle Giffords and her husband. They're gonna give her millions of dollars to fight the gun control battle for them in Washington because they're too chicken<deleted> and lazy to get out front and do it themselves.

I have a friend of longstanding who is the poster child for 'country boy'. He fills every tag allowed by his state with an AK. He uses Federal Eagle full metal jackets with the tip cut off by hand. Where he hunts, 20 yards is a loooong range.

He is restricted to a five round mag. He cut off the spring of a 30 rounder and inserted a piece of wood in the mag to restrict it to 5 rounds. Took the game warden a couple of years to get used to this. If you look up red headed redneck in the American Heritage dictionary, his picture illustrates the definition. I do believe that's what the personalized tag on the front of his jeep says.LOL

I have heard, does anyone know, of states where the 7.62X39 is not allowed for lack of range and energy. I did hear it on the internet, must be true.

In GA and AL it's not an issue unless one is hunting on public lands. I believe Tapco sells 5 & 10 round magazines for a reasonable price.
http://tapco.com/products/ak/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=19

I guess I`m some what different in that I still use a basic bolt/lever rifle to hunt with.
Can`t wrap my head around using something like an AK-47 to hunt with.
What other folks use is there business.

I use a lever action, bolt action and a falling block Ruger #1 to hunt with in addition to my AK-47. I don't mind listening to a person's preferences and beliefs but I will not have those beliefs imposed upon me because someone does not think that a particular rifle is not what they would personally use to hunt with.

Anti-gunners go around excoriating AKs & AR-15s by writing and saying they can't be used for hunting and I would bet 99% of them have never been hunting nor do they know anything about the 7.62x39 bullet's ballistics. So when they've educated themselves about such things they should come back and talk with some credibility.

Only thing I don't like about AKs and ARs for hunting is the ergos. If you don't mind carrying the over weight thing (in the case of the AK) with two hands all the time, having a mag in the way when trying to shoot prone or rest over something, or keeping it on a sling and reaching up on the side of the gun to flick off the safety with a loud CLICK and putting up with a crappy trigger, hey, they'll shoot. ARs in particular are capable of sub MOA. I'd want one of the gas guns in .308 if I hunted with one, not .223, but it can be done. I'd have to have a left handed one, too. AKs are just so crude, crappy triggers, crappy accuracy, crappy ergos, I'll just stick with my Remchesters, ain't broke, why fix 'em? They have nice, crisp 3 lb triggers and sub MOA accuracy and no one argues the power of a .257 Roberts or a .308 or a 7 mag. Kinda got black powder in my veins, too. If I wanna use the 7.62x39, the SKS has much more compatible ergos for me.

MCgunner said:

Is there really any such thing as "overkill"?

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"Overkill is underrated!"
-J.H. Smith

Jim

No size magazine limit on varmint hunting, and if my uncles property had a feral hog problem, I would have no qualms about using my Yugo AK variant to help out. I do have a five shot mag for it, and a few boxes of 154gr SP ammo that seems to work.

I use my Yugo M70AB2 in modern military matches at the local rod and gun club. Collection as a historical curio has been recognized by court rulings and AG opinions as a lawful ownership/use of guns in Tennessee, though, and "it's for hunting" is OK too, but not mandatory.