hunting with a saiga

[sarduy]

Hi all,

OK, i want a new rifle for christmas, so i look at the Saiga .223 and 7.62x39 but here come my problem, i can't make my mind... i know i have to pick a caliber i just don't know which one to pick. i won't do any mayor modification to it other than the stock, and a red-dot, and i'll use it to target shooting at 100 yard, but from time to time i may go hunting Wild Boar or Feral Pig, nothing bigger than that.

i would like to hear any comments about the accuracy of those two calibers (.223 and 7.62x39) at no more than 200 yards...

thanks for your help.

 

[Deamon]

I don't know about the .223 Saigas but I love my Saiga in 7.62x39. I can't drive tacs at 100 yards with it but it sure as hell stays on target. It handles soft and hollow points just fine and in my opinion would be better than the 223 for hunting the game you described. Just my .02$.

 

[Ranger J]

I have a 762/39 Saiga and when I had a red dot on it I could usually break clay birds at 100 yds. If I were to use one for hunting I would go for the 30 cal. I would not feel undergunned to use it on deer 100 yards and under. I have taken it out a few times but have never had the opportunity to shoot it at a deer. I usually don't use it as I have guns that I feel are better options. I shot it a lot more when I could get 500 rounds of ammo foe $45

RJ

 

[MCgunner]

Saigas sound like fun toys, but IMHO, I'd buy a hunting rifle for hunting and in a better caliber than 7.62x39. That said, I do have an SKS set up for night hunting hogs. I don't plan on shootin the big boys and the 7.62x39 will take any hog under 200 lbs and while the SKS isn't terrible accurate, I won't be shooting over 100 yards at night. The Saiga would do anything the SKS will do. I've just started going out in the evenings with the SKS. I've killed a deer with it, good lung hit, had to trail it over 100 yards to where it finally dropped. Good exit wound, just one of those things I guess. I've hit 'em with a .357 mag with a similar lung shot (weaker round) and had 'em DRT. Go figure. I don't think the 7.62x39 will have a problem on the smaller hogs. Yet to know for sure, though.

If all you're going to do is occasional hunting and that's not your main thing, you want something tacticool, hell, why not? Me, I'm more of a hunter, prefer more precision and power. I just bought these SKSs cheap and fixed one of 'em up with a scope and had nothing else to do with it, but make a night gun out of it, LOL. Fun range plinker with surplus bulk ammo. The Carbine cost me $115 new and the rifle I built for night hunting was NRA VG for 75 bucks. I mean, at those prices, how could I NOT buy one. LOL!

 

[ArmedBear]

I've hit 'em with a .357 mag with a similar lung shot (weaker round) and had 'em DRT

You can't just look at the numbers and call a .357 "weaker". That's just not how it works.

Chances are, the .357 was a superior bullet that had more effect on the deer. Going slower isn't necessarily bad. Probably scrambled the lungs. You should have seen the lungs on the buffalo I hit with a .45-70. By the numbers, .45-70 black powder is unimpressive. On game, it can perform quite impressively.

If a supposedly-expanding higher-velocity round went through-and-through, it probably had less immediate effect on the deer than the "weaker" .357.

Modern high-velocity spitzer rounds are not superior game-getters, compared to old-fashioned heavy big blunt bullets. They're superior shooters, with flatter trajectories. But everything else about modern hunting bullets is designed to turn them from fast little rounds, back into slow, big rounds when they hit the game. This works, sometimes.

Rounds that are big, heavy, and slow to start with will perform the same all the time -- assuming you can hit the target with them.

I talked to guys who used ancient black powder .38-40 92 Winchesters on elk in Montana. Apparently, despite low velocity and energy by modern standards, the round works really well on elk; the trajectory, though, is hell to work with, as I found out when shooting some gongs with the things.

Modern rounds -- even the Russkie .30-30 you're talking about -- are a compromise that favors flatter shooting and relies on the bullet design to make them effective on game.

Personally, I'd avoid a Saiga due to excess weight for what it is, unless you will use it for non-field applications 95% of the time or more. But here, hunting means a LOT of hiking around. If that's not what you're looking at, it's not too heavy.

 

[Deamon]

I dunno about excessive weight my Saige with a 30 round mag is about the same weight as most hunting rifles I've handled, which I'll admit arent many. But with the stock 10 round mag its lighter than a Remington 700.

 

[ArmedBear]

with the stock 10 round mag its lighter than a Remington 700.

True, but the 7.62x39 is not in the same class as the rounds the full-size 700 is built for.

Compare it with a CZ 527 carbine, which weighs 5.9 lb. in 7.62x39, a Marlin 336 in .30-30, 7 lbs. with a 20" barrel, or a Ruger Mini-30 at 6 3/4 lb.

 

[MCgunner]

Well, those .357s were firing 158 grain SWCs, a Lee mold and very flat front. Yeah, I was impressed with the tissue damage from it. The 7.62 was a handload using a rather decent bullet that's no longer available, Sierra 135 pro hunter spitzer designed to be fired at .30-30/.30 Herrett handgun velocities. It opened up well and took out the lungs doing good damage. Just one of them things, I reckon. Both rounds will take puny Texas deer, though. I've used the .357 out of a revolver sub 50 yards and a carbine at 80 yards with good results. It's kinda neat when you take game with a bullet you cast. I kinda want a .45-70 for that reason.

A Saiga would NOT be my choice for hog hunting over one of my hunting rifles, but if it's all you have, it would do the job. Make sure you get a shoulder hit on 'em or somehow get it under the shoulder. The lungs do not extend very far behind the shoulders at all, not the same anatomy as a deer. If the gun were accurate enough, you could go for a head shot, but don't sound like that's the case. When hunting, firepower is no substitute for accuracy and power. Put an adequate round in the right place and you will be successful. Keep your range short (around here, not hard to do on hogs as they stick to heavy cover) and you'll be okay.

If you don't get a good hit on one and have to blood trail it, you might actually NEED a 20 round magazine. Full auto would be nice. LOL I like to carry a hot loaded .45 colt when I'm after hogs as back up just in case I have to trail 'em into the heavy cover, handles better than a rifle. It paid off once for me. I got charged, was pretty exciting. That was the first one I ever shot, went for the lung shot and this is why I advise you about hog anatomy being different from deer. All I got was guts. DOH! Thankfully, I found him. Could have ended worse in many ways. I was a LOOOOONG way from help and there were no cell phones back then.

My Remington M7 is a handy, light hunting package and I'll take .308 over 7.62x39 any day of the week. It's a very accurate rifle, too.

 

[pernicus]

f you're killing pig, and want a super accurate target rifle i would go with a .308 winchester and if you want to stretch out to 300+yds i'd say 300 winmag

both cartridges are intrinsically very accurate and easy to find ammo for(.308 hornady TAP is about as good as modern factory hunting loads get)

 

[BlackBearME]

Why not consider a Saiga in .308? The gun itself is only 50-60 dollars more than a .223/x39, and the round is much more potent.

I personally have a Saiga 12, and an S-308 is next on my list for a long gun.

 

[DWARREN123]

The 7.62X39mm would be a better hog/deer round in my opinion.