Romanian PSL

[monganian]

I am considering purchasing a Romanian PSL for a fun rifle that can shoot 300+ yards accurately and reliably. I am interested in hearing opinions from those who have shot and/or owned one of these rifles. What do you think? What ammo did you use and what groupings did this ammo provide? etc...

[jerrymrc]

I like mine. Light ball ammo only. If you can get a little of each and see what yours likes. They are a slow fire weapon only. Mine has no problem shooting the buffalo at Whittington.

[Daniel_187]

I saw someone was making carbines out of these on AR15.com they are bad ass but they had the crappy wire folding stock, well the stock is not crappy just a not a good idea IMO. Is the one you are looking at scoped already? or are you shooting Irons?

[steveopia]

I have one. I've only shot it once and used the iron sights. I loved it. I too would like to do some long distance shooting but honestly I'm not sure where to go. So unfortunately I cannot speak to your question about groupings other than saying at 50 yards I was hitting my target very consistently.

I read to only use light ball ammo like mentioned above. I bought some milsurp and just made sure to clean the rifle really well after I was done since it was corrosive berdan primed.

I wanted to get some polymer furniture for it which proved (is proving) to be difficult. I found a company that makes some but it's somewhat expensive and hard to get. It looks sick though and the stock length is adjustable. I'll get some . . . . . sometime. I would also like to get a weaver style scope mount for it and use something other than the original scope that came with it.

I've been itching to shoot this thing again and have some other items I need to test out too. If you want to hook up and test out the 'ol PSL let me know.

[BigMat]

I just picked one up that needs some work

It has the polymer stock and I want to switch back to wood.

that's about it really.

My friend got one and after shooting it I had to go out and get my own.

I love the thing and I give it a big +1

[Irving]

Those look like some long ass guns!

[jerrymrc]

And you can get some neat toys for your PSL. ;)

[monganian]

Cool, it seems like (almost) everyone who owns one likes it. They also look pretty cool. I have a nice AK, and I really like it, but the PSL seems like the big brother. Steve, if I don't buy one first, I might take you up on the offer. Where did you pick yours up?

Thanks for all the replies guys.

[steveopia]

I got mine from http://www.classicarms.us/. They don't have them right now but I got mine for $600 which I thought was great. Your find at that other place is amazing. Makes me want to get another one.

[monganian]

FYI: http://www.centerfiresystems.com/DRA-GUN-B.aspx

[roman gnome]

One more..http://www.jgsales.com/index.php/rifles/ak-47-and-rpk-rifles/rifles/ak-47-and-rpk-rifles/cPath/209_214/sort/3a/page/2?osCsid=86aef75b21180c50e8c4ef3832150f59

And feel free to pick up one for all of us![Poke] --[Twist]

[Birddog1911]

You definately want the polymer furniture; makes a huge difference.

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii190/Birddog4570/black002.jpg

[monganian]

The above PSL is pretty sharp looking. So how about Romanian receivers vs USA receivers? I assume that guns with US receivers are built from (mismatched) parts kits and Romanian receivers would have matching parts, built outside of the US... correct?

[BPTactical]

The advantage to the Cugir built rifles is:
They are built by people that know what they are doing.
They are factory guns built on factory tooling.
They are built with the factory chrome lined barrels.

[monganian]

You know, I was really hoping that you'd say it makes no difference so I could go buy the cheap one built on an American receiver. You want to sell yours for 450?

[jerrymrc]

The advantage to the Cugir built rifles is:
They are built by people that know what they are doing.
They are factory guns built on factory tooling.
They are built with the factory chrome lined barrels.

Yep. Mine is an early DIG import with 5rd matching mags. It has had the lug removed but what a toy. I did get lucky and get it for $400 back in 99.

[Birddog1911]

It's been my personal experience that you want to pass on a TGI built FPK, and I have heard little good, if any, about the SSG 97 by IO. You really do not want to buy an IO product. Go with the Century Cugir built PSL, and you'll be happy.

[vikingwyatt]

The Io Ssg's Are The Best Shooting Rifles Out There. Mine Is Spot On With Open Sights At 200 Meters. Be Sure To Buy Good Hungarian, Polish Light Ball Ammo. Stay Away From The Brass Case Albainian Crap. It Machine Gun Ammo And Way To Hot For A Psl. Use It Only In Mosin's Nagant Rifles.
Also Remove The Crap Romanian Flash Hider/muzzle Brake And Get Yourself An American Made Dragunov Svd Style Flash Hider. The Hider/brake Has A Pin That Holds It On. It Goes Though The Treads. Remove The Pin First Before You Try To Remover The Hider/brake From The End Of The Barrel. Some Also My Be Welded On. It's A Left Hand Tread Like A Ak47. But Ak Brake/hiders Will Not Tread On All Of The Way Down Because The Treaded End Of A Psl Barrel Is Longer Then On A Ak Barrel. Hope That Helps.

[Birddog1911]

Viking, you'd be one of the very few that I've ever heard from that has been happy with IO products; glad that you got a good one.

[Broadsword]

I had one a couple years ago and loved it. Had to sell it due to some financial problems. I've missed it ever since. Mine was an original built in Romania rifle. It really liked the Czech silver tip ammo. I want to get another one and send it out to Rifle Dynamics for the Guerrilla Sniper package they do. I've been trying to trade my Chinese Norinco RPK for one on a few forums but haven't had any luck yet. Plus One on the replacement poly furniture.
Broadsword

[monganian]

So I picked up a used PSL from another board member with matching numbers and I'm very happy with it. It is somewhat picky with different mags. I've taken them all apart and cleaned them. Some of the springs were installed backwards, and fixing this made a difference in feeding for those magazines. The gun is very fun.

My only complaint is that the stock is too short for me. Where have you guys gotten your replacement furniture?

[BPTactical]

Ironwood Designs may have something.
I found another PSL stock online and sectioned the two stocks. I then epoxied and pinned the two together. I ended up with about 1.5" of additional pull length but kept the overall look.
It worked out really well.

[DSB OUTDOORS]

So I picked up a used PSL from another board member with matching numbers and I'm very happy with it. It is somewhat picky with different mags. I've taken them all apart and cleaned them. Some of the springs were installed backwards, and fixing this made a difference in feeding for those magazines. The gun is very fun.

My only complaint is that the stock is too short for me. Where have you guys gotten your replacement furniture?
Replacement furniture is hard to find, somewhat, I have good luck with stock extensions from Midway USA. easy to do you're self, Not exactly pretty if you don't know what you're doing. Or you can get a slip-on buttpad depending how short it is.

[monganian]

I am pretty handy, but the cut and paste method of using two stocks to make one worries me. I fear that the wood grain wood not match up. At that point, I would opt for polymer over wood furniture. I looked on Ironwood designs and saw their elongated PSL stock, and it looks great. That's probably the direction I'm leaning towards.

[steveopia]

Confederated Armor (http://www.confederatedarmor.com/) produces a really nice set of polymer furniture. They're not cheap but have the adjustable stock and look good. Their website basically sucks due to it being unfinished but it has the phone number on it.

I called one night about 8 or so months ago and talked to a guy named Jerry. He was very helpful and just all around very nice and pleasant to talk to. He told me that a bunch of their PSL furnitue sets were being shipped to Centerfire Systems. He said to keep checking their site and if they didn't show up soon or sold too fast to give him a call back and he would make sure I got one. Like I said, this guy was really nice and seemed to be all about customer service. I kept checking the CS site but they never showed. I had some other expenses pop up and never followed through with a repeat phone call.

I actually just called and left a message. If he calls me back I'll get back to you with all the details. If you happen to get a hold of him before I do let me know what you find out.

Here's a pic off their product. Sexy!!
http://i996.photobucket.com/albums/af81/Salty_Steve/lcppv.jpg

[monganian]

It looks like they could armor plate my car too. I'll keep you posted on what I find.

[steveopia]

I talked to Jerry a little bit ago. He really is a nice guy. He can ship them direct or you can try to go through Centerfire Systems. CS didn't work out too well for me so if you're interested I'd say just contact him directly. The price for the adjustable stock set went up a bit. It's $230. The fixed stock is cheaper but it's about the same length as the wooden one you have now. The adjustable stock can be adjusted up to 6".

Pretty spendy for furniture but people seem to rave about it on the forums discussions I've found from various sites via Google. And it looks pretty sick too IMO. I told Jerry that you'd probably be contacting him shortly. I'm going to be getting a set soon but first I have to meet financial goal or two.

Let me know what you end up doing!

[monganian]

Thanks for all the suggestions; good feedback. The gentleman from Ironwood Designs said that this:

http://www.ironwooddesigns.com/IWDsite/IWDRD_files/shapeimage_12.png



would be in the $150-165 range, which looks like the direction that I'm leaning in. I like the idea of retaining the original look while adding some reach.

I also found this setup on gunbroker for $150 including shipping. Seller said a little over 1.5" of added length.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=208484112

http://www.loweldesigns.com/1280/ROMAK3_2_1280.jpg

[BPTactical]

That is kind of a "Tabuk" style and it looks sharp on theses rifles.
Here is what I did by taking 2 PSL stocks, cutting and epoxy/pinning them together. It added about 2 inches to the LOP and I took the old pistol grip, split it and epoxied it to the new stock. I ended up with a decent palm swell and was able to get real finger grooves. I just wish I could have gotten the plies to line up better.
Sorry for the crummy looking chair[Tooth]
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u69/hockeysew/IMG_2107-1.jpg

[jreifsch80]

Check out this build speaking of Tabuks ;) a buddy of mine from gunco did this build, he isn't going to keep the tabuk stock on it as he prefers an m76 stock for it
http://www.gunco.net/forums/attachments/f43/29999d1297087975-tabuk-clone-x54r-progress-tabuk-4.jpg

[splogan]

I like those Ironwood stocks. I will have to keep them in mind if I can ever find a PSL for a reasonable price.

[jreifsch80]

centerfire has psl kits at a reasonable price last time i checked